Two new campus comedies - Rooster and Vladimir - just premiered, and they share a familiar problem: they have absolutely no idea what college is actually like. And according to Paste Magazine, this isn't just a creative failure - it's becoming a real-world problem.
Television's depiction of higher education has always been somewhat fantastical. Community made a joke of it, turning a community college into a surreal playground. Felicity and Dawson's Creek treated college like an extension of high school with slightly harder homework. But those shows at least gestured toward recognizable college experiences.
Rooster and Vladimir don't even try. They present college as a consequence-free zone where students never study, attend class sporadically, live in impossibly nice apartments, and spend most of their time on elaborate pranks or romantic drama. It's college as imagined by people whose only reference point is other TV shows about college.
Why does this matter? Because television shapes expectations. Prospective students watch these shows and internalize wildly unrealistic ideas about what college will be like. Parents watch and think this is what their kids are experiencing. Policymakers watch and assume students are just partying.
The reality of college in 2026 is crushing student debt, housing insecurity, mental health crises, food banks on campus, students working multiple jobs while taking full course loads. It's not all grim - there's genuine learning, friendship, growth - but it's also not the consequence-free playground TV pretends it is.
When shows ignore this reality, they don't just make bad television. They contribute to a cultural disconnect where people think college students are entitled party kids rather than young adults navigating impossible financial and academic pressures. This isn't a call for gritty realism in every college show. But exaggeration requires a foundation in truth. Maybe writers' rooms for campus comedies should include people who actually went to college recently.
