This is a two-parter, just so you know. First up is the trend for casting of nineties teen movies which, really, hasn't changed a whole lot before or since (did you know that Will from The Inbetweeners is a 30-year-old, married, and Jay has two kids?). Namely, the casting of grown adults to play teenagers. Because teenagers are just adults wearing slightly more stylish clothes and caring more about losing their virginity, right? Adults who haven't had their driver's licenses for as long? Adults who drink out of red solo cups instead of actual glasses? Those are what teenagers are, yeah? Just adults who haven't graduated yet? Well, technically, yes. Apparently they also speak in the cadence, unbroken sentences and with the witty repertoire of a grown up Hollywood screenwriter. Both of these are total fallacies. You might have thought that teenagers looked grown up when you were in primary school, and no doubt you thought you were very mature looking and rad when you were a teen yourself, but you weren't. You were an acne-ridden mess who changed height every few days, had hair in weird places, made some ill-advised choices when it came to fashion and the styling of your new facial hair (read: bum fluff on your chin), and didn't look anything like Freddie Prinze Jr. Chances are you didn't act much like him, either, nor any of his peers. Seriously, what teenagers have time to hatch plots wherein they totally re-style a classmate and mould them in their own image? Or date people for a bet? Or get involved in serial killings? We still don't know how we did a whole day of lessons without collapsing.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
