6Teen

I find that I have little patience for most teen programming. The writing and performances on Disney Channel 'sit-coms' are so excruciating that without the laugh track one might forget that they are supposed to be funny. Yet, 6teen is consistently funny without resorting to cheap sight gags and pratfalls all of the time by being cleverly observant of teen life with its insecurities and hangups. The characters are well individualized, if oddly mismatched, and the dynamic between each of them is explored and evolves as the show goes on and the characters pass through the usual teen rites of passage, such as dating and breaking up, getting a job and getting fired etc... Shallow, fashion-obsessed Caitlin wants to fit in, and clicks quickly with athletic and driven Jen, but dark non-conformist Nikki isn't looking for an 'insta-friend'. And sensitive Wyatt finds himself an odd man out among chauvinistic Jonesy and slacker Jude. Yet, the six teens are closer to one another than to anybody else in their lives and they wind up supporting and lending strength to each other as they dust themselves off after every new misadventure.

The character animation and action direction are very simplistic. Heads rarely move in a shot, just mouths, and if one figure is moving the rest are static. Fortunately the show is driven primarily by its character interactions anyway and it thrives on its writing rather than action.

There's a lot of vulgar humor in this series, and it hasn't aged well in 2021, but if you can overlook this, 6Teen is a genuinely heartfelt, well-animated and clever series with a good story arc and plenty of character development. There are some well-placed pop culture references, a perfect balance of comedy and drama, funny reoccurring support characters, and it's distinctly, unabashedly Canadian, which is nice to see. The sitcom-like plot, a gang of 6 teens at the local shopping mall, is simple and basic but still manages to work something new into the story. If you go into it viewing it as a period piece of y2k Canadiania, it works really well as an effective, nostalgic series, so much that there are times where it's easy to forget that it's a cartoon originally targeted towards kids.

I found this show purely by accident and I have to say I enjoyed every second of it. As a teen it really captures what this stage of like is like and what it's all about. It's kinda out dated exaggerated but it adds to the charm. It really shows how at this point in your life you have so much responsibility but at the same time no responsibilities at all and how you can spend such awesome times hanging with friends and doing stupid stuff with college just on the horizon but at the same time some of us are stressing about what we're going to do with our life and if high school will affect our futures. I also love how the mall is like this community and even the external characters are given attention and we actually get to know them and grow to love them as much as the main ones. It was way better than I expected honestly.

This show also turned out better than I thought. At first, I questioned the time the six friends (Jonesy, Nikki, Jude, Wyatt, Jen, & Caitlin) spent at the mall. A little too much, if you ask me. In every single episode, 98% of the setting is at the mall.

But then again, this show still displays good humour without too many clichés, even surprising me, and I tend to look for clichés in new cartoons. The show is surprisingly funny.

However, some parts of the show can be inappropriate for younger children. I think that the G rating the show was given on Teletoon was too low.

In all, a very good show with plenty of humour, some romance, and surprise.

I like the fact that this cartoon goes places other cartoons usually don't. Multiple story lines, a little "mature" humor. It's a refreshing break from the rather dull cartoons you'll see on American television. Also, the appealing character designs and personalities make me actually "care" about what happens to the characters. I don't really care what happens to somebody like "Johnny Test" for example. Another thing I like is that this show pushes the limits. Too many cartoons these days are afraid to show anything remotely offensive, but 6teen has implied cursing, pixelated nudity, and, well--you just have to watch. I've noticed Canadian television programs always seem to go farther than their American counterparts in that sense. You can also notice a slight Canadian accent in the characters when they pronounce words like "out".