Ypulse Guest Post: Three Teen TV Premieres

Today's Ypulse Guest Post is from teen TV junkie and former Ypulse contributing editor Jennifer Waits. If you work in youth media or marketing and have an idea for a Ypulse Guest Post, just email me with your idea.

Teen TV Premieres: 'High School Confidential,' 'America's Prom Queen' and 'Greek'

Even though I've been mostly writing about music these days, I'm still obsessed with teen and young adult-themed TV. Last week I watched the premiere episode of "High School Confidential" (episode 2 airs tonight at 10pm on WE), an amazing and at times chilling documentary series following girls as they progress through high school in Kansas. It was filmed a few years back, so the episodes are able to look back on the high school careers of 12 different girls from freshman year through graduation. In the first episode we see the stories of two of the girls and watch interviews with them from each year. Their transformations are striking. Now that I have a daughter it freaks me out a bit to see wide-eyed, innocent-seeming 14-year-olds change into more jaded teens as they deal with boys, alcohol, drugs, family strife, and academic pressure. Yet, the very real drama (vs. the more constructed drama on new-fangled "reality" shows) of the teen years shown on "High School Confidential" made for compelling viewing. I was rooting for the girls and, at least in the first episode, wasn't disappointed by the outcome.

If the real reality of high school is too intense for you, there's also some lighter TV fare on the horizon with the new reality show "America's Prom Queen" premiering tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC Family. Girls live in a mansion and complete prom-themed challenges and are judged by reality show vets from "Queer Eye" (Jai), "Road Rules" (Theo), and "Hogan Knows Best" (Brooke), as well as the editor of CosmoGIRL! Next week (March 24th at 8pm on ABC Family) one of my guilty-pleasure faves "Greek" returns with season 2. "Greek" is a dramedy about a pair of siblings at college who are both navigating relationships and the Greek system. The series began with beautiful sorority-gal Casey's (played by Kelsey Grammer's daughter Spencer) embarrassment when her geeky freshman brother Rusty arrives on campus. Yet the series really evolved as Rusty became just as involved in the Greek system as his sister. Comic gems on the series include the antics of bitchy, backstabbing sorority girls and any scene involving Rusty's roommate Dale (played by Clark Duke who did the web series "Clark and Michael" with pal Michael Cera of Juno/Arrested Development/Superbad fame), an engineering geek/conservative Christian with a signed "purity pledge" card. The DVD of season one is being released tomorrow in case you need to catch up on episodes before the new season.

Jennifer Waits writes the blog Spinning Indie, where she covers college radio culture and independent music. She was formerly a music writer and editor, and a consumer researcher in the youth space. She's always loved teen pop culture, with a special fondness for television shows like "21 Jump Street," "Degrassi," and the hilarious "Grosse Point" which mocked "90210's" behind the scenes antics.

Categorized under: TV

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