A genre that maintained its relevance throughout generations of film and television history is coming-of-age. Adolescents are always looking for media to connect to during a period of their lives where they constantly feel misunderstood. Teenagers provide a persistent market for media production outlets. Media taking place in high-school settings are so prominent that it has set many expectations for what one’s teenage years will look like, or what they should look like. However, there has been a recent increase in television shows taking place either during college or post-college life, and it has sparked the discussion of if this is the more appropriate time period to depict the experiences so commonly shown in high-school related media. Â
The series that has been viewed as the Gen-Z teen show is HBO’s Euphoria, which was first released in 2019. There is a LOT that could be said about this show regarding its season-by-season evolution, the dynamic of the cast and crew, and just its storyline in general. The show’s third season is currently being released every Sunday, and its plot has taken a more Breaking Bad-esque direction. However, Euphoria has become central to Gen-Z media, because it originated as a teen, high-school set drama. The series’ plot can essentially be described as a parent’s worst nightmare: it follows an ensemble of teens dealing with a variety of personal issues while trying to manage the social circumstances of high school. The main character, Rue, is a drug addict who has been in and out of recovery. Maddy is in a toxic and abusive relationship with her boyfriend Nate, and cannot bring herself to leave him for good. Jules and Cassie use sex as a way to receive male validation. The first season definitely had a lot of elements that were completely out of the realm of what most teenagers go through, such as using porn as blackmail and 16-year-olds being online sex workers. However, many adolescents viewed the first season of the show as an attempt to depict what life looked like for most members of Gen-Z pre-COVID (at least those that were in high school). This first season did bring light to many issues that high schoolers may be dealing with, such as drug issues, familial problems, toxic relationships, and body image struggles. But a common question has been posed regarding the show, along with other coming-of-age media: Should this take place in college?Â
It is hard to come up with a universal answer to this question because everyone has completely different experiences during their high school years. Especially somewhere like the United States, which is home to many schools from varying regions with different social environments. Some of the characters’ stories are relatable to many high school aged viewers as well. Plenty of high-schoolers have a toxic relationship with sex, struggle with drug abuse, and stay out late on school nights. It is not solely the storylines themselves that cause the realism to fade. It is the way many of these teenagers simply go about their everyday lives – they wear designer clothes to their 7:30 A.M. classes, they rarely carry backpacks and have a lack of school supplies, and they throw massive parties every weekend in their parent’s houses without seeming to face consequences. Of course Euphoria and shows like it are going to have unrealistic plotlines because at the end of the day, they are works of fiction. What takes so many viewers out of the show is the fact that these high-schoolers lack to show much of the natural awkwardness that comes with those 4 long years of adolescence. They exhibit this constant state of glamour, even during moments of distress. Even with all the bad decisions the characters make, there is an inherent essence of maturity that most teenagers do not have at that point in their lives yet.Â
There are some inconsistencies that have been considered when imagining how high school set media would translate to a college setting. Higher education is voluntary, making it unlikely that characters who lack to show any interest in school would actively seek to pursue university. High school as a setting also makes it easier to create more dramatic plotlines. It adds the context of characters knowing each other for most of their lives, alongside parents being familiar with each other and being knowledgeable about every family’s business. In more recent media, the far-fetched maturity of characters could be a reflection of how much of Gen-Z has been forced to grow up faster than other generations due to being exposed to the internet and social media at a young age.Â
It might not even seem like the gap between college and high school is that significant, but there is an immense amount of development that occurs. High school contains established friend groups and assumptions about classmates. You are stuck with the same people you live near for the entire year. No one forgets anything about anyone. College pulls teenagers into entirely different crowds, full of people with completely unique life experiences. Everyone is a fresh face, which can feel relieving, but also overwhelming. Many people come from far away, making it easier to go home for the summer and not have to worry about running into anyone you want to avoid (for the most part…). People are simply more mature in college, making it easier to build strong connections and have a good time. On top of all that, your parents are way less involved in your life, giving you way more freedom in your everyday decisions. All of these factors are what inspire people to try and become more in touch with themselves and their desires during college, after how draining high school can be. There are so many opportunities for self development that are not available during one’s high school years.Â
High school has been used as a setting in media for decades, to the point where it has started to feel overused. Of course, consuming media requires a subversion of reality, but it can completely take viewers out of the on-screen world when high-schoolers are depicted as being in a point in their adolescent development that just is not likely for most teenagers. I have realized that my favorite pieces of high school set media either completely embrace the awkwardness and uncertainty of that period, such as Freaks and Geeks and Juno, or they are so over-the-top where there is no expectation of it being considered realistic, like Clueless or Bottoms. I hope to see media creators give college a try as a setting to develop the themes so commonly attached to high-schoolers.
