Stranger Things, the sci-fi drama from Netflix, has just dropped it’s season 4 trailer. Set in the Eighties and in an era of unresolved bio-science experiments and Cold War-era biowarfare weapons, interest around this series is universal with over a million views on the trailer within 15 hours. In its third season, Stranger Things was watched by over 40 million households within four days of its release with at least 18 million completing the season within this time period. It busted every record on the streamer, prior to the Covid 19 lockdown.
Stranger Things has five friends, and an unusual young girl, developed like a human weapon in laboratory conditions, at the centre of its high strung narrative. The show reminds one of childhood, friendships of college and high school; and has its characters are growing up with us, the viewer, as the series progresses from season to season, bringing familiarity and a feeling of kinship.
Stories about young adults, be it thrillers or drama, have been staple successes for Netflix. The platform is consciously building a repository of stories about growing up across genres, working with established names in writing and direction.
Metal Lords, a film written by DB Weiss (co-showrunner and co-writer of Game of Thrones) is a simple tribute to the interpretation of high school friendships and self-discovery, drawn from Weiss’ personal experience. Weiss teams up with David Benioff, executive producer on the film and on GoT and works with music composer Ramin Djawadi (composer GoT) along with Tom Morello, to deliver a catchy, nostalgic and near-perfect soundtrack of gods of heavy metal. Its final song 'Machinery of Torment', something Weiss wrote himself, has the perfect balance of metal headbanging and amateur angst to recreate the passions and fervour of high school or college contests.
Netflix has held steady with its focus on teenage drama across it’s English and non-English content. One of Us is Lying, adapted from the popular book by Karen M McManus, was amongst their most popular shows across the world for four straight weeks. About four students of different backgrounds and aspirations that are suspected of a classmate’s murder, this high school drama succeeded because its characters face problems that are easy to relate to, for teenagers everywhere (high school scores, getting through best universities, cracking sports qualifiers or finding a good boyfriend). Like Thirteen Reasons Why, a captivating series about a murdered student and the consequences of her death on others, One of us is Lying blends high school drama with a murder mystery. Thankfully the latter is a limited series, meaning that it won’t be stretched beyond breaking point by the platform just to sustain subscription.
In the non-English language space, the K horror drama All of Us Are Dead remained on top of viewership across the world, including India, for over six weeks. A zombie story about students trapped in a high school, it sustained interest across languages. Within three days of it’s release the show clocked 120.4 million viewing hours between 20 to 30 January.
Similarly, Elite, the Spanish drama is a huge success, with it featuring among the most viewed shows across markets. Its first season had over 20 million households viewing it across the world. Elite tells the story of class divide, with students from a lower income group entering a posh private school and then a murder complicating things. The Korean show Twenty Five Twenty One, and Dark, the German series, acquired by the platform, have cult followings too.
Preference for teenage stories cuts across genres. Sex Education, showrunner Laurie Nunn’s relatively inexpensive British comedy about a high school student turning sex educator for his classmates, and his inspired sex therapist mum, had over 50 million households watching its third season. While Netflix often stops renewing shows after 3 seasons as it doesn’t draw in new subscribers, this show now has a fourth season because its popularity cuts across age groups and gender.
American high school life or British high school life is not exactly representative of education across other countries. For that matter, each country has its own school and college education system. Yet these stories have loyal viewership and steady success. This can be attributed to the universal nature of their characters and experiences. Cutting across national and linguistic boundaries teenagers and young adults worldwide share similar aspirations, ambitions and problems. Be it the best phone or tablet to own, the most prestigious B school or university to get into, youth connect over these issues. Navigating relationships and dealing with parents, most importantly, dealing with peer pressure on social media determines one’s public behaviour and personal choices. Most of these shows, including the ones set in a nostalgic era like Dark and Stranger Things, incorporate these issues in the narrative. The element of friendship and bonding elevates interest in their stories for those over the age group of 30 because one’s most valued experiences are often found in college life and high school memories.
Besides Netflix, Hotstar has Euphoria and Prime Video has Glee as high school experiential dramas. But the platform that has been dealing with challenging growth figures in India might have found its formula to sustain interest with its focus on teenage and growing up tales.
Archita Kashyap is an experienced journalist and writer on film, music, and pop culture. She has handled entertainment content for broadcast news and digital platforms over 15 years.
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