Pretty White Kids with Problems

I almost wept with laughter. Not that I don’t love Ricky, Lucy, Fred and Ethel and the Cleavers (and Eddie Haskel)…but “real life issues”? Come on.

On the other hand, I don’t think you can accurately call current entertainment “real life” either. Ash and I were talking the other day about The Dawson’s Creek Years (which spawned the postmodern teen dramedy), when every show on the WB was high school kids experiencing “real life” while everything coming out of their mouths sounded like it was written by a team of 40-year-old marriage and family therapists. I wish I were as wise as Pacey when I was 15. A lot of therapy dollars might have been saved later.

Those of us experiencing “real life” don’t have story artists to get us into wacky situations at 3:27 and dialogue writers to help us verbally process them at 41:39.

I think some of what we’re seeing in the themes of high-school and college movies is an extending adolescence at both ends; kids are dealing with grown up issues like sexual identity and substance use at a much younger age, but they are also neglecting adult roles (financial responsibility, family, career) until later in their 20’s.

I’m concerned with the themes of these movies - I agree that the John Hughes movies were by and large not positive messages, but that was also true of a lot of kids movies in the days of yore.

What’s the driving theme of Snow White? Little girl, if you’re pretty enough, a man will come with a magic kiss to carry you away from any problem. Cinderella? Little girl, if you work hard enough at your housework, someday a man will marry you, and carry you away from all your problems. Bambi? If you love somebody, they’ll probably get shot.

You see my point.

And even my 6 year-old loves HSM2.
Good for your bank account. Not so good for mine.