8 Shows That Aren't Completely Out of Touch With High-School Life Today

If you think Friday Night Lights is just a show about football, well, you couldn't be more wrong. In fact, you don't even need to be a sports fan to be completely captivated by this TV drama. The 2006 series is set in Dillon, a small town in rural Texas, where social order revolves around a high-school football team, whether you're an athlete or not.

Friday Night Lights explores issues of race, class, and identity through an uncensored lens, as well as the intense stress that is put on football coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and the players on his team. The future of these students is in the hands of a game — one good play can land an athlete a college scholarship, while an injury could destroy their future.

This comedic drama (or is it a dramatic comedy?) lives up to its name, showing us just how #awkward high school can really be. The series begins with Jenna Hamilton falling into a bathtub and breaking her arm, which spirals into a school-wide rumor that she tried to commit suicide. The show is filled with accidental nudes, elaborate misunderstandings, and mortifying coming-of-age experiences, and it serves these moments raw. Get ready for some secondhand embarrassment, because you'll be watching this show with your eyes half closed.

Just because this teen show veers on the soapy side doesn't mean it isn't authentic. Degrassi: The Next Generation is used as a springboard to discuss tough problems like rape, domestic abuse, school shootings, and self-harm. Because there are so many characters on this show, you'll be hard-pressed to find a teenager that doesn't slightly remind you of your high-school self. And the best part about this show (besides watching a mini Drake on the small screen), is that the cast looks and acts exactly like real teenagers.

13 Reasons Why shocked and enthralled viewers with its graphic display of the darker side of high school. The Netflix series tells the story of Hannah Baker, a deceased 17-year-old who sends around a box of cassette tapes that explain her reasons for taking her own life. Rather than avoiding scary teen topics, this show unflinchingly portrays an entire matrix of high school problems including rape, suicide, and bullying. While the second and third seasons are pretty messy, the initial season, based on Jay Asher's book, really struck a chord.

When you strip away the drama, Skins (the British version, duh) gives us an unfiltered look into the lives of young teens living in Bristol, UK. Skins portrays the good, the bad, and the ugly: exhilarating partying, rebellion, and falling in love, but also broken homes, eating disorders, drug abuse, and death. There's never a dull moment on this show, and the cast rotates every two seasons, keeping the series fresh and exciting.

OK, this one is a stretch — but hear us out. Ryan Murphy's iconic musical is set in a small Midwestern city and follows an unpopular, but musically talented, group of misfits who are forced together when they sign up for their high school glee club. Glee gives us a more realistic taste of a normal high-school student body by incorporating disabled students, LGBTQ+ kids, and many students of color. Although the series has a touch of TV magic (I mean, how many Broadway-worthy singers can really exist in the same high school?), it does accurately capture the behavior and everyday problems of regular teens.

This parody of true crime documentaries revolves around a disturbing mystery: who drew the dicks on the cars in the parking lot of Hanover High School? Although everyone assumes that the culprit is the class clown Dylan, no one can be ruled out as a suspect in the investigation. This mockumentary-style drama will have you wondering who committed this act of phallic vandalism as seriously as if it were murder. American Vandal works because the social interactions between students are 100-percent high school — even the prank that the show revolves around captures normal teenage immaturity.

If you are looking for a show that reflects the true grittiness of teenage life in the age of social media, Euphoria is definitely the one for you. This cutting-edge HBO hit show highlights the traumatic aspects of adolescence, sexuality, and relationships by exploring topics such as abortion, toxic relationships, death of parents, and severe drug addiction. Everything about this show is grounded in realness, down to the way the characters use "like" and "um" in the middle of their sentences.