Teen Vogue recently published a list of the most popular TV shows of the 2010s. The list included Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Euphoria; these shows have left a lasting impression on many of us. Both The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars had multiple spinoffs (Rosewood and PLL: The Perfectionists for Pretty Little Liars and The Originals and Legacies for The Vampire Diaries), and all of these shows (with the exception of Euphoria which just started) have run for at least 6 seasons. Social media networks such as TikTok and Instagram have helped these shows gain even further traction with a recent uptick in people watching Gossip Girl (even though the show ended in 2012), causing a spinoff to be in the works at HBO Max.
Another common thread between these TV shows is the types of relationships they depict, such as student-teacher relationships. In Gossip Girl, Serena fell in love with her teacher Ben in high school, and when she tried to act on these feelings she was rejected (only after he admitted he shared these feelings but would not act on them). After she graduated, they went on to have a brief relationship. Serena also dated her college professor while still in college and Dan had sex with a teacher at their high school, causing her to get fired. In Pretty Little Liars, Aria fell for her teacher Ezra before she knew he was her teacher, but they did not stop the relationship after she found out, and they went on to get engaged after she graduated. In The Vampire Diaries, Alaric was a college professor at Caroline Forbes’ college and her acted as a mentor to both her and her friend Elena. Alaric later went on to “date ” Caroline and she was a surrogate for his children.
These shows also similarly depict relationships with large age-gaps. In Euphoria, Jules has a sexual encounter with another student’s dad, who is at least 30 years older than them. In Gossip Girl, Chuck sends Blair to have sex with his uncle who is at least 20 years older than them to save his hotel and Nate has a relationship with Lady Catherine Alexander- his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend’s mother who was at least 30 years older than them. In The Vampire Diaries, Elena and her friends have relationships with vampires that are hundreds of years old. In Pretty Little Liars, Spencer has a relationship with her sister’s fiance Wren, who is only 6 years older than her, but it is important to remember she was very much a minor at the time when he was not.
Large-age gaps (30 years or more), relationships between minors and adults, and relationships between minors and their mentors (like teachers) are not okay. We see them repeatedly in these shows and it’s assumed that everyone knows they are not acceptable, but that’s not enough. It needs to be said that this is not desirable or normal. If the power dynamic between individuals is too large, consent cannot be given, and children cannot give consent to adults, period. We grow up watching these shows and aspiring to be as happy as Ezra and Aria or Serena and Ben but these relationships are unhealthy and irresponsible. The adult or older individual should have ended the relationship and not have let it begin in the first place. What we should be normalizing is children being able to trust the adults they are around to guide them and be role models for them, without sexualizing them or pressuring them into a romantic relationship.