As an enjoyer of TV shows, I spend more time searching than watching. Often, during my fruitless, hour-long expeditions on Netflix, I find myself seeing a trend within the dialogue of shows categorized as “for teens.” I hear a lot of things along the following lines: “That was lit, I stan!” (Ginny and Georgia). And, “Tonight’s gonna be so lit, sup queens’” (Never Have I Ever). Or, “I can’t stand the toxic masculinity in this hallway right now!” (Riverdale). 

I think the most sinister curse that’s been cast upon teen dramas self-described as “edgy” and “relatable” is the manufacturing of some of the world’s most tacky, overwritten scripts, containing  incredulous amounts of “internet slang,” celebrity and pop culture references, and a couple of unsolicited liberal buzzwords for extra measure. 

At best, TV series written like this are just corny shows, enjoyable only in the form of an irony-watch, and at worst, they’re a cultural defect and global disturbance to the quality of TV as a whole, plaguing our minds into accepting a forced fellowship with unintentionally post-ironic jokes made by the generation before us.

Seeing as most of the writers for shows like these are adults closing in on 40, their scripts end up tragic failures when attempting to add some kind of relatability factor to appeal to young audiences. And this is especially clear when the word “lit” becomes the crux of entire conversations. 

There is nothing redeemable about shows sacrificing the viewing experience for a quick, cringey one-liner. Not only does it make it a painful watch, but it also feels weirdly degrading seeing characters who are supposed to be portrayals of me and others my age, drawn as caricatures of angsty teens distorted into a parody of internet culture. 

One of the most jarring things I’ve heard in a popular teen dramedy that truly sent me spiraling was when a character said, “We’re streaking on Snapchat!” (Ginny and Georgia). Though this did get a good, second-hand-embarrassment kind of laugh from me, it just further proves how poorly teenagers are written. Watching that with the knowledge that the line was something written to be relatable to me was like looking at a reflection of myself through a funhouse mirror. 

Too often, the way that teen shows illustrate youth verbally is much too embellished. It just ends up feeling disconnected and ingenuine compared to the more elementary experiences most of us identify with, riddled with awkwardness and not in the language of a terminally online fugitive from society.

In all honesty, I don’t want to hear the inner voice of the full-grown, tax-paying adult with a wife and kids that wrote the script when watching a show about high-schoolers. Unfortunately, as middle-aged producers try to connect to a generation they’re entirely misinformed about, my hope for quality entertainment dwindles just a little more. But no matter how much criticism this depiction of adolescence receives, it will still be valid to the writers, as long as it generates viewers.