There is an art to writing a teen drama. Just like other genres, you have to weigh plot, character building, and tone. But you have the added pressure of the small attention spans of the 18-34 demographic, especially in the last five years. It seems like you can't build a love story as organically anymore. The best slowly build love story was Pacey and Joey, but things were different in the 90's. It took 18 episodes to pay off the Pacey-Joey build up, but now were lucky to get to the winter hiatus. This hyper-active story telling leads to my first point.
SHORT SHELF LIFE
These current versions need to be refreshed or ended by season four. There's only so many love triangles and drug addictions that can happen to one group of friends in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, the networks only look at the ratings (as they should) and allow the stereotype to perpetuate. Shows like Gossip Girl, 90210, and to a lesser extent, Degrassi have all been on the air way too long, and their characters have grown stale. Even a favorite of mine, One Tree Hill, has jumped a family of sharks as it heads (stumbles?) into its ninth and final
Unlike some other genres, rotting teen dramas are easy to spot. They become very plot heavy and have more twist than an M. Night Shyamalan ending. This seems to be the illness of CW shows. While season one of Gossip Girl was quite good, its been a train wreck since. Its something I like to call....
THE O.C. SYNDROME
The show-killing illness is caused when you've done a great job of establishing the characters and their background, but then you don't take the same care when introducing new characters. After failing with the new characters, you begin writing crazy situations for your mains so that the show doesn't grow stale, but you end up losing the moral center/reality you established early on. The best example is, obviously, from the O.C.
Season one of the O.C. is quite possibly be the best single season of all time, but one decision in season two contributed to the downhill slide of the series: Sandy Cohen possibly cheating on Kirsten. Some laud this as showing that not every man is perfect, but I see it as losing the show's moral compass established in the pilot. Just like every story needs a good villain, it also needs the white knight that would never be corrupted. Dawson Leery comes to mind as the perfect example.
For the O.C., that man was Sandy Cohen. Once Sandy was allowed to be corrupted (even though he never followed through), every situation he gave out advice after that didn't have the same power for the audience. And once the series lost the moral center, everything else crumbled. Remember, this story line was established after the failed creation of the Lindsey character, which lead to the blundering of the Alex character. But there is a cure...
THE REBOOT
One Tree Hill had a disastrous second season following a solidly built foundation in season one. They're O.C. Syndrome was called Anna, Felix, and angry Mouth. Felix was the most useless character to reside in Tree Hill. He was meant as a foil to Lucas and a love interest for Brooke, but he did neither well. Anna was supposed to be a love interest for Lucas, but became the show's token gay character instead. And angry Mouth didn't work because the aggressive turn for his character made him like one of the poplar kids when his purpose was to be the moral grounding post for Lucas. But credit Mark Schwahn for realizing his mistake, getting rid of the characters and using the season's final episodes to set up the reboot of the series and head into arguably the series' best season.
He reestablished Mouth as a level-headed reasonable guy, and rewarded him with his first girlfriend. But most importantly, he resuscitated the heartbeat of the show by hinting at a Naley (Nathan and Haley for those not in the know) reunion, and finally allowing Lucas to admit he loved Brooke. With those subtle course changes and without resorting to a plot device, he was able to heal his show and continue it for two more years, and then extended the shows life with a five year jump for season five. But without the Reboot, the ship would have sunk like the O.C. did after four seasons.
FINAL THOUGHTS
For every Dawson's Creek, there a Secret Life of the American Teenager. For every One Tree Hill, there's a 10 Things I Hate About You (I seriously turned it off after 15 minutes). And for every The O.C., there's a Hidden Palms. Every genre goes through a period of over saturation, but teen dramas are the only ones that insults its audience by thinking a pretty cast cast will out-do good writing.
If you want to see writing in this genre at its best, I recommend The O.C. (Season 1), Dawson's Creek (Season 3), and One Tree Hill (Season 3). Also, there's a gritter, more realistic type of teen shows that are just as great, but are much different then the shows above. But I highly recommend watching My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks to become a more well rounded teen drama fan.
So the next time you see a pilot for a teen drama, give it a chance. Teen dramas are the one genre of television that never grows old because there will always be a new batch of teenagers. Hopefully your generation's is more Dawson's Creek than 90210. If yours is 90210, do yourself a favor, and go watch Dawson's Creek.
No comments:
Post a Comment