All television programs claim to portray reality and relate to its viewers. The vast majority fails to even slightly depict truth. Teen programs such as Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210 insist on reflecting their shows on adolescent life but are unsuccessful. The shows create unrealistic storylines and scenes which are far from the everyday life of teens.

Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210 highly neglect reality and instead base their shows upon fake drama. They make false assumptions of teen life and base their whole series on guesses. All the shows revolve around fake characters who experience love triangles which most teens will never experience in their high school life. The creators cast actors too old to play high school students and write unbelievable skits which revolve around them. Both shows cannot understand the life of teenagers and therefore make distorted stories of their lives.

Similar to the creators of Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210, media observers also believe these shows correctly illustrate teen life. Consequently, they believe these series are popular because teenagers can relate to them, but they are far from the truth. These shows do not even remotely depict their lives, but instead make them envious. By watching the problematic love fiascals of the actors, teens become jealous of these characters and wish their lives were just as exciting. These shows just give teen an escape from their usually boring lives so they can aspire to live more exciting lives. Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210 in no way understand adolescents and are popular because they feature interesting drama which teens which they had in their lives.