For years teen dramas have captivated audiences with the angst, mystery, drama, and life of teenagers. From those with fairly ordinary lives like in Dawson's Creek to teen detectives portrayed in Veronica Mars and Pretty Little Liars, or a supernatural element used in The Vampire Diaries and Teen Wolf, teen dramas have evolved over the years.
For viewers who watch several teen dramas, some storylines and tropes appear in nearly every show. As different as the storylines might be, some aspects seem to be unavoidable. Angst in teenage romance is a constant source of drama, as are familial conflicts.
Bullying
Unfortunately, bullying is prevalent in real life, which some shows often attempt to mirror. However, rather than taking a realistic approach, some teen dramas go overboard, having bullies do things that would not occur at an average high school. The bullies in the shows also tend to have nothing to do other than make the main character's life miserable. While some shows have tried to make an example that bullying is terrible by showing the repercussions of how it can affect others, it also used as a plot point to show that bullies do exist at the high school.
Teen Detectives
Veronica Mars, Pretty Little Liars, and Riverdale are just three shows that emphasize their main teenage characters as detectives. Most often, this concept is used during murder mysteries or mysteries in general. In such displays, regardless of the adult roles, it is up to the teenagers to uncover the hidden truths and bring them to light.
The parents are often oblivious or lying to the teenage protagonists. In the end, the adolescent detectives discover the truth regardless of the obstacles.
Supernatural
The Vampire Diaries, teenagers would keep from their parents, supernatural teen dramas have the added factor of having the protagonists involved in a supernatural world. In contrast, their parents remain blissfully ignorant, at least for a while. Between learning how to handle their powers and how to fight the new supernatural antagonists, a lot is happening.
Pregnancy
When teenagers have sex, sometimes a series decides to discuss what it means for teenage pregnancy. The Fosters also briefly addressed a possible teenage pregnancy in different s. In season one, Jesus and Lexi had unprotected sex, and Lexi took a morning-after pill. A few seasons later, Jesus' girlfriend, Emma, had an abortion.
Sports
A person's ordinary life can include being an athlete, and some teen dramas focus on the importance of sports. All American uses its central character, Spencer James, to show his involvement as a football player and the differences between his hometown and Beverly Hills.
One Tree Hill uses basketball as a point to collide Nathan and Lucas Scott. Each talented separately, they are brought together to play on the school basketball team. It is a point of conflict and drama between the half-brothers and helps move the story along as the series takes Nathan's basketball talent seriously as a future career.
Big Financial Differences
Not everyone comes from a privileged background with money. Sometimes, teen dramas capitalize on that, using the differences between the rich and poor to build a story. In The O.C, Ryan Atwood did not come from money, and his outlook on life is changed when he lives with the Cohen family. One Tree Hill also uses the financial differences to show differences between Lucas and Nathan's upbringing. Lucas grew up in a small house while Nathan's was substantially larger.
Time Jump
Teen dramas mostly center around high school kids. Their journey continues through high school graduation. Sometimes, a series will continue the show into the following year, introducing the central characters to college to show the beginnings of them growing out of their lives at home. However, others take another approach, jumping a couple of years into the future after high school graduation to see the teenage main characters as young adults out of college. Pretty Little Liars and One Tree Hill each continued their stories a few years after high school ended, picking up where everyone would be and later discovering what happened to them.
Love Triangle
One of the most common and expected tropes in a teen drama show is the love triangle. Some are more well known than others, but overall the trope appears in almost everything. The love triangle adds a personal conflict and drama to everything else occurring in the series.
Sometimes fans have been known to latch onto the love triangle rather than the rest of the plot. Three popular love triangles include Dawson, Pacey, and Joey from Dawson's Creek, Stefan, Damon, and Elena from The Vampire Diaries, and Lucas, Brooke, and Peyton from One Tree Hill.
Missing Parent
To add angst to the main character, they occasionally have severe parental issues. Often, it is because the central protagonist either has divorced parents, has been left an orphan, or one of the parents has abandoned the family. It is rare to see a protagonist in a happy family without some sort of parent conflict. Sometimes, it acts as a catalyst; other times, it is meant to highlight the trouble the remaining parent has in trying to keep the family together. If both parents are dead, the main character must learn to let down their guard and let people in again.
Over-Sexualized Teenagers
Unfortunately, this is far too common. Even though the actors portraying the characters are often not teenagers in real life, it still creates problems in media. Shows rarely address the consequences of sex. Sometimes it is like STDs are not a concern. In other cases, the actors' bodies are too developed to be realistic for a legitimate teenager, which could lead to the teenage audience having body image conflicts. Sometimes, they are written to appear far more experienced than a viewer would expect a teenager to be, and not enough characters show signs of being nervous about such an intimate act.