Response to Stereotypical Teenage Soaps

This is the British teenage drama 'Skins'.
Wikipedia: Skins is a British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of sixth form. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness(including eating disorders), sexual orientation identity, substance abuse and death.
In this drama they depict the 'reality' of teenagers specifically in the sixth form years in Bristol. The use of alcoholic and drug substances is excessive. This suits the storyline and the mise en scene very well as the plot is about the abuse of these substances and the effects of this. It also has a lot to do with problems in life, this makes the drama very dramatic and almost always negative. This is always characteristic in British dramas and especially teenage dramas.


This is the American teen drama '90210'. 

Wikipedia: 90210 is a teen drama which revolves around several students at the fictional West Beverly Hills High, including new Beverly Hills residents Annie Wilson and Dixon Wilson. Their father, Harry Wilson, has returned from Kansas to his Beverly Hills childhood home with his family to care for his mother, former television and theater actress Tabitha Wilson, who has a drinking problem and clashes with his wife Debbie. Annie and Dixon struggle to adjust to their new lives while making friends and yet adhering to their parents' wishes.
In this drama they are showing students that live in and around the familiar zip code, or post code to us, in Beverly Hills.  













For my soap I didn't want to keep to the image of stereotypical teenage 'urban social realism' theme. I find this theme strange and sort of untrue in the London communities. Therefore I steered away from this type of idea.