In some ways, teen dramas are pre-loaded, narrative goldmines. High school offers many possibilities for stories, conflict, first experiences, mistakes, etc. Of course all teen dramas inevitably face the most obvious built-in problem for a successful series: high school really only lasts four years. (And nobody cares about that awkward freshman year!)
What fascinates me are the different ways series have dealt with this problem. Many, such as Dawson’s Creek, The O.C., Gilmore Girls, or 90210, start their main characters as sophomores, offering three full years of high school before the awkward transition to university.
Some characters start out as juniors, and that transition happens a little sooner (unless you were a junior on Beverly Hills, 90210, in which case you got two years to try senior year over again).
The difficulty, of course, is deciding if you are a High School Show, or if your show belongs to your characters. Unlike the majority of American shows, (which belong to characters) Skins turns over their cast, while Degrassi phases in a new one, when appropriate.
Which brings me to Friday Night Lights. I’ve recently been re-viewing the series, and it struck me for the second time how (despite the flaws) impressive their phasing in and out of characters really is. This series is one of the few High School Shows, and as such, when teens go off to college, they are generally off the show (bar one or two tasteful cameo appearances in the final season).
But that’s wonderful! Phasing out central characters by a) focusing major narratives on their quests for graduation and college admission, and then b) moving past them to focus on the next character, is extremely rare, but so gratifying for an audience. I realize people hate to lose beloved characters, but there’s something so natural about people leaving… and then showing up (and giving you a little thrill!) over the Christmas vacation.
The thing is, when a show continues, it needs you to care about the new characters it introduces to sustain itself. And if too many old characters stick around clogging up your story lines, those new characters with no history don’t have a chance.
Now, I’m not raving about FNL‘s method, it is clumsy and manages to split up the implied single class into three or four graduating years (it actually remains extremely vague about what grade anyone is in until they’re graduating). It makes a senior and a sophomore best friends. It makes the brainiac who helps everyone with their homework the youngest in the bunch. (Some smaller characters aren’t phased out at all, but simply disappear in between seasons.) But overall, the fact that it tries, and gets rid of significant main characters at the end of every season is impressive, and I believe is one of the reasons this show stands out.
