Riverdale. On My Block. The Flash. Game of Thrones. You. Queer Eye. Big Mouth. Stranger Things. Sex Education. The Bachelor. Orange is the New Black. Keeping up with the Kardashians. The Good Place. Arrow. Grey’s Anatomy. The Office. South Park. This Is Us. The Vampire Diaries. The Umbrella Academy. Family Guy. Modern Family. Parks and Recreation.
A wide variety, these are all titles that most likely strike you as familiar and beloved, or at least well-known TV shows, whose names have been either thrown around in conversations for years or recently brought up with new season releases. Certainly, members of the KO community have analyzed and conversed about each one’s plotlines, characters, actors and actresses, directors, scripts, themes, great scenes, flaws, and other aspects. Perhaps at KO the most talked about series are Riverdale, On My Block, The Bachelor, The Office, and Game of Thrones, whose final series premiered on Sunday, April 14. Junior Niko Rodriguez, an avid fan of Game of Thrones, said he really loved watching the show and claimed it to be the best of all time.
Juniors Juanita Asapokhai and Ishaa Sohail have both said they have become devoted followers of the popular new dramedy On My Block on Netflix, which centers around a group of young teenagers in a poorer LA neighborhood where gangs, violence, drugs, alcohol, and hardship are plenty while safety and comfort are not. The show also deals with racism, shootings, heartbreak, family, love, sex, friendship, money, and more, which Juanita cites as contributing factors to the show’s appeal. “On My Block is the best show ever! I like that the show features characters of color who are not just there for diversity points and have actual character development – they are the main focus,” she explained. “I also like how the actors actually characterize teens, unlike in Riverdale where twenty-something-year-olds are supposed to portray teens yet somehow deal with critical and life-changing issues the way mature adults would,” Juanita said. Although she said she really dislikes Riverdale, she still watches it because she thinks it’s so bad it’s funny. However, many other students have said they actually enjoyed watching Riverdale because of the drama, captivating plotlines, and strange mysteries that occur in the small town.
Junior Anusha Memon said she liked watching dramatic shows but preferred getting her drama fix through reality TV. “The Bachelor is my favorite show because of all the drama that happens, and it is entertaining to get to see different people’s raw emotions and experiences,” she said. The Bachelor is a show about a single man who simultaneously dates multiple women over several weeks, narrowing them down in hopes of finding his one true love and marrying her. The Bachelorette is similar, except it is about a single woman dating multiple men.
Freshman Patrick Schwab, however, said he personally disliked all shows focused on drama and instead enjoyed shows centered around superheroes or comedies like longtime favorite The Office. “I think The Office is the perfect mix of relatability and comedy with just the slightest touch of drama, which I don’t mind,” he said. “It all comes together to make a really enjoyable show. I also like watching the superhero shows Daredevil and Punisher, which both are about comic book characters and contain well-filmed action sequences.” Furthermore, Pat explained that he liked all three shows because they each have complex characters and intricate stories, which have plenty of time to flesh out over multiple seasons instead of having to be squished into two hours for a film.
On the other hand, junior Jaden Dimauro, citing his limited amount of time, said he tends to stay away from TV shows altogether and prefers watching movies whenever he gets the chance. His favorite one? The Godfather. “There’s really no way to explain how amazing the movie is. With great screenwriting, great acting, and great editing, it’s pretty much just awesome all around,” he said. Hence, there seem to be few people on campus with mild opinions of TV shows; rather, most choose specific favorites they vow to watch, love, and defend when debating what constitutes an interesting, well-developed, and enjoyable series (or movie).
