A Review Of.....Aspirational T.V. Teens

If you have ever seen Charlie Brooker's amazing rant on aspirational TV you may have an idea of where I'm going with this. Having grown up watching various different long running American T.V. shows, one major difference between my life and theirs began to occur to me. Not the fact that generally they are all loaded (The O.C, 91210, Gossip Girl- it just makes easier for writers/producers as they are not limited by pesky reality), it's the fact that their central characters all seem to have one God given talent or dream that they can follow their heart to achieve.

In The O.C. Ryan was a gifted architect and Seth a born graphic artist who had a comic published and had met George Lucas by the second series (although to be fair Marisa did help to balance things a bit). Today's version, Gossip Girl is no better, Dan has always wanted to be a writer, although his stuff sounds mind numbing. His sister, Jenny/irritatingly angelic goodie godie/ irritatingly whinging teen/ irritatingly two faced bitch girl, is focused on fashion, and luckily for her she is already more talented than an Blair's Mum, an established designer. Really? Chloe On Smallville has always been after a Journalism career, likewise Rory on Gilmore Girls. Dawson from the Creek was making films before he could breath for God's sake!...I could go on. In fact the only T.V. American teens that don't have a dream either have some kind of supernatural calling or are 'IT' girls with issues.

By far the worst offender of this trend though has to be One Tree Hill. Lucas again wants to be a writer (an excuse for pretentious voice overs with all manner of intellectual quoting going on, just to prove that he maybe pretty, but he's still smart, honest). Brooke is again a talented fashion designer. Peyton makes up for the struggle she must have had in life from having such a ridiculous name by having two amazing talents, she rocks the decks and is an artistic prodigy. Haley is the worst of all with a singing career that rockets with ease.

Now I know that a lot of people who are talented find those talents early and know what they want as soon as they can crawl, but seriously, those must account of at most 20% of people. The rest of us are left to muddle through life feeling horrifyingly inadequate that we haven't had our life goal in place since nursery and are left to wonder when our special talent will emerge and if one never does does that make us useless?

What exactly are writers trying to achieve with this? They may be able to claim that it encourages goals and striving for your dreams. However dreams are a whole lot harder to achieve when you can't write in convenient plot twists that boost you to stardom. No doubt having a dream is a good thing, but for a lot of people they are stumbled on at different times of life- not handily pre-ordained, and I fail to see how pushing that idea is healthy.

UK T.V. teen shows are generally a lot better where this is concerned, proving that it is not a necessary plot device. 'As If' was full of confused complicated characters, in 'Hollyoaks' kids are mostly dealing with normal , if exaggerated, teen things, Grange Hill, Bicker Grove (What? I'm a child of the Nighties- P.j. & Duncan NOT Ant &Dec) even Neighbours from the ozzy end of things present real-ish young people that you can identify with not feel inferior to.

Not entirely free of the whole aspiration business and maybe in a worse way though is Skins (pictured above- just look at the pictures next to each other and ask which show looks more 'real' to you. I rest my case). Amazing show though it is and as much as it American rivals dead in the water quality and reality wise, it does have it's own aspirational quality. If I watch one episode I am left thinking "Damn, I never had that much Sex, Drugs and Rock and Role going on in my life- clearly I went wrong somewhere".

Well to everyone who, like me wonders why they are not as confident, focused or talented as the shiny people on T.V. The real people who have a million things they love to do, or are good at diverse things from maths to drama, people who have talents but have to keep them as hobbies and make their money elsewhere. Well if you are one of these people and are wondering if they are wrong in some way, well I find listening to sunscreen usually helps. Baz Lerman produced it, God bless him. I really hope the song is right. I think the woman who wrote it is an Angel.