Sure, American Teen could have incorporated more than just middle-class, white, heterosexual, teenagers. Though as we've seen from Glee, which includes many a gays and many a wheelchairs, you get a unique kind of trainwreck. Now, I watched Glee. I am both proud and ashamed to say that. One of the strongest and weakest parts of that show was incorporating every single issue of the present day. They delved into Kurt, a flamboyant gay stereotype, when the LGBTQ rights movement started picking up speed. They've dealt with questioning of sexuality, homelessness, teen drinking, lesbians, sex, the college process, transgender students, eating disorders, and even had time to have a school shooting episode in the last season. The strengths of Glee come from very distinct characters that ultimately break out of your first perception of them in the first episode, and this is a show that has been on for 5 seasons. On the other hand, American Teen lacks complexities outside the archetype. But, Glee's pitfall is that the continuity and the overall structure of the show degrades as it tries to take these Big Issues in each episode and you're left playing an internal battle trying to decide which issue is best to care about. Glee does the opposite of American Teen, where it oversimplifies everything, and instead over complicates things by takes a thousand Big Pictures and trying to fit it all into one while still finding songs to sing.
With documentaries, I don't really find anything wrong with glossy. I think with a film like American Teen that is set in the midwest, we as B-CC students suddenly become hyper aware of the normal American high school conventions and idealism that we don't necessarily have. I think that made it a little harder to accept much of the film as truth and more like how the students reacted to how they were baited by the filmmakers. I honestly don't think Megan would have vandalized that other student's house if she wasn't thoroughly provoked. The glossiness of it just comes along with that provocation and trying to depict high school seniors, which is hard because we're so boring most of the time. Imagine trying to dramatize us sitting at home watching 8 hours of Netflix on a snow day. It doesn't make for great cinema.
A flaw in American Teen is the way they forced the 5 main characters into emulating each character in the Breakfast Club, which in itself is an institution. The subjects seemed like they were too forced into being the jock or the weirdo or the rebel and couldn't be anything more than that. We know that there are football players who also take theatre classes. We know the yearbook and Tattler staffers are involved in other sports or clubs. We know that there are students that are much more than what meets the eye, and that's where it feels fake to us, because the characters/subjects are widdled down and reduced to just one singular trait.
Did I enjoy American Teen? Yes. Do I think they got American teens right? No.
I definitely agree with you that the fake feeling comes from the way the students are forced into boxes. However, I wonder if a form of middle ground could be achieved somewhere between Glee and American Teen: a documentary or a show that depicts a diverse range of students dealing with their more complicated lives that are not treated as stereotypes or Big Issues. Is there a more accurate way to portray American teens than either of these two sources have done?
ReplyDeleteSo, WWYD? (What would Yasmeen do?)
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