With the premiere of on Netflix, my feeds were flooded with headlines and reviews comparing the teen drama series to The O.C., Gossip Girl, and a little bit of Veronica Mars thrown in for good measure.
But here’s the thing: There will never be another O.C. or Gossip Girl or Veronica Mars—with the exception of the and , I guess.While teen soaps have been around long before the year 2000, the early aughts were truly the peak era for the genre.
High school dramas fueled angsty teens week to week, shining a light on class disparities, trauma, and highlighting the day-to-day lives of (primarily white, cis) American youth.