From Heartstopper to Sterling Point: how teen TV is thriving again with love, sex and nostalgia

Why This Matters

Key context: <p>Shows like Off Campus and The Summer I Turned Pretty are winning viewers with grounded coming-of-age themes</p><p>Annie Jacobson has a 10-step skincare routine, a voice-activated white noise machine, the wardrobe of a Uniqlo mom, and no desire for anything other than getting into Wharton Business School. “You’re 17. You’re acting 30,” her twin brother Connor tells her, encouraging her to spend her summer partying instead. As central characters in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/amazon-prime-video">Prime Video</a>’s new coming-of-age drama <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/aug/05/sterling-point-review-teen-drama-prime-video">Sterling Point</a>, their banter speaks to the evolution of teen drama as it was 20 years ago and how it is now: a slow creep from histrionic hedonism to buttoned-up restraint.</p><p>Watching Sterling Point, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/amazon">Amazon</a>’s new series from the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/21/my-old-ass-review-aubrey-plaza-maisy-stella-comedy">My Old Ass</a> director Megan Park, you’re struck by how little it resembles adolescence as previous generations imagined it. Set over one pivotal summer on a remote Canadian island, the show follows Annie as family secrets, first love and long-buried grief unravel the meticulously ordered life she’s built. Its teen protagonists, raised in the age of therapy-speak, are emotionally articulate, relentlessly self-aware and unusually good at communicating, making for a noticeably subdued coming-of-age drama.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/aug/07/sterling-point-prime-tv-show-teen-drama">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.