When Glee's songs and worthy life lessons become too much, where can you go to get your high-school television drama fix?
I can dig Glee, I really can. It's always been a funny, pacey show with a strong and necessary sense of its own absurdity. But there comes a point when you really can't take another overblown show tune or another of Will's life-lessons-through-the-medium-of-song. Once Glee fatigue sets in, the thought of a plucky cheerleader preparing for the regional finals while struggling with her sexuality, her grades and her alcoholic stepmom can evoke life-threatening tedium.
And yet you still might not be quite ready to graduate to grown-up drama. If you're determined to remain the eternal student, here are a few places you can get your Glee-free high school fix.
Awkward
First on your list should be Awkward, which recently started on MTV (Tuesdays, 10PM). The show focuses on Jenna Hamilton, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who feels totally invisible until an accident misconstrued as a suicide attempt suddenly makes her the most notorious girl at school. She begins secretly dating popular jock Matty McKibben who, in the great teen tradition, won't acknowledge the relationship in public and has to simultaneously handle Sadie Saxton, her vicious cheerleader nemesis who makes Glee's Sue Sylvester look quite the humanitarian.
Jenna can't look to the adults in her life for help, of course, because those adults are useless. Her mother is an image-obsessed dingbat and her school counsellor Valerie has all the emotional maturity and life insight of the comments section of a Justin Bieber blog. Best friend Tamara is always there for Jenna but her desperation to be popular often makes her a liability too.
Awkward is a tightly scripted and sussed show with a lot more swearing and sex than the average teen drama and some very nice satire on purity pledgers. Containing much of the wit and snark of Glee but with none of the schmaltz (or, joy of joys, the singing), it's already shaping up to be the perfect contemporary substitute.
Old school classics
My So-Called Life
Debuting in 1994 and revolving around the teenage trials of Angela Chase (Claire Danes), My So-Called Life is The Velvet Underground of high school dramas – never a big commercial hit yet highly influential. The mid-90s grunge aesthetic is bang on, perfectly reflecting the awkwardness of teen relations, as Angela and misunderstood stoner Jordan (Jared Leto) mumble and shuffle their way through exchanges. Buffy creator Joss Whedon lends an impressive endorsement: "No show on TV has ever come close to capturing as truly the lovely pain of teendom as well as My So-Called Life. And yes, I'm including my own."
The O.C.
Ryan Atwood is the kid from the wrong side of the tracks rubbing shoulders with the elite of the absurdly wealthy Orange County, California. "Welcome to the OC, bitch," he's told after receiving a beating at a beach party, reminding him that no matter how long he stays he'll never be one of them.
Of course, The OC is set up so that we root for the underdog, but the opulence of the Orange County set is seductive. The show's terrifically evocative theme song, the stream of smart cultural references and its commitment to amped teen melodrama made it the big teen hit of the noughties and launched Mischa Barton inexorably along a glittering path of celebrity futility.
Veronica Mars
A brilliantly conceived teen noir about a social-outcast high school private detective uncovering the town's murky underside of power, money and corruption as she attempts to solve the murder of her best friend Lilly Kane. Veronica Mars is devastating on class, race and the cruelty of high school cliques and in Veronica and her dad Sheriff Keith Mars, has one of the best father-daughter relationships ever seen on TV.
Veronica Mars tackles domestic violence, drug rape and child abuse with a worldliness and sensitivity not often seen in any genre – let alone high school shows. Kristen Bell deservedly went on to Hollywood stardom but she'll never play a better character.
