Riverdale is on air these days, and I’m tired of the teen movie tropes the show has been propagating throughout its infamous run all these years. And Riverdale is in the line of fire only for being the popular one right now. We have been fed many shows that reuse material over and over. Teen dramas are great to watch. They give us a sense of what-if. We start to envision ourselves in the same school, rolling with the main characters. But there have been instances in TV and movie history that just blatantly ignores fact from fiction. Mean Girls, Twilight, To All the Boys I Loved Before, Insatiable, Gossip Girl, and many more are guilty of using these teen movie tropes.
The writing department, in such scenes, has had less creativity than our college assignments. Let us go through a few of them and cringe at them together.
1. The Principal is always ‘EVIL.’
We get it that high school students are always rebellious, and the divide between them and the teachers has to be shown. But, in almost every show or movie, the headmaster/ principal is blindly against the students.
2. The horrible peer pressure of doing drugs.
The uncool ones are the characters who refuse to do drugs or party. In real life, it is more likely that the one offering you these will be okay if you choose not to partake.
3. The best friend is always a quirky nerd even if the main character is not.
And the main character starts changing and falls out with the best friend only for them to reconcile later on.
4. The group dynamics.
There is ALWAYS a jock, a weird one, a nerd, and a rich one in almost every group.
5. That much thought and effort over school attire.
I believe that I speak for most of us when our mornings were spent grabbing that extra minute of sleep and then wearing whatever had been washed.
6. An audience for proposals and confessions.
Yes, grand gestures are cool. But there is no way an entire hallway would be interested in your stuff. And use Facebook like a normal person.
7. The ugly duckling.
Either the lead character or a central one gets a make-over that instantly wins people over and somehow helps them in social status.
8. Everyone is aware of the newcomer and become friends instantly.
Newcomers are welcomed with open arms but there is no way that every guy in the school knows about him/her from the first day itself.
9. The love triangle.
There is always one love triangle where the character starts falling for the new guy/ girl and then stops to stay with their original partner.
10. The jocks are always the bad guys with one or two exceptions.
The jocks are popular yet mean as if popularity poisons someone. Among them, there is one single good guy. He sticks with them even if he finds their behavior appalling.
11. The funniest friend is the fat one.
The fat guy is always made funny. As if the person decided to hone comedic skills as being the only saving grace in their life.
12. Doing something reckless, because of ‘angst.’
A character goes through an emotional event in their life. And that somehow convinces them that getting out of their comfort zone means toying with life.
13. They don’t have acne!
How is everyone so polished? I’m sure that at least 70% of teenagers have skin conditions during that age.
14. The classes last for five minutes.
A few characters engage in arguments and then the bell rings. The students are almost every time present in the cafeteria or lounge.
15. One parent is always involved in everything that the school does.
That parent who always HAS to speak up at meetings, fight with teachers and be the first chaperone at prom.
16. Almost everyone gets into Ivy League colleges.
We do not see them study. We do not see them gather special credits needed to apply to those colleges yet almost everyone gets into Harvard, UCLA, NYU, or UC Berkeley. AND with another Ivy League college as a backup.
17. Over-the-top dramas or musicals.
And somehow the entire auditorium is supposed to understand the references that the characters sing or speak in these productions.
18. The breakfast table spread is always delectable.
And one character just tells that they aren’t hungry and pops a piece of toast in.
