Essential viewing for the fall semester

Welcome back to campus, Trojans! Whether you spent your summer working hard or staring at your ceiling for hours upon end, everyone needs some good media to curl up with before classes swing into full force. Here are some college- and school-themed movies and TV shows, including familiar favorites, to binge as you begin your first week of the semester.

Movies:

“The Social Network” (2010)

The first scene of David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s classic college doomsday drama “The Social Network” takes place in a dive bar as future billionaire, tech entrepreneur and industry titan Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is getting savagely dumped by Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). This inspires him to rush back to his dorm over the sound of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s brooding score and propagate a violently misogynistic prototype of what would eventually become Facebook. 

Although the rest of the film alternates between past and present as it unpacks the legal implications of Zuckerberg’s falling out with Facebook’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), underneath its steely veneer, it’s really the dissolution of a once mutually affirmative college friendship. In Fincher and Sorkin’s revisionist historical world, Harvard University is a do-or-die site of the negotiation of power, influence and class and Facebook is a harbinger of dystopia realized. It is also a hodgepodge of different university facilities from across the country, and several scenes were filmed in our very own Grace Ford Salvatori Hall. 

The movie has all the salacious drama you’d expect from its cutthroat college setting that USC students may relate to. 

“The Social Network” is available to stream on Apple TV+ with Paramount+.  

“Raw” (2016)

“Raw” is a French movie about a teenage girl named Justine (Garance Marillier), who arrives at vet school ready to follow in her family’s footsteps. However, she soon finds herself with an insatiable appetite for flesh when her vegetarianism is forcibly violated by the hand of another in a hazing ritual. 

“Raw” is a particularly bloody and gruesome addition to the coming-of-age canon, which might immediately turn off viewers averse to body horror of any kind — even those able to withstand lots of gore might not be able to bear watching certain scenes. 

The movie is suffused with knowing wit, a reflection on finding your bearings in college, and the psychological effects of peer pressure and hazing explored with razor-sharp precision. 

Julia Ducournau’s bold take on coming-of-age in college may not be for everyone, but those with an appetite for some guts and over-the-top angst will find a lot to enjoy here. 

“Raw” is available to purchase on video on demand.

“Mistress America” (2015)

Before Greta Gerwig was bringing cinematic adaptations of classic literature and pretty plastic IP to life, she was illuminating the lives of fictional New York -based women whose ambitions vastly exceeded their bank accounts. “Mistress America,” which Gerwig co-wrote with her partner, Noah Baumbach, centers on Barnard College freshman Tracy Fishko (Lola Kirke), who finds herself having difficulty adjusting to both college and big city life. Tracy’s almost -stepsister, Brooke — played by Gerwig — helps her experience the highs and lows of being a young woman becoming an adult.

The movie’s refusal to shy away from the loneliness of college life makes it a somewhat melancholic back-to-school watch, though Baumbach and Gerwig’s knowing comedy reassures the viewers they’ve been exactly where Tracy is and made it out the other side just fine. 

“Mistress America” is available to purchase on VOD.

“Mean Girls” (2004)

When “Mean Girls” hit screens in 2004, it permanently captured the zeitgeist. Then -SNL cast member Tina Fey’s screenplay hit the one-liner jackpot, with phrases like “stop trying to make fetch happen” and “it’s October third.” Aside from a star -making turn from the one-and-only Lindsay Lohan, the hilarity of the ensemble, the fireworks of the screenplay and the amusing yet ferocious bite of the direction elevate the movie past your typical high school chick flick fare. It’s an unrelenting interrogation of high school power dynamics, the mob mentality of “Mean Girls,” and being the outsider in school. 

Although some of its humor has aged quite poorly, most of the movie stands the test of time; its no-holds-barred approach to mining the comedy from high school clique culture is highly transferable to college and will never not inspire raucous laughter. 

“Mean Girls” is available to stream on Netflix and Paramount+.

TV:

“The Sex Lives of College Girls” (2021–present)

“The Sex Lives of College Girls” is one of the most entertaining shows currently airing that focuses on college students. Four eager freshman girls arrive on Essex County College’s campus ready to take in all of college life. Instead, they all encounter roadblocks pertaining to race, class, gender and sexuality that complicate their idealistic portraits of what a college experience should look like. The show rests on its central quartet’s fantastic chemistry with one another. 

Although the show’s writing is slightly flimsy at times, its occasional ridiculousness is central to its appeal. Co-creator and executive producer Mindy Kaling thankfully understands that although college can often be absurd and alienating, laughing 24/7 with your friends will help you make sense of the madness. 

“The Sex Lives of College Girls” seasons one and two are available to stream on Max. 

“Normal People” (2020)

The immensely popular miniseries adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling and culturally monolithic novel “Normal People” examines the relationship between Irish lovebirds Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal) over several years as they emerge into young adulthood. It takes delicate care to unpack the implications of each and every fleeting moment between the two. Trinity College Dublin acts as a rich backdrop for a college relationship loaded with nuance, misunderstanding, desperation for connection, and, ultimately, great intimacy. 

It’s no wonder this series considerably boosted both Edgar-Jones’s and Mescal’s profiles in 2020, as the entire show hinges on their unbelievable chemistry and complexity. The simplicity of the show’s premise allows it to dig deep into the psyches of these young characters, whose conversations with one another flow like prose. Thanks to the involvement of its source material’s author, the show is an emotionally exacting adaptation that lives up to the hype. 

“Normal People” is available to stream on Hulu.