Grab your Southside Serpents jacket and make yourself comfortable in your favourite booth at Pop's: 'Riverdale' is back for its fourth season on Netflix.
The teen drama sensation, adapted from the Archie comics, has been famously ridiculed over the past few seasons by critics and audiences alike for outlandish plots and bizarre dialogue. Jay Ruymann of Hypable confessed to "hate-watching" the show and Angela Watercutter of Wired, whilst acknowledging her overall enjoyment of the dark teen series, agreed that "very few, if any, teen dramas would fit squarely into the category we now call Prestige TV". Another teen drama currently on air, Ryan Murphy's Netflix collaboration 'The Politician' has generated similar grumbles from the crowds, with The Guardian saying "(it) will annoy you to the point of madness".
Teen dramas have been a near-constant in the television world since the 90s. From 'Saved By The Bell' to 'Dawson's Creek' to 'Pretty Little Liars', it seems as though each generation of teenagers is presented with a new group of fictional counterparts to guide them through the murky waters of puberty. Yet many recent shows of such a genre, with 'Riverdale' and 'The Politician' just two examples amongst the likes of 'Sex Education', 'Euphoria' and the Spanish-turned-worldwide phenomenon 'Elite', have attracted scorn for being unrealistic.
Angela Watercutter complains of 'Riverdale' falling into the trap of "the teenagers who act like 30-year-olds trope", one of many critics who bemoan that rather than be played by actual teenagers, many of these shows star seasoned actors in their late twenties or early thirties for whom being an angst-ridden teen is a happily distant memory. In a thought piece for The Guardian, Emily Zemler noticed the trend of teen dramas being "borderline outrageous" with their visual spectacles and far-fetched plots. However, what if the surrealism, the ridiculousness, the complete and utter over-exaggeration of teen dramas is the whole point of them? What if the 'extra' nature of such shows is actually a specific strategy employed by writers, directors and actors? And what if this strategy is not only deliberate, but it actually works?
The 'extra' inner world of teenagers
What so many teen dramas of the past few years do well is capturing the rich and chaotic inner world of teenagers; the hyperactive minds of young people for whom everything is happening at once and it feels like there are high-stakes waiting for them around every corner.
'The Politician' focuses on Payton Hobart (Ben Platt), who for as long as he can remember has dreamed of becoming the next president of the United States. The scene in which Payton finds out whether he has been accepted into Harvard, delivered by Ben Platt stalking around the manor garden speaking at 100mph whilst a wonderfully elegant Gwyneth Paltrow watches on in the role of his adoptive mother, may seem farfetched, yet it manages to capture the intensity of a time in your life when everything seems so close yet so far at the same time.
Colourful shows such as 'Elite' and 'Riverdale' have the same effect. Audiences watch characters have their hearts broken and put back together again; they watch these sixteen-to-eighteen-year-olds veer between love and hate at such speech that it's almost dizzying to watch, all to a thumping soundtrack infused with modern beats and synth, and wonderfully dramatic lighting. Yes, to the adults that have walked through the tunnel of adolescence and stepped out into the light on the other side, it may seem a bit ridiculous to portray everything as operating under such high stakes. But perhaps shows like 'Elite', 'The Politician' and 'Riverdale' stage things in such a way because that's how it feels to be a teenager experiencing love and failure for the first time. It's more than just an appeal to melodrama: it's a stylistic choice to harness the adolescent mentality and broadcast it on the screen.
Shedding light on important issues
Furthermore, amping up the drama of these teen shows allows them to tackle serious topics and highlight their relevance to teen life. In the British-made 'Sex Education', for example, fans may have been attracted to the show by its 1980s colour-palette, fun soundtrack and borderline-crass humour, but the show also managed to open important discussions on topics such as consent and abortion. In HBO's 'Euphoria', Sam Levinson's neon vision of the life of Rue (Zendaya) is a visual aid that helps the audience to understand the character's issues with substance abuse. '13 Reasons Why', though a controversial Netflix hit, opened up conversations about how the media should be discussing suicide amongst the adolescent population.
These shows may be using extravagant sets, dramatic dialogue and almost unbelievable plot-lines, but in doing so they manage to show us how overwhelming it is to be a young person as they become aware of sex, drugs and illness. It opens conversations. It points to the teenage viewer and says, "I see you, I recognise you, I know that you exist".
So perhaps teen dramas are not superficial productions that intend to trivialise teenage life. Perhaps in making their shows dramatic and bold and bright, they intend to show us teenage life how teenagers experience it: everything, all at once.
The fourth season of 'Riverdale' is already available to stream on Netflix.
