Girly Dramas All The Same?

If you ask a teenage girl with Netflix what her favorite shows are she is more than likely going to mention at least one of these 3 shows: Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, or 90210. I am guilty of watching every season of all of these shows. But, why? Every show has the same story lines. In Gossip Girl one of the main characters, Dan Humphrey (Lonely Boy) ends up writing a novel about his life using code names. This starts up one of the main issues in one of the later seasons. Similarly in One Tree Hill, Lucas Scott writes a novel about his life using alias names. Although his story is more revolved around his love life, it has the same idea. And again in 90210, the main character, Annie Wilson, writes a novel about her life using alias names and all of her friends are exposed for things they've done to Annie and it ruins a lot of friendships.




This is just one story line similarity. There are so many others. Things like fashion careers, singing careers, certain love triangles, and social status competitions are all reoccurring themes in these shows.

You can also see how characters overlap. Blaire from Gossip Girl is Brooke from One Tree Hill. Naomi from 90210 is Serena from Gossip Girl. Lucas from One Tree Hill is Dan from Gossip Girl. It makes you wonder what makes us continue to watch these shows. Do we love them because they are predictable? Do we love them because we love the story line. Or are they just so simple that we don't really have to think about what is going on and we can just relax and enjoy the drama? T.V Show creators are going to continue to make shows with these same story lines as long as we are still watching them and making them money. So why would they try to think of something unique when they already know a plot that will guarantee them money?