Nearly 20% Of People Agree That This Is The Best Teen TV Drama
Ah, teen dramas: There's just something so comforting about them, whether you're 15 or 35. Knowing you'll never get into the antics of the characters on shows like Gossip Girl or Riverdale can make your life seem boring — but safe — in comparison, which can be a good thing. No one wants to be mauled by a bear or have their relationship status posted on a gossip website! But when it comes to teen shows, which one rules them all, fan-wise?
In a Nicki Swift survey of 627 U.S.-based respondents, almost 20% of people agreed on their favorite teen drama. And, no, it wasn't Riverdale! Thanks to its long-standing streaming history, previously on Netflix and now on HBO Max, there's another teen drama that continues to delight legions of fans, even though the series finale aired in 2017. Keep reading to find out which show 19.3% of poll respondents agreed is their "favorite teen TV drama."
Pretty Little Liars was controversial but popular. Did it rank the highest?
Despite the fact that Pretty Little Liars featured a teacher-student relationship and an arguably transphobic twist, as per Vox, it was incredibly popular both on Netflix and during its original run, due to its myriad of endless mysteries and close friendships between the main characters. So it's no surprise that so many Nicki Swift poll respondents loved the show, too, with 19.3% of the vote.
Other popular teen series in the poll were Riverdale, with 17.07% of the vote, and 13 Reasons Why (another controversial series) with 16.91%. And 18.66% of respondents chose "other," writing in answers like Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, Saved by the Bell, and "Sabrina." (We're guessing they meant Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and not Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but who's to say?) Other series, like Euphoria, Love, Victor, Sex Education, and Derry Girls, also received scores of votes, but none that matched the popularity of the top three.
PLL's legacy will always be mired in controversy — Ezra and Aria's student-teacher relationship, age gap, and power dynamics is never okay — but it's still one of the most popular teen series ever to hit the small screen, for better or for worse.