The adolescent experience isn’t easy to capture. While many television shows have attempted to depict the pain, awkwardness, and occasional ecstasy of growing up, few have succeeded as wholly and brilliantly asReservation Dogs.The FX series, created bySterlin HarjoandTaika Waititi(Jojo Rabbit), has earned a place in television history for being the first show to feature all Indigenous writers and directors, as well as an almost entirely Indigenous cast and production team.RELATED:Why Taika Waititi’s ‘Reservation Dogs’ Could Be Your New Favorite Comedy SeriesYetReservation Dogsis groundbreaking for more than just the minds behind it. In depicting the life of four Indigenous teens on a reservation in rural Oklahoma, it pushes the bounds of the kinds of coming-of-age narratives that we usually see on-screen, exploring themes such as systemic inequality, poverty, and mental illness. It resists the impulse to shy away from the harsher realities of growing up — not only in terms of growing up in a minority population, but growing up in general. Fortunately,Reservation Dogsisn’t the only television series to tackle the teenage years with honesty, comedy, and grace.
Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)
AlthoughFreaks and Geekswas canceled after just one season, it helped launch the careers ofSeth Rogan,Jason Segal,Judd Apatow,and numerous other Hollywood heavyweights, and has gone on to become a cult classic.
After witnessing her grandmother die, sixteen-year-old mathlete Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) has an existential crisis and starts hanging out with a group of burnouts. Meanwhile, hernerdy younger brother Sam (John Francis Delaney) navigates freshman year with his best friends and fellow geeks, played byMartin StarrandSam Levine.This timeless show offers an unflinching look at trying to find your place in high school and in life.
PEN15 (2019-2021)
Hulu’sPEN15pairs coming-of-age with cringe comedy to depictmiddle school lifewith accuracy and humor. The show features co-creatorsMaya ErskineandAnna Konkleplaying versions of themselves as seventh-graders in the year 2000.
Apart from the obvious humor of watching women in their thirties pretending to be tweens,PEN15scores laughs for capturing the extraordinary awkwardness of prepubescence in wince-worthy detail. The show is full of the many firsts that encapsulate the middle school years — first periods, first dances, first kisses, and more. Apart from these seminal events, It also explores adolescents’ first reckonings that the world is not what they were told it was, with themes such as divorce, class, and racism making for a darker second season.
Derry Girls (2018-Present)
LikeReservation Dogs,Derry Girlsfollows several teenagers growing up against the backdrop of political and cultural trauma. The comedy series was shot on location in Derry, Northern Ireland and takes place during the final years of the Troubles, in the mid-1990s.
RELATED:‘Reservation Dogs’ Is At Its Best When Focusing on the Authentic Representation of Native People
By placing its protagonists in awkward, uncomfortable, and all too relatable situations,Derry Girlsdeftly reveals the universal pains and pleasures of adolescence, even under exceptional circumstances. As withFreaks and GeeksandPEN15,the show also offers a heavy dose ofdecade-specific nostalgia, featuring bands like The Cranberries, The Corrs, Ace of Base, and other ‘90s classics. With a killer soundtrack, fanny packs, and a truly unique premise, it’s no wonder whyDerry Girlsis one of Netflix’s most acclaimed comedy series.
My So-Called Life (1994-1995)
Another seminal series that wascanceled all too soon,My So-Called Lifecenters around teenagerAngela Chase (Claire Danes) and her circle of social misfits at a high school in suburban Pittsburgh.
This cult classic was truly ahead of its time. Unlike most teenage series in the 1990s, which featured episode-specific issues with cloying “lessons” at the end, the show maintained an ambivalence about entering into adulthood. Angela’s best friends, Rayanne Graff (A.J. Langer) and Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cruz) offered a stark contrast to her middle-class existence, with Rayanne battling addiction and Rickie facing homophobia, domestic violence, and homelessness. In its depiction of Angela’s disillusionment, it encapsulated the angst of an era.
The Wonder Years (1988-1993)
Set against the tumult of the late 1960s,The Wonder YearsstarsFred Savageas suburban teen Kevin Arnold. The series is told through the perspective of Kevin as an adult (Daniel Stern), as he reflects on the personal and political events that turned him from a child into a man.
The show begins with the funeral of Kevin’s childhood idol, Brian Cooper, who died in Vietnam. Afterwards, Kevin shares his first kiss with Brian’s younger sister, Winnie (Danica McKellar), sparking a love and friendship that comes to define his life. This contrast between grief and love, trauma and transcendence, is part of what makes the series so remarkable.The Wonder Yearsshows that, even amongst the immovable tides of history, there can be found moments of small wonder.
The Wonder Years (2021-Present)
It’s unusual for a TV reboot to capture the magic of its predecessor, but ABC’sThe Wonder Yearsdoes not fail to disappoint, while adding a nuance and intelligence that is wholly its own. As with the original series,The Wonder Yearsis set in the late 1960s, but provides a different perspective on the decade by trading in the Arnolds of Anytown, USA for the Williamses — a Black, middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama.
The series starsElisha “EJ” Williamsas 12-year-old Dean Williams, with the inimitableDon Cheadleproviding the voiceover for Dean as an adult. WhileThe Wonder Yearsreboot explores experiences that are painfully familiar to anyone who’s endured adolescence, its cultural and historical context, set during the apex of the Civil Rights Movement, makes the narrative all the more meaningful. Much likeReservation Dogs, it is a subversive spin on the classic coming-of-age tale, capturing snapshots of a specific time and place alongside the universal agonies and ecstasies of growing up.
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