The young and the restless
A new television show (Navya) on an entertainment channel has promised to voice all the issues that teens face today, especially in their relationship with parents. Some of the questions that the show as raised include, why parents don’t trust the upbringing they gave to their children, whether they indulge their children in what they weren’t allowed to do etc. The show comes as a pleasant change, say teens, because it talks about the issues that actually affect them.
Says FYBSc student Sukanya K.C., “Shows like The OC and Gossip Girl are great to watch, but they just don’t apply to us. Forget the sheer wealth that the characters enjoy, culturally also, there’s just too wide a gap. On the other hand, a show like One Tree Hill could be related to. Sure, they have far too many relationships than a real teen would, but the problems they deal with are identifiable.” Sukanya says that she has seen Navya’s promos on air and quite likes them. “Any show that deals with teenagers should show aspects that we deal with — like trying to fit in, or our need for freedom,” she adds.
BMM student Suezelle D’Costa says the problem is not so much a lack of representing teen reality, but the excessive focus on only one aspect of it. “A lot of what the shows depict is true,” she says. “Certain parts of college life, wanting to spend time with your friends, even the fights that happen when you fall in and out of love, all of that is true. But on these shows, you never ever see the protagonists studying. They do everything else but study! That’s strange.”
Teens also feel that very often, shows depict only one segment of the population. “The general population is not leading such lives,” says 19-year-old Ashwini Hariharan. “When you focus on how only a certain section of society is living, obviously it will not be representative. I wish shows would focus more on the sort of things that we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis: Studies, college and friends.”
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