High school on TV is usually wrong. In some shows, teens are portrayed as either super rich, constantly going to parties, or as constantly having life-changing epiphanies. In our reality, high school is more like forgetting which classes you have homework in and overthinking that one interaction you had last week. It’s not exactly as it appears on screen.
Take, for example, a show like “Gossip Girl,” which feels far removed from everyday life. “Gossip Girl” focuses on the lives of exceptionally wealthy students in New York City, students who prioritize social status and luxury over schoolwork and extracurriculars. While the characters are high school students, the show almost never features the school, instead emphasizing their nightlife and the drama of their social lives. As a result, it can be difficult for students to feel connected to the show because of its portrayal of wealth, status and indifference towards school, creating a version of high school that feels largely unattainable.
However, every so often, a show will get it right. Whether it’s a comedy like “Derry Girls,” “Never Have I Ever” or a drama like “Friday Night Lights,” they each are exaggerated for entertainment, yet they still maintain some key truths of the high school experience. They take small, everyday moments and escalate them to things that most people can relate to. Things such as friend group drama, hallway interactions and academic competition are pushed just far enough to be funny yet also still incredibly relatable.
Let’s consider a show like “Derry Girls.” Despite being set in Northern Ireland in the 1990’s, the realness of the show comes through in the friendships of the main characters: A group of Irish girls and one British boy, who all go through all their adventures together. They are inseparable; they do everything together and although they constantly argue, they always come back to one another. Regardless of what is going on in the world outside, their reality is centered around each other.
In high school, friendships truly matter, and students value them above most things. Looking around classrooms and halls, it’s evident that students go out of their way to find people they are familiar and comfortable with. Students have the tendency to sit with people they are closest to, choosing familiarity over randomness when given the choice.
It seems as though most high schoolers would have trouble relating to the show “Never Have I Ever,” which is known for its wacky, over-the-top love triangle. But, there is one element that is incredibly familiar to students at the high school: the academic competition. Although the competition between Devi, the main character and Ben, her main rival, is exaggerated to a degree that most students wouldn’t be able to relate to, the idea of an academic rival is familiar.
Students frequently compare test, essay and even homework scores in demonstrations of curiosity that have a competitive element to them. In “Never Have I Ever,” this competition is portrayed as something where there can only be one winner, which makes the show entertaining and interesting to watch. Yet in real life, this same competitive spirit can appear in many things, from comparing answers with your friends to measuring your success against the people around you.
Finally, the exaggerated competition of sports teams as they compete for spots and desperately try to make the state final and playoff games keep viewers on the edges of their seats in “Friday Night Lights,” a show about football. Despite the competition, what keeps the team in it for the long run is the community it has. Many of us can connect with that idea of finding your people, whether it be through sports, theater or music.
In particular, the culture of sports in our high school is incredible. In and around the halls of the high school, you frequently see teammates coming up to each other, dapping each other up and checking in about how they feel about the game they have later. You see teammates seeking out one another in the afternoons so that they can walk to practice together. Although there is a heightened and dramatized feel to the sports culture of “Friday Night Lights,” the community among the players is something that can be felt at the high school.
What makes all of these shows compelling to watch isn’t the exaggeration itself, but the truth behind it. While the situations within them may be unrealistic, the emotions they capture are not. High school is shaped by friendships, competition and the search for community, all significant things that feel small from the outside. Even if high school isn’t the same as how it’s portrayed on TV, these shows capture what it feels like to live through it.
Maybe we aren’t watching these shows to see an exact replica of our lives, but to see our own experiences reflected back at us. In doing so, TV offers a sense of validation, reminding us that challenges, awkwardness and relationships are all a real part of the high school experience. Rather than showing us the usual portrayal of high school, honest details help us understand what it actually feels like.
