Discover the best Netflix series for teens! And as uninteresting as many teens' high school lives are outside of television, teen stories have always been a genre both prolific and incredibly popular with viewers.
The teens on screen may not do a lot of homework, don't particularly care about term papers, or even spend much time in class early on, but the crucial stage of learning and self-discovery that is adolescence seems like the perfect setting for a good story.
Of course, Netflix delivers and doesn't lag behind, creating and making available to us a myriad of teen series, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes dramatic, but always entertaining, from which we've selected the ones you'll find below.
8 Netflix series for teens
With back to school just around the corner, there's no better time to go back to school also in fiction through a good series for teens. The ones we present you today all have protagonists under the age of twenty, but even so the themes couldn't be more varied, from boys and girls trying to deal with the most uncomfortable - and fun for the viewer - aspects of this vital stage, to young people who have enough work trying to uncover secrets or escape from people with the worst intentions to turn in their math homework on time.
So go get pencil and paper ready to take note of the best Netflix series for teens of the moment:
Sex Education
Maybe its title or subject matter will tempt some adults to question its supposed target audience, but while it's true that the series talks a lot about sex (or lack thereof), it always does so in a much more realistic, awkward and sometimes embarrassing way than any other teen series where theoretically very young characters are filmed in a much more adult way.
Otis is a rather insecure and discreet boy whose shy nature clashes with that of his mother, a dedicated sexologist. The series follows him through high school with his best friend Eric, and his decision to set up a secret business as a sex counselor with the intimidating Maeve for his classmates, who really need good sex advice.
Featuring teenage characters with teenage problems and teenage behaviors, Sex Education deals with a subject that is both taboo and mythologized in a way that is light, funny, and as ridiculous as it is in real life. If you haven't yet watched its first two seasons - the second with even better reviews than the first - now is the perfect time to do so, as the British series returns with its highly anticipated third season this September 17 on Netflix. Get educated!
Outer Banks
With a freshly released second season that's taking teens around the world by storm, Outer Banks is a fast-paced adventure series that doesn't let a minute go by without action. Its main characters are a group of friends who live in a coastal town with a very marked class division: on one side are the "Kooks", arrogant upper class rich people, and on the other, the "Pogues", lower class residents to which the main characters belong.
John B. is one of them, whose father mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind several clues to the dangerous but tantalizing quest for a golden treasure. Together with his friends Kiara, Pope and JJ, John B. will try to follow in his father's footsteps to find it, but not without having to face a particular and powerful family of "Kooks"...
Outer Banks stands out from many other teen series for its thematic totally focused on friendship and adventures, with a premise that hooks you from the first moment, and characters that, despite their differences and flaws, are loved by the viewer as much as by each other.
Young highnesses
We continue our selection of Netflix series for teens with a premiere of this year that was on everyone's lips from the first minute: the Swedish series Young Highnesses. This Scandinavian bet follows the story of teenage Swedish prince Wilhelm, who is forced to enter Hillerska, an elite boarding school, to maintain his good image.
Despite Wilhelm's initial reluctance to put up with students like his cousin August, his stay at Hillerska takes an unexpected turn when he meets Simon, a middle-class teenager studying there on a scholarship, who soon becomes very special to the young prince.
Although very few can see themselves reflected in the lives of the royal family, Young Royals manages to tell a surprisingly tender and universal story of teenage love with very realistic characters despite its unique social context. Part of this success is due to the performances of teenage actors who are - more or less - the same age as their characters, and who therefore do not hide teenage imperfections as natural as acne, or a sixteen-year-old face that cannot - and should not - be as attractive and perfect as that of a twenty-something actor. And sometimes the small details make a simple and genuine story into a gem like Young Highnesses.
Derry Girls
We all go through adolescence, wherever and whenever, with similar worries and experiences. But to do it in such a highly entertaining way as Erin, Michelle, Orla, Clare and James do in 90's Derry during the Northern Irish conflict is not so common anymore. Derry Girls follows the experience of this group of girls - and boy - at their Catholic high school in Northern Ireland as they navigate the ups and downs of adolescence with unsurpassed humour and such endearing candour that you'll find it impossible not to grow fond of them.
Despite the somewhat tricky historical-political context in which the comedy is set, Derry Girls has been very well received by both critics and audiences, and the series has already had two seasons of short episodes and a planned third that had to be postponed. In difficult times, humour and friendship are the perfect combination to keep going, so don't miss it!
Control Z
From Ireland we travel to Mexico to meet this Mexican series premiered in 2020 and with a second season just released. Control Z welcomes us to a random high school, where a mysterious hacker begins to sow chaos by revealing the most intimate secrets of the students in front of the whole school, with serious consequences. Sofia, a lonely but very observant student, sets out to discover his identity in order to put a stop to the affair.
Current, addictive and very exciting, Control Z has everything to hook anyone through its two seasons. And it seems that the recipe has worked, since the series has been a hit with the teen audience, even opening the doors to Hollywood for one of the main actresses, Zion Moreno, who is among the cast of HBO's glamorous new version of Gossip Girl. It's a Mexican bet with all the drama, mystery and friendship needed to conquer the teenage audience. What are you waiting for?
Yo nunca
Yo nunca is another of Netflix's best series for teens. Those who have seen the legendary American series The Office will know actress (and now screenwriter) Mindy Kaling, the flirtatious and quirky Kelly Kapoor from the sitcom. With Me Never, Kaling draws on the experiences of her own adolescence to create a comedy that reflects the experiences of Devi, an Indian-American girl who, after a traumatic year marked by the death of her father, wants to reinvent her life, starting with her social standing in high school. But reaching her goal won't be exactly a bed of roses...
Funny and tender at the same time, Me Never has received praise from all sides thanks to its realistic, lighthearted and above all non-stereotypical representation of what it really means to be a young girl in an Indian-American family. Kaling's series represents a breath of fresh air in the teen series genre, giving a voice (and a screen) to an underrepresented group while still telling a story that can make you laugh out loud, move you to tears, and above all get you hooked.
The End of the F***ing World
Let's say it right off the bat: The End of the F***ing World is a series that's a little weird, or at the very least, with characters that are more than a little weird. These are James and Alyssa, the former a guy who thinks he's a psychopath, and the latter a rebellious girl who isn't quite normal either. After getting to know each other, Alyssa proposes they both run away to escape their family situation, and James proposes to himself to try to kill her in his alleged psychopath plan. While they do do the former, the latter remains to be discovered for those who want to watch the series. Surprises and revelations as unexpected as they are poignant await you.
This comedy-drama combines a special black humour with a distinctly British character that makes it both interesting and addictive to watch. And the critics clearly agree, as The End of the F***ing World received an avalanche of praise for its two seasons. Even with its quirky and somewhat sinister plot, the two main characters are two teenagers with distinctly adolescent problems and mindsets, making the series a story definitely suitable for young audiences, and thus demonstrating the variety that the teen series genre can offer.
The Hockey Girls
We've all heard of Élite, the popular Spanish teen series (also on Netflix, by the way!), but another close option in the teen series arena is the Catalan production Las del hockey. This series delves into the still largely unexplored world of women's sports to follow the lives, problems, dramas, but also joys and friendship of a group of teenage girls who are part of a roller hockey team in their town. Viewers will get to know the personal lives of the players in depth, but the series doesn't hold back on the difficulties - often related to macho mentalities - that the world of sport brings with it.
Les de l'hockey is presented as a fundamentally feminine series without fear of addressing all the frustrations and dramas that many teenagers will surely feel their own, either from the strong character of Emma or Lorena, as from the clarity of Berta or the initial stillness of Laila, for example. In short, a very current and close series that predicts a change of airs in the local television scene.
And with these eight series we finish our small selection of the many Netflix series for teenagers that the popular platform puts at your disposal in one click. Funny, dramatic, gripping, gripping, shocking, or heartwarming, the series on our list demonstrate both the quality and quantity of subject matter that teens can star in. So now you know, while you're shopping for textbooks and notebooks, don't forget to pick up a series too, because back to school isn't complete without a bit of on-screen entertainment to talk about with friends the next day. What's yours?
