(warning, mentions graphic content)
There exist quite a few coming of age shows and movies, and a lot of them portray coming of age differently than most people actually experience it. These films tend to present obvious lessons and happy, neat, and resolved endings. This contrasts greatly with the reality of transitioning into a new era of life.
This can occasionally be misleading. Those who enjoy watching coming-of-age stories can get the wrong idea and become hopeful and expectant of a cinematic shift into adulthood.
Popular coming-of-age shows and movies that trend among new generational teenagers include: The Breakfast Club, Never Have I Ever, Euphoria, Ginny and Georgia, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and others.
Most of these are very similar in terms of how they depict growing up and maturing. Teen drug abuse, puberty, sexually questioning themselves, and several other trials and tribulations are explored in these films, but none of them are truly illustrated in the right way.
For example, the popular American movie, “The Breakfast Club,” portrays a story about a group of kids who come from different stereotypical high school groups ( smart kids, popular kids, etc.), coming together after getting detention at the same time. They become closer through their shared trauma and difficulties, and in the end, are able to conquer their afflictions and have a picture-perfect, upbeat ending.
Although “The Breakfast Club” does include themes that are relevant to kids just entering high school, it includes unrealistic standards.
For example, it showcases superficial cliques as an attempt to explore high school stereotypes, but in reality, students’ personalities are complex, not emblematic of the stereotypical clear-cut “basket case”, “athlete jock”, or “rebellious juvenile teen” identities that are so often characterized in stories.
Another unfeasible component was the fact that everything was smoothed over in the conclusion.
Realistically, kids will experience these troubles and not everything will be able to be left behind, forgotten, and resolved. More and more problems will present themselves throughout their life and their long process of adjusting to high school. Kids need to realize this and take note that what they consume on television is mostly for entertainment, and will not help them prepare for what may come next in life.
Another mainstream HBO Max drama series, “Euphoria”, explores themes such as substance abuse, sexual exploitation, grievance, addiction, mental health, sexual assault, suicide, self-harm, physical & emotional content, and social dynamics of high school.
The American Television series recognizes mental health trials and tribulations in younger children, pre-teens, and teenagers. The main character Ruby “Rue” Bennett, who narrates throughout the show, is a troubled teenager who struggles with drug abuse and the grief of her late father. Throughout the series, episodes contain flashbacks from the characters’ childhoods, showing each character’s backstory leading to their conflicted high school life.
Although a few unrealistic points throughout the series are the lack of depth in growth and maturity, and there’s exaggeration on top of the main series theme with drug use, sex, and violence mentally or physically. It has a lot of disturbing sequences, but behind the Rated-R content, the series creates an alignment that balances the unrealistic and realistic aspects of the series.
On the contrary to coming-of-age drama series, “Never Have I Ever” directed by Kabir Akhtar explores the same themes as “Euphoria”, with considerably less graphic content showing life in high school as a socially awkward teenage girl of color.
The main character, Devi Vishwakumar, who is 15 years old, loses her father to a heart attack during her harp solo at her school performance. In response to that traumatic eventDevi becomes paralyzed, until she sees her crush, Paxton Hall-Yoshida and begins to walk miraculously in an attempt to talk to Paxton.
The series falls into the genres of comedy, teen drama, and coming of age. The show does have the unrealistic high school teenage boy love triangle, and gives a bad representation of teenagers wanting to explore themselves sexually, by writing the main character off as a, “high school nerd who wants to be popular and cool by having sex”. The series doesn’t give the main character a good representation of how adolescent puberty is, but rather a clichéd and badly written dialogue.
Even though the show does contain realistic standards as an American Indian teenager growing up in a predominantly white school, and being seen as a “social outcast”, for not keeping up with what’s trending in mainstream media, the show could’ve been better if it had given realistic standards on what actual teenagers look like instead of using middle-aged actors.
This and many other factors in numerous shows and movies that focus on this aspect can mislead kids who are hoping to gain insight into how this certain event in their life should play out, and what it will look like. Though some parts of these films may be accurate, most of them focus more on the entertainment factor than the informational one. Teenagers in real life shouldn’t be recognized for the stereotypical events that seem to fall in every coming-of-age show or movie. But for the depth of how teenage hood isn’t just high school cliques, and social groups that are at peak status.
Shows and movies shouldn’t be misleading to their audience, but informative on how teenage years are some of the most important years of life, with your body maturing, friends coming and going, and being introduced to maturity and young adulthood.