82 Teen Drama TV and Streaming Series by Tomatometer
Updated April 20, 2020
Teen dramas, like the very audience they’re reaching, have always had an uphill climb to be taken seriously. They are beloved, but do critics actually think they’re any good? While Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars are often cited as series that impacted critics’ formative years and have high Tomatometer ratings, others are dismissed as nothing but guilty pleasures.
Then along come titles like Freeform’s Cruel Summer, which is Fresh at 90% on the Tomatometer; Shadow and Bone, which is Fresh at 87% and comes from streamer Netflix; and The CW’s hit Riverdale.
Rotten Tomatoes has gathered the scores of these and many others in the genre to determine which show wins the title of best-reviewed teen drama. Where the Tomatometer scores are tied, we’ve listed those with the higher number of reviews higher on the list to reflect that more critics weighed in, and then alphabetically for those that have the same score and the same number of reviews. There are several series listed with a 100% Tomatometer score, for example, but Recovery Road has only six reviews for its first, and only, season and is therefore ranked at the bottom of that section.
A number of teen dramas like Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson’s Creek, The Wonder Years, and The Vampire Diaries/Originals spin-off Legacies currently do not have enough Tomatometer-eligible reviews across their seasons to receive a series-level score. We will update this list if and when such titles receive a score.
Disagree with the results? Tell us in the comments which series you think should have been ranked higher (or lower).
#82
Synopsis: Wiley Day (played by Disney darling Jennette McCurdy, star of "iCarly" and "Sam & Cat") has plans. The pregnant teen,
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#81
Synopsis: Monster hunters Fred and Deloris Allen tangle with evil -- and family drama with their teenage twins; based on the
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#80
Synopsis: Newcomer Katherine Langford plays the role of Hannah, a young woman who takes her own life. Two weeks after her
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#79
Synopsis: When Holden wakes up from a coma that lasted 12 years, the young man discovers that he has new abilities,
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#78
Synopsis: Jane Quimby is a high-school fashionista who works as an assistant to high-powered fashion executive Gray Chandler Murray. Jane's problem
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#76
Synopsis: After her mother dies in a fire, Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson) goes to live with her grandmother in Chance Harbor,
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#75
Synopsis: A grieving teenager finds an unexpected connection with two classmates at her new high school when they all land in
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#74
Synopsis: Four best friends invite the shy new girl out on Halloween, but they quickly regret their decision when she suggests
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#73
Synopsis: After a decade away from home, Liz Ortecho returns to her native Roswell to care for her ailing father. When
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#72
Synopsis: A teenage boy is found wandering, naked and dazed, in traffic. At a nearby youth detention center, authorities discover that
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#71
Synopsis: When an alien spacecraft lands in 6-year-old Emery's town resulting in an immediate battle, she befriends one of the young
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#70
Synopsis: Wealthy high school student Payton Hobart has known since he was 7 years old that he is going to be
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#69
Synopsis: A group of teens in the pediatric ward of Los Angeles' Ocean Park Hospital find comfort in one another. Mexican-born
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#68
Synopsis: It's a culture clash of epic proportions when cheerleader Brooke and unpopular journalist Sam, girls on the opposite ends of
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#67
Synopsis: MTV teams with super-producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein on a TV series adaptation of the hit horror film franchise. Instigated
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#66
Synopsis: A figure skating Olympic hopeful struggles to balance family, love and fragile mental health as her dream of winning takes
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#65
Synopsis: Summertime in the Midwest means another season at summer camp for teens, which usually promises the campers and counselors such
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#64
Synopsis: Following their father's murder, three siblings move into a house filled with reality-bending keys; from the comics by Joe Hill
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#63
Synopsis: When American student Molly is murdered while studying in London, her roommate, Grace, becomes the prime suspect in the crime.
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#62
Synopsis: A teenager enlists his three best friends to hunt for a legendary treasure linked to his father's disappearance.
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#61
Synopsis: This modern soap opera mines the intertwined lives of the Cohen, Cooper and Nichol families for drama, with a contemporary
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#60
Synopsis: After 15 years of being with different families in Oregon's foster-care system, Lux decides to try her luck as an
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#59
Critics Consensus: Raw, emotional portrayals of diverse characters in dire pain, mashed up with chilling narratives and a gutsy attitude make American Crime a must-see.
#58
Synopsis: Optimistic teacher Will Schuester heads up McKinley High School's glee club -- New Directions -- a place where ambitious and
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#57
Synopsis: When charismatic Danny Desai returns to his hometown after spending five years in juvenile detention, he sees that things are
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#56
Synopsis: Set at East High School, "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" introduces members of the drama club and their
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#55
Synopsis: When Caleb Rivers heads to Ravenswood, a town near his hometown, to help some friends who went there to crash
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#54
Synopsis: On her birthday, Clary Fray discovers a surprise concerning her life. The teenager is not who she thinks she is
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#53
Synopsis: Based on the best-selling fantasy book series by Terry Brooks, "The Shannara Chronicles" follows heroes in the Four Lands as
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#52
Synopsis: An interpretation of the Superman story features young Clark Kent coming to grips with his emerging superpowers. In the 10th
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#51
Synopsis: Produced in association with Marvel Television, and set in the "X-Men" universe, family adventure series "The Gifted" is about an
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#50
Synopsis: By day, Chiara is a promising student at one of Rome's most elite private high schools; by night, she leads
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#49
Synopsis: Emily Kmetko's dreams of becoming an Olympic gymnast inch closer to reality when she receives a scholarship to The Rock
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#48
Synopsis: As time has passed since Alison, then the queen bee of the bunch, went missing. Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily
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#47
Synopsis: The high-school anonymity Scott McCall was trying to break free from couldn't have happened in a more mysterious, complicated way.
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#46
Synopsis: The multi-talented Baz Luhrmann and a team of collaborators -- Oscar-winner Catherine Martin, legendary MC Nas, Grandmaster Flash, Pulitzer-winning playwright
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#45
Synopsis: An American adaptation of the Israeli show of the same name, "Euphoria" follows the troubled life of 17-year-old Rue, a
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#44
Synopsis: Sarah Michelle Gellar takes on the role of Buffy Summers in this TV version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," based
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#43
Synopsis: Emma Becker and Sutton Mercer are, unbeknownst to them, identical twins. Separated at birth and unaware of each other's existence,
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#42
Synopsis: It's 1984 and a pre-Manolos-and-Mr.-Big Carrie Bradshaw ("Sex and the City") is just a Connecticut teenager with a rebellious kid
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#41
Synopsis: High school is over for the privileged former students at an exclusive prep school on Manhattan's Upper East Side, but
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#40
Synopsis: Counselors and campers check in for what's billed as "the summer of your life" at Maine's Camp Firewood in 1981.
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29%
51%
68%
77%
94%
