I’d say that Inbetweeners is probably the closest. Skins was the most entertaining but not accurate, young people are much more boring than the characters in Skins were.

Although a movie, Kidulthood had some aspects (the feral atmosphere at times) that were probably relevant to the lives of young people in inner cities.

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  3. The generational differences from even 10 years ago is huge. I don’t know that there is a popular mainstream TV show that accurately captures what teenage life is actually like these days. There is very heavy electronic device usage which doesn’t translate well to being entertaining.

  5. Recently I thought that Heartstopper had a very realistic view of what people do for fun 15/16.

    Go up the bowling alley to play on the arcade machines. Get picked up by your mum.

  7. Waterloo Road was a good example of this.

    It always portrayed badly behaved high school kids but also accurately what was going on behind the scenes at home

  9. Skins probably depicted me and me mates teenage years the best. There was a fuck ton of taking and selling drugs, shagging, teeving, parties and prison. But I’m 40 odd now so I guess that’s not exactly relevant to teenagers these days. I hope to fuck they still do that shit but I dunno, doesn’t seem that way to me.

  11. In some aspects, The Outlaws – a character with immigrant overbearing parents forcing their child to follow their exact chosen path of education and career, another who is intelligent and kind being brought up in relative poverty with no real parenting and having to raise a younger sibling sacrificing their own dreams to let the sibling have a chance, a spoilt character who is messed up because they’re now realising money doesn’t actually replace a loving upbringing, another doing illegal activity to support his large family including those with disabilities…

  14. Inbetweeners and Skins were the two most accurate when I was growing up.

    We’d have drug sex and drink filled empties at the weekend before returning to school on the Monday and immediately revert to being awkward and goofy.

  16. If you stripped it back then 2 pints of lager was a very accurate depiction of life in a north western town for young people, where life didn’t offer much in the way of opportunities so you lived for simple pleasures, mainly alcohol and shagging.

  18. A cross between skins and inbetweeners imo – obviously both exaggerated for the most part but captured the gist of it somewhere in the middle…

  19. A new series called Big Boys, it’s very good and with a modern twist since it’s about LGBT characters

  20. For mr Skins was a bit more accurate. There was a weird time in the early to mid noughties when (in Brighton at least) pubs, clubs and off licenses were allowed to stay open 24 hours and also hardly any places ever checked ID. Ecstasy was often cheaper than a pint, so poor sixth form college students would go out on a week night, take pills, get home at 5am and then go to college in the morning. I realised when I went to University and met people from other parts of the country that I had had a totally different college experience to other people who were only just discovering alcohol, drugs and clubs.

  25. Inbetweeners, was in sixth form during its late run and it was a rather accurate depiction of a lot of the lads I knew. Heartstopper more recently as someone else here pointed out- I would have loved that show as a young queer person.

  26. Honestly, the reason why the inbetweeners has such a cult following was because it was pretty much bang on the money.

    It captures the essence of those hideously awkward, ugly angsty teenage years. Summing up middle class life in a stifling suburban commuter town.

  29. If you get rid of all the spooky supernatural stuff then Stranger Things isn’t a bad representation of what kids did back in the 80s. Dungeons and Dragons, arcades, riding around on bikes, roaming the countryside, playing in scrap yards/building sites (basically places you shouldn’t), trying to find ways of communicating with each other when we were at home as CBs were cool, etc is pretty much what we did. Didn’t fight any inter dimensional monsters though.

  30. Inbetweeners was great. I loved how unlike every other show about 16-18 year olds and especially the US ones, the parties were shit in a small semi detached house with no one with any booze and a few people sat about bored whilst someone panicked there might be a spill or breakage. The one with the parents in the bedroom upstairs happened on a couple of crap parties I went to when 17.

  33. I think most people wanted their lives to be like Skins but in reality more often than not your teen experience was like The Inbetweeners…

    Slightly off topic but always think that Still Game is an accurate representation of Scottish life (especially low/working class Glaswegians), Two Doors Down & Scot Squad are all painfully realistic and accurate for me..

  34. For me, Normal People was spot on with its depiction of the pains of my early 20s. It showed some of the highlights of university life, but was fantastic in its portrayal of the slower, more mundane elements too.

  35. This Country. Grew up in a small town in the south west and was shockingly similar. Also just an amazing show.

  38. Bit of an oldie but for me it would be Grange Hill back in the mid-late 80s (when I was secondary school age). Yes it did have stuff like the Zammo OD which was a bit far fetched (that said I remember a kid in my year developed a drinking problem in the 4-5th year).

  39. Skins wasn’t that inaccurate.

    I hear people say this a lot but I don’t think it’s true. I was in sixth form when the third season came out and that is basically what it was like. A lot of drugs and a lot of sex and seemingly not a lot else going on

  42. Skins was what my mum seemed to think my life was like as a teenager but Inbetweeners is what it felt like to me. We drank and smoked plenty but largely our lives consisted of listening to music, going to house parties of people who at school we never spoke to so sitting awkwardly in groups sharing a bottle of apple sourz or lambrini and trying (and more often than not failing) to get laid.

  44. I was a teenager when The Inbetweeners and Skins came out; they’re probably best summarised by saying that Skins was how you wished your life was, but The Inbetweeners was reality.

    I lived in the same city at the same time where Skins was set (Bristol) and absolutely no one I knew was living like that! Some friends were extras in Skins though.

    I was a student at Manchester around the time Fresh Meat came out and while it frequently rang true some elements of it were hugely exaggerated for comedic effect (the dentistry student who drilled through someone’s face?!)

    Heartstopper is more current and absolutely adorable, and a fairly accurate description of teenage life in its innocent holding hands under the table and getting picked up by dad from the disco sort of depiction.

  48. Even though this may be a controversial pick, since it’s set in early 90’s, My Mad Fat Diary completely captured my late 2010’s college experience as a music student for me (also being a larger girl)

  49. This Life. Showing my age here. As someome who was a bit younger than the cast yet it still felt very relevant. Solid first series but the second was rubbish. Quite liked the special though.

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