Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was okay. It was nice and quiet. Today I'm going to talk about an interesting subject. That it's okay to have a TV show without any genre conceits, be it mystery, science fiction, fantasy, horror, western, or musical. Because the non-genre shows can be just as valuable as any episode of Star Trek or any superhero/comic book based show. And I don't mean heightened teen dramas like The O.C. or One Tree Hill. I mean, apart from a few shows like Batman (1966-1968), Star Trek (1966-1969), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993-1995), and basically every cartoon I ever watched, the vast majority of TV shows that I watched were slice of life. Especially in my teen years, where genre shows were almost non-existent. Or just weren't airing on channels that I got on the TV in my bedroom.
Besides Smallville (2001-2011), The O.C. (2003-2007), and One Tree Hill (2003-2012), which I like to call the more heightened teen dramas, with one of them being a comic book based series, and the other two being created by people who have pretty crazy imaginations, I watched alot of quieter teen dramas and comedies when I was in my teens. While I didn't watch it from the very beginning, only catching up on it in reruns, Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-2014) was a show that I liked alot for the show's first seven seasons, because it dealt with alot of modern issues that many teenagers were facing in high school at the time. Though I do feel that the show was a bit too preachy at times, coming down a little too much on one particular side of certain issues.
But there were other teen shows that I watched when I was a teenager that weren't as over the top with the drama. Like Radio Free Roscoe (2003-2005), which is a Canadian series centered around an underground radio station run by a group of teenagers as an alternative to the administration run school radio station, which pretty much is in favour of the popular kids, while leaving out those of us who aren't interested in the same music, events, and news that the popular kids are. There was drama, but because it aired on Family Channel here in Canada, and on The N in the U.S., it couldn't tackle any of the heavier issues that teens faced at the time. Though it still covered romantic relationships, friendships, school, homework, and parents. There's another Canadian show that started around the same time that RFR was on called renegadepress.com (2004-2008), which was a halfway point between Degrassi: The Next Generation, and the Degrassi franchise as a whole, and RFR.
According to the show's Wikipedia page, it dealt with the heavier issues like sex, and all the pros and cons that go with it, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, and doing stupid and maybe even dangerous things just to fit in. I've never watched it because it wasn't on a channel that we got in my house. I mention it though because Lorne Cardinal, who played police officer Davis Quinton on Corner Gas (2004-2009), which was also on at the same time, is in the show as the father of one of the main teen characters, Jack, and Tatiana Maslany plays a recurring role in the second season. And according to the cast list on Wikipedia, Ephraim Ellis, who played Rick Murray on Degrassi: The Next Generation, is a recurring character as well. I discovered the show when I was looking up Tatiana Maslany's filmography when She-Hulk was on. It's on YouTube as very few Canadian teen shows get more than a couple of episodes released on DVD. Degrassi is the exception in most of its incarnations, except for Degrassi: Next Class (2016-2017) which was the more modern show in the franchise. So I'm gonna watch it at some point, just to see what it's like.
The reason I mentioned those shows is that sometimes it's good to have a show like renegadepress.com, Radio Free Roscoe, and Degrassi. Even these shows can make as much of a difference in the lives of a teenager facing similar situations, whether it's something heavy like drug and alcohol abuse, or something as mundane as trying to get better grades at school as shows like Smallville can be. Oftentimes I feel like the messages about any stuff that regular teens go through on a daily basis is lost when it gets done on a superhero show like Smallville and Stargirl simply because, like the comics they're adapting, or being inspired by, the focus is on the superhero stuff, not on the average teen stuff. Even on Superman & Lois, where most of the focus is on the more domestic side of things, alot of the regular teenager stuff with Jordan and Jonathan is either connected to Jordan's powers, or gets pushed to the side in favour of the Superman stuff. Especially once you get to the end of each season.
And unfortunately the heightened teen dramas like The O.C., One Tree Hill, 90210 (2008-2013), and Glee (2009-2015), usually end up glorifying the behaviour of the main characters, even if that's not their intention because for the most part there aren't any severe consequences for their actions, and oftentimes these shows aren't completely serialized, so they only get in as much trouble as the storyline requires so that they can move onto other things in the next episode. Whereas Spinner, Sean, Emma, Paige, Jimmy, and even Toby's actions, or inactions, that led up to the school shooting in season 4 of Degrassi: The Next Generation had lasting consequences for all of those characters to varying degrees for the rest of their time on the show. Particularly Spinner and Jimmy.
Even though RFR didn't deal with the more heavy subjects like Degrassi and renegadepress.com did, the stuff it did deal with was still important, in my opinion anyway. Friendship, romance, school, and fitting in are just as important as sex, drug and alcohol abuse, and racial issues. I mean I was an extremely insecure person when I was a teenager, I still am as an adult, but, seeing characters on TV deal with some of the things I was dealing with at the time, made me feel less anxious about most of it. Of the three shows I've been talking about, only Degrassi has ever done episodes about disabilities, both physical and mental, like autism, heart conditions, and permanently being in a wheelchair.
As much as I love superheroes, they aren't real and many of them can't exist in the real world because of their superpowers. And so it's a little bit harder to believe that those characters deal with the same problems that you or I might. Which is why I think it's good to not always do genre shows, but do ones that are more based in the real world, and dealing with issues that we CAN deal with without the help of Superman, Captain America, or the Power Rangers. Sometimes you need an episode about two best friends who are in love with each other, but are afraid that they'll ruin their frienship by taking things further, or just don't know how to go about telling the other person how they feel. Sometimes you need an episode about a character getting their driver's license and their first car. And sometimes, you just need a show to tell you that you will be okay, even if it doesn't feel like you will be during hard times.
That's why I feel that it is important for shows like Radio Free Roscoe, renegadepress.com, Degrassi, and even The Goldbergs to exist, because it gives a different perspective on things that most genre shows either gloss over or give to us in a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Horror coating where the message is lost because of all the spectacle that each of those genres carry with them. Not saying that genre fiction is bad, far from it, but sometimes you need either a direct approach, or at the very least, a different approach. And sometimes you just need the Enterprise to fight a squadron of Klingon ships, or Superman to swoop in to save the day, or Din Djarin and Grogu to rescue the Mandalorians from a giant Lizard Turtle, or Tyrion Lannister to plead for his life to Lady Arryn at the Eyrie in the Vale.
Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'm going to try and be back soon for a review of some kind, but things have been hectic lately and I'm getting ready for a weekend away, so we'll see what happens. But until then have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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