The untold stories of seven revolutionary teen shows – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, My So-Called Life, Dawson's Creek, Freaks and Geeks, The O.C., Friday Night Lights, and Glee – that shaped the course of modern television and our pop cultural landscape.
Thea Glassman proves a sharp observer of the era ... She also proves a gush-prone fan, and these two qualities — critical observation and gee-whiz fervor — don’t always get along ... The tone of the book often veers into breathless excitement, which is fine when it doesn’t stand in for smart analysis ... This is frustrating largely because Glassman can also be an astute observer of her subject ... What’s missing is intertextual analysis, or any kind of sustained, unifying argument that might have made the book more than a collection of features on some memorable series.
The success of the book is Glassman’s decision to focus on the creators and writers, rather than the cast. Even readers unfamiliar with these shows will likely find the book so engaging and well-written that they’ll want to binge-watch many of the series as soon as they put down the book.
A fun, nostalgic look at how classic teen TV shows have influenced modern television ... While some chapters don’t delve as deep as others... Glassman offers enough tantalizing, behind-the-scenes scoop to keep readers hooked, peeling back the curtain on writers’ processes, casting decisions, and on-set gossip.
