Since the debut of Beverley Hills, 90210 in the 1990s, the teen drama has been a prominent genre on TV screens around the world. Shows like One Tree Hill, The OC, Skins and Sugar Rush have become extremely successful through their ability to relate to teenagers.
Lately, however, their success has been waning. Skins and Gossip Girl were both cancelled in 2012 after six seasons, and 90210, a revival of the series that spawned the genre in the 1990s, has seen falling ratings and poor reception in its latest season. This might seem natural though. The shows are long-running and with the move of setting to university, are perhaps less relevant to teen audiences.
However, The Carrie Diaries, which only began in January, is already in trouble. With love triangles, a melodramatic high school and attractive leads, The Carrie Diaries, has everything that has made teen dramas successful. It has even tried to emulate the quirkiness of a 1980s setting. But the show is a failure. Its ratings are poor and critical reception has been negative.
Why is the show failing to succeed like previous shows? It seems to critics that The Carrie Diaries is simply boring. Its storylines have already been acted out in a dozen different shows, and the series is riddled with clichés. It would seem that high school is no longer enough. Offshoots from the typical teen drama scenario have stolen the dynamism and innovation that marked the earlier shows.
For example, The Vampire Diaries uses school as a background for the supernaturally charged existence of its characters. Likewise, Pretty Little Liars, another hugely successful teen show, only uses high school as a backdrop for the show’s intriguing central mystery.
The Carrie Diaries is less than ten episodes into its first season, but it already feels stale. We can guess where every relationship and every storyline is heading, and where’s the fun in that? When you could have vampires stalking the hallways or hunting a murderer in between classes, it isn’t hard to see why a brand new, normal teen drama is already a failure. Why watch the diary of a girl when you could watch the diary of a vampire?
Second paragraph incorrect, Skins is returning in April/May.
It’s not wrong, just fails to mention that it was commissioned for three standalone episodes, so it has been cancelled, just has a few more episodes to air before coming to a close.