Will today's teens ever have a show like Dawson's Creek showcasing real teen problems?

TV Guide

"A quick look around at the teen-centered shows of the last decade or so reveals that although there is more programming than ever before, there are very few shows simply about the trials of young adulthood," says Kaitlin Thomas. "And when there is programming aimed at young audiences, many of those shows rely on gimmicks and hooks to tell their stories. The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Teen Wolf, Shadowhunters, Marvel's Runaways, even Riverdale — they all have or had some sort of hook meant to separate them from the glut of programming available. Though these (often supernatural) hooks are flashy and fun, they often leave little time for the honest approach to storytelling that many of us who grew up on The WB experienced (Buffy was certainly not limited by its genre, so it's not to say this is necessarily always true or always harmful)."