The friends who ignore us, the studies that we are terrible at, that first period that comes precisely at the worst moment, the song that seems to save us over and over again from ‘sinking’, the parents who do not understand us, the work that will come (or not) in the future, the social classes…
It is clear that living the life of a fictional teenager is much more fun than facing our own problems, and they live situations with which, as we have lived, we identify a lot. Exaggerations, suspense, secrets…
In an exercise in nostalgia, we have made a list of the best teen series of all, foreign and Spanish, those to which we return again and again and with which we grew up and learned a lot about who we are. To revisit them there is always time (and links); they all have good things…
‘Sensation of living’ (1990-2000)
producer
The Walsh brothers, Brandon and Brenda (Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty), arrive with their parents from Minnesota to Beverly Hills, where they enroll at West Beverly Hills High School, whose students are mostly rich and handsome. But that doesn’t deprive them of the many problems that the most famous teen series in history addressed: drugs, alcoholism, rape, domestic violence, racism, suicide, pregnancy… We follow them for ten seasons, from high school until they enter in college, time when they were all in love with each other. And we, particularly, of Dylan McKay (Luke Perry).
‘Gossip Girl’ (2007-2012)
Producer WBITV
Gossip Girl premiered in September 2007 and ended in December 2012, after six seasons and 121 episodes narrating the lives of a group of teenagers on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York, through the gossip of the author (or author) from a popular internet blog, Gossip Girl. The series offered a new point of view of this group of posh, very ‘the rich cry too’, creating two legendary characters as Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester).
VER SERIES AND NETFLIX
‘The problems grow’ (1985-1992)
producer
This hilarious ’80s sitcom starred the Seaver family, led by Jason, the father, who worked from home as a psychiatrist (Alain Thicke) and his wife, Maggie (Joanna Kerns), who was returning to her job as a reporter after fifteen years. years caring for children. They had three children: Mike (Kirk Cameron), the most rebellious and bad student; Carol (Tracey Gold), a very responsible, studious and intelligent girl and Ben (Jeremy Miller), who also seems to be a bit scattered. In the penultimate season, Luke, a young student of Mike’s, came to live with the family – the eldest son would end up at the university teaching kids with problems – abandoned by his father, who was given life by Leonardo DiCaprio in the role that made him reach fame.
‘Blue Summer’ (1981)
HEARST
If, despite the fact that ‘Blue Summer’ is the series with the most reruns in television history (at least 14), you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry; in the RTVE file you have it in its entirety. And we will be able to dream of those summers of the late 70s-early 80s in which the older ones smoked at parties in front of the children, when there were no restraint systems for the little ones, the children were hit without hesitation or in which He rode a bike happily without any protection. The 19-episode series directed by Antonio Mercero tells the story of a gang of kids who spend the summer in Nerja (Málaga), where they meet Pancho, a boy from the town who delivers milk; Julia, a painter, and ‘Chanquete’, an old fisherman. It first aired in the winter of 1981-82.
WATCH SERIES ON FLIXOLÉ
‘The Wonder Years’ (1988-1993)
producer
On Thursdays, starting at 10 at night, on the second chain of Spanish Television, ‘With a Little Friends from My Friends’ began to play, the song by the Beatles but in the impressive version of Joe Cocker for the opening of ‘ Those wonderful years’, a series that aired between 1988 and 1993 set in the United States of the late 60s and early 70s. In it, we were told the story of little Kevin (Fred Savage, whom many of us remembered as the child from ‘The Princess Bride’) and his two best friends, Winnie (Danica McKellar) and Paul (Josh Saviano), narrated by the older Kevin, in the style of ‘Tell me how it happened’. A beautiful series in which the importance of family and friendship was valued.
’13 Reasons Why’ (2017-2020)
DAVID MOIR/NETFLIX
This series has lasted four seasons, which began as a true phenomenon among young people by unequivocally addressing the issue of ‘bullying’ in high school and its worst consequences, suicide. But not only did he stay there, but he also talked about bullying, school failure, rape… It is necessary to see it even if it is only the first season, because it is true that from then on it lost a bit of steam. Katharine Langford became known in those first episodes in her role as Hannah and her ‘partner’ was Dylan Minette, who played Clay Jensen.
VER SERIES AND NETFLIX
‘Gilmore Girls’ (2000-2007)
PRODUCER
Thirty-something mother has to take care of an exceptionally intelligent teenager alone, and she does it leaving the occasional unforgettable conversation over coffee at her kitchen table. We wouldn’t get tired of seeing the talks between Lorelei Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel), in this series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino that took place in a quiet Connecticut town called Stars Hollow. When the ten years of the end of the series were celebrated, in 2017, the cast made a kind of ‘reboot’ called ‘The Four Seasons of Gilmore Girls’, an exercise in nostalgia for fans of the original project.
VER SERIES AND NETFLIX
‘Physics or Chemistry’ (2008-2011)
Ana Ruiz _ HF
A whole generation of Spanish actors left the classrooms of the Zurbarán School, where we delve into the lives of teenagers and their teachers for seven seasons and what are the issues of the moment in life: homophobia, drugs, ‘bullying’, alcohol, racism , pregnancies, families with problems… In the cast of kids, names like Angy Fernández, Úrsula Corberó, Andrea Duro, Javier Calvo, Maxi Iglesias, Adam Jezierski, while as teachers we saw Ana Milan, Blanca Romero, Cecilia Freire, Nuria González, Fele MartÃnez, Olivia Molina, Fernando Andina, Marc Clotet… A true ‘dream team’ of cinema and national television.
WATCH SERIES ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
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‘The O.C.’ (2003-2007)
D.R.
‘The OC’ told us about the more or less calm and idyllic life of some young people in Orange County, California (United States). It was created by screenwriter Josh Schwartz, who years after ‘The OC’ was one of the thinking minds of ‘Gossip Girl’ and who has also been the author, among other series, of ‘Runaways’ or the revival of ‘Dynasty’ . The series began by introducing us to the troublesome Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), a young man who is arrested one night for accompanying his brother in a carjacking. With his problematic situation, he ends up being adopted by the Cohen family, who have a son, Seth (Adam Brody), with whom he becomes a great friend. And then the girls show up: Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), the girl next door,
‘Dawson’s Creek’ (1998-2003)
D.R.
On January 20, 1998, The WB network, which offered content aimed at young and adolescent audiences, premiered ‘Dawson’s Creek’, a series about Dawson Leery, a dreamy boy whose greatest aspiration was to become a film director. The four main characters in the cast became, over time, Hollywood stars: James Van Der Beek (Dawson), Michelle Williams (Jen), Joshua Jackson (Pacey) and, of course, Katie Holmes, who gave life to the shy Joey. In Spain we were able to see the series openly on Canal + and it raised various issues related to adolescence, youth and maturity, such as homosexuality, abortion, sex, friendship and, of course, love.
WATCH SERIES ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
‘Sex Education’ (2019-)
Netflix
We never get tired of recommending what is one of the best series on Netflix –and the most unfairly treated in the races for the Emmys and even the Golden Globes–, Sex Education. Let’s see if it is better treated in the third season. Asa Butterfield plays Otis, a teenager who is the son of a sex therapist and who seems to have inherited from her her ability to diagnose and advise people with problems of this nature. A rebellious girl in his class, Maeve (Emma Mackey) will be his sidekick in this kind of clandestine ‘clinic’ that involves all the schoolmates, a wonderful string of characters ranging from Otis’s best friend, Eric, (Ncuti Gatwa) to the director’s son, Adam (Connor Swindells), through the protagonist’s mother who is played by a Gillian Anderson on a roll.
VER SERIES AND NETFLIX
‘Second Teaching’ (1986)
producer
Moving away from the myths of the Movida and focusing on the real Spanish youth of the time, Pedro Masó directed the pioneering high school series on our television, which only lasted one season of thirteen episodes but is still remembered and marked style in similar projects. The script was the work of the actress Ana Diosdado, who was also the protagonist, Pilar, a high school teacher who taught history and who is forced to leave Madrid to settle in Oviedo together with her daughter Elvira (Cristina Marsillach). Pilar will have to face the school director, Jandro (Juan Diego) on numerous occasions as well as accompany the problems and concerns of all the kids at the institute, who are quite conflictive. In the young cast, great actors of the years to come: Maribel Verdú, Jorge Sanz, Amparo Larrañaga,
WATCH SERIES ON RTVE.ES
‘Riverdale’
producer
It is a mystery series inspired by the classic American ‘Archie’ comics, which began to be published in 1938. It starts by narrating the story of some teenagers from a high school in the town of Riverdale, in ‘shock’ after the murder of a co-worker. The second season begins after Archie’s father, the protagonist, is killed in Pop’s, the ‘diners’ where the whole gang meets. Archie begins to experience distrust towards all his colleagues and the atmosphere becomes more turbo. He has all the American platitudes. Either they love each other or they hate each other, but in ‘Riverdale’ not one is missing: students with team jackets, parties with punch fountains, coffee and cherry pie in the town’s diner, love triangles… SEE SERIES ON MOVISTAR+
‘Glee’
producer
Ryan Murphy is the creator of this series that takes place in the McKinley institute and that starts when Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) returns to the school to take charge of the Glee choir club, to which he belonged as a teenager. The idea is that he recovers his old glory, but now it is very complicated because all the kids who are inside have important problems. Among them is Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), who dreams of being a huge diva; Kurt (Chris Colfer), a homosexual who is passionate about fashion; Mercedes (Amber Riley), a somewhat chubby girl; Tina (Jenna Uushkowitz), a stuttering goth chick… Between over-the-top musical numbers and off-the-wall humor, Glee taught students at McKinley High and beyond how to deal with relationships, death, family problems, and big dreams.
VER SERIES AND NETFLIX
WATCH SERIES ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
‘On the way out of class’ (1997-2002)
producer
It is one of the oldest and most successful teen series in Spain, which in eleven seasons exceeded a thousand episodes. The intention was to replicate the American series of the 1980s and 1990s such as ‘Sensation of living’, albeit in the Spanish style, but the result was not as elaborate as the original and in the end it was full of frivolity, nonsense and minutiae. Of course, the cast was also historic, with Elsa Pataky, Pilar López de Ayala, Diana Palazón and Alejo Sauras, among many others.
WATCH SERIES ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
‘Instituto MacKinley’ (1999-2000)
IMDb
It only lasted one season and 18 episodes but between what it counted and the cast (a true nest of stars today) it has become a cult series. Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, James Franco, Seth Rogen… starred in this series that narrated the lives of two groups of students, some freaks and others who love technology (its title in English is ‘Freaks and Geeks’), in the course 1980-81. Sensitive, full of humor and with an exceptional vision of adolescence, it is very authentic despite the fact that some of the characters are a bit forced. Do not miss it because it has been very influential after the fact in other series of adolescents.
WATCH SERIES ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
‘Buffy cazavampiros’ (1997-2003)
PRODUCER
Sarah Michelle Gellar became world famous playing Buffy Summers in this series that premiered in March 1997 and lasted until 2003 with a total of 145 episodes. There were seven unrepeatable seasons that later gave rise to a spin-off, ‘Angel’, starring David Boreanaz, but it was not as successful. Gellar gave life to ‘The huntress’, a young woman chosen to save us all from the vampires and demons that appeared at night and threatened the planet. She moves to Sunnydale, a small town where the gate to hell is supposed to be. There she will not be alone, but will be helped by her friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and her mentor Rupert (Anthony Stewart Head).
