{"id":15714,"date":"2025-09-14T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/15714\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:30:10","slug":"a-small-screen-journey-through-adolescence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/15714\/","title":{"rendered":"A Small-Screen Journey Through Adolescence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming-of-age TV<\/a> shows have helped define entire generations of adolescents ever since the 1970s. The enduring appeal of this small-screen genre stems from its ability to reflect the often painful and confusing transition from childhood to adult life experienced by its audience with accuracy, empathy, and emotional insight.<\/p>\n

Long-running TV series about youth and young adulthood have a key advantage over even the best coming-of-age movies<\/a>, in that their actors age in real life, season by season, along with the characters they\u2019re playing. These series are able to spread various rites of passage across several years, from fundamental life lessons to teen romance<\/a> and high-school graduation.<\/p>\n

In this list, we\u2019re focusing on shows which chart the personal journey through adolescence of their main characters. At the same time, certain series that aren\u2019t here deserve a special mention. <\/p>\n

The classic 1970s sitcom Happy Days doesn\u2019t quite make the cut, but played a formative role in the development of the coming-of-age genre. Meanwhile, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Malcolm in the Middle both feature brilliant coming-of-age moments, but fit more neatly into the family comedy genre.<\/p>\n

20 <\/p>\n

That ’70s Show<\/p>\n

1998\u20132006<\/p>\n

\"Fez,<\/p>\n

Fez, Eric, Hyde, and Kelso in That ’70s Show<\/p>\n

With its effortless blend of zany teenage antics with nostalgia for the decade in which it\u2019s set, That \u201870s Show draws on classic coming-of-age tropes to render the lives of its six protagonists in small-town Wisconsin. Its fictional timeline continues with That \u201890s Show<\/a>, a worthy Netflix spinoff, but the original sitcom is still the best in the franchise.<\/p>\n

19 <\/p>\n

Glee<\/p>\n

2009\u20132015<\/p>\n

\"Cast<\/p>\n

Cast of Glee singing with Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester covering her ears<\/p>\n

While Glee\u2019s later seasons<\/a> provide increasingly diminishing returns, this seminal teen musical drama is still the greatest series of its kind ever to have graced the small-screen. The show\u2019s shrewd use of pop covers to punctuate its heady mix of high-school melodrama, teen angst, and biting humor deservedly made it a megahit with younger teenagers in the early 2010s.<\/p>\n

18 <\/p>\n

Freaks And Geeks<\/p>\n

1999\u20132000<\/p>\n

\"Seth<\/p>\n

Seth Rogen, James Franco and Busy Philipps in Freaks and Geeks<\/p>\n

Since the cancellation of Freaks and Geeks<\/a> after just one season, the likes of James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Jason Segel have gone onto bigger things. But this cult sitcom remains a standout project in the careers of everyone involved with it, thanks to its offbeat approach to depicting high-school life, and hilariously idiosyncratic characterizations.<\/p>\n

17 <\/p>\n

Adventure Time<\/p>\n

2010\u20132018<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/p>\n

Jake smiling next to Finn happy in Adventure Time<\/p>\n

On the face of it, Pendleton Ward\u2019s animated fantasy show doesn\u2019t seem to have much to do with the coming-of-age genre. But its portrayal of central hero Finn\u2019s progression through adolescence, encapsulated in Adventure Time\u2019s best quotes<\/a> and superbly mirrored by a gradual shift in tone across the series, makes it the most surprisingly insightful teen drama in kids\u2019 television.<\/p>\n

16 <\/p>\n

Never Have I Ever<\/p>\n

2020\u20132023<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben and Devi looking at each other Never Have I Ever<\/p>\n

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan\u2019s charismatic and affecting performance as angry young Indian-American Devi Vishwakumar at the head of Never Have I Ever\u2019s cast<\/a> is a major reason for the comedy-drama\u2019s success. Devi is incredibly likable precisely because of the many character flaws she has to work through, and Ramakrishnan\u2019s wonderfully relatable portrayal makes her impossible not to root for.<\/p>\n

15 <\/p>\n

The Inbetweeners<\/p>\n

2008\u20132010<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Simon Bird in The Inbetweeners<\/p>\n

British comedy\u2019s perfect riposte to the fancifully dionysian six-season teen drama Skins<\/a> in the late noughties, The Inbetweeners focuses squarely and unapologetically on the more mundane follies of teenage boyhood. It\u2019s frequently crude, moronic, and excruciatingly embarrassing, but many high-schoolers will find the show all too real, as well as belly-achingly funny.<\/p>\n

14 <\/p>\n

Everybody Hates Chris<\/p>\n

2005\u20132009<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris (Tyler James Williams) looking steadily at somebody in Everybody Hates Chris.<\/p>\n

Featuring a precocious lead performance from Tyler James Williams, Everybody Hates Chris tells the true story of Chris Rock<\/a>\u2019s life as a teenager growing up in a poor neighborhood of Brooklyn. The comedian\u2019s narration adds another layer of comedy to this sardonic underdog tale, but it\u2019s Williams and fellow teen actor Vincent Martella who ultimately bring it to life.<\/p>\n

13 <\/p>\n

The End Of The F***ing World<\/p>\n

2017\u20132019<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

This story of a self-diagnosed teenage psychopath and his intended murder victim might be a highly orthodox coming-of-age story, but it\u2019s among the best British TV shows anywhere on Netflix<\/a>. Based on a comic strip by Charles Forsman, the show develops a life of its own from the off, striking a delicate balance between black comedy and emotive psychological drama.<\/p>\n

12 <\/p>\n

Love, Victor<\/p>\n

2020\u20132022<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Cimino stands in a room in a scene from Love, Victor.<\/p>\n

Still the best TV show to feature breakout star Isabella Ferreira<\/a>, Love, Victor is the foremost coming-of-age drama to focus singularly and specifically on an LGBTQ+ protagonist. Spun off the 2018 romcom movie Love, Simon, the series is full of warmth and heart, showcasing the same perceptive grasp of teen romance as its big-screen counterpart and their literary source material.<\/p>\n

11 <\/p>\n

Boy Meets World<\/p>\n

1993\u20132000<\/p>\n

\"Nobody's<\/p>\n

The definitive teen sitcom of its generation, Boy Meets World has some of the best episodes<\/a> about coming of age ever aired on the small screen. The show\u2019s progression through the middle-school and high-school experiences of cheeky teenager Cory Matthews makes for comedy that\u2019s as hyperrealistic as it is funny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming-of-age TV shows have helped define entire generations of adolescents ever since the 1970s. The enduring appeal of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-15714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}