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We Need Realistic Tv Series
In a television panorama so interesting for the `teen fiction`, one of the great stereotypes has been introduced: why are adults always playing teenagers? What does this means to young people and how they see themselves?
Date : 03/10/2018
Author Information
Uploaded by : Luis
Uploaded on : 03/10/2018
Subject : English
In a television panorama so interesting for the `teen fiction`, with recent successful TV series such as For 13 Reasons, Riverdale or Skam, one of the great stereotypes has been introduced: why are adults always playing teenagers? What does this means to young people and how they see themselves?Working on a job during the Summer change your body as if you`ve been training at the gym for ages, but only if you live in Riverdale (bye, I am moving there tomorrow!). One of the funniest moments of this popular TV soups, Riverdale, is when in the first episode, we discovered that the charming Archie, aged 15, has become as muscular and stringy as Schwarzenegger in just one summer. Impressive Archie... There is no miraculous trick or magic 7 minutes trainings: he is KJ Apa, a 20-year-old actor (19 in that episode) who had been conquering youthful hearts in his native New Zealand for the last years. The reactions to that great body will probably be divided between laughing and finding out what teens can do to have in the changing rooms of the institute and then go out with the beautiful girl of the class. Riverdale, which image of prototypical American teenagers has become quite critical and ironic, is not the most frustrating example at all as the age difference between the actors and the characters they play is a clich of the `teen fiction` (Once Upon a Time, Pretty Little Liars, Kyle XY, True Blood and Beauty and the Beast among others).KJ Apa is 20 years old but Matt Lante (Timeless) was around 30 when he got into the skin of a teenager in Still Star-Crossed and Fran Perea was 24 when he played a young teen in the Spanish TV series Los Serrano, John Travolta was also 24 years old when he led the cast of Grease, Sissy Spacek 27 when Carriestarted and when The Notebook and Mean Girls was launched Rachel McAdams was 25 years old and she played a 17-year-olds girl.The beginning of the Autumn and the TV season, with Riverdale in full swing and the return of the Spanish TV series Merl , which has become a small phenomenon, the debate is on. Another recent example is, to say one, the talented Nick Robinson, 23, who played a 17-years-old boy in the must-see Love, Simon.The reason of this it is easier than what it seems to be. If the auditions for a movie or TV series already have to pass some filters (interpretation and physical appearance) we must take into account legal issues when we speak abut the teen fiction: it is easier to hire an adult than a child/under 18.But of all this, what most worries in some sectors of television analysis, even experts in psychology, are the referents of beauty that are imposed on such a young audience. It is true that talent and charisma when playing a character is extremely important but it is also absurd to deny that there is a very strict canon lt;/strong>and this worries because adolescence is not just a time of physical and hormonal changes in which a simple pimple or a somewhat rebellious fringe can ruin your weekend expectation, but also emotional, personality and self-esteem. We speak of a vital moment in which feeling comfortable with yourself and others it`s very important. Sometimes you look as Archie or you are nobody.We need realistic and authentic series where characters are tall, low, thin, stuffed, fibred, healthy, freckled, with white skin, gingers... We need more series like Orange Is The New Black where there are all kinds of people and more advertising campaigns as the Benetton ones.In addition, the difference between television and real referents can be so implausible as to lose the authenticity component and expel the audience from the story. In certain cases we have seen famous actors playing characters of their age shortly after having been 16 or 17 years in fiction. Some people see something positive in this: seeing their favorite protagonists in more mature situations can give them some confidence and inspiration to face theirs.If we look at successful adolescent series such as For 13 Reasons or the Norwegian Skam the young audience is looking on VOD services for what is not found in mainstream television: realism and complicity. It is true that Netflix fiction about suicide maintains some stereotypes of the `teen fiction`, but also that its view of bullying has incredibly connected with the audience.The example of Skam is beautiful and special: it is so linked to the concerns of its faithful that it has been a huge and unexpected success in Northern Europe, and, in part, it`s because the age of his cast is much closer to that of his characters.For all this, we need realistic TV series that show young people that adolescence is more than popularity and abs.
This resource was uploaded by: Luis