If there's a show aimed at a young audience on TV that takes place in school, chances are it's going to be High School. High School may be one of the most overused settings in TV, and in kid shows, it's often portrayed as the best years of a kid's life. But what about Middle School, that awkward stage in between elementary and high school. If high school is considered the peek of adolescence, middle school is probably the weird beginning. But looking at a list of shows with middle school settings on Wikipedia remind me just how underused of a setting it is. If and when a Jr. High setting is used, it's often butchered and sanitized to target an audience much younger. Granted you can say a similar thing about High School settings, but High School is a setting that's used even outside kid shows, From kids superhero cartoons to teen/young adult dramas. Middle School in comparison, gets the short end of the stick. There's rarely a show or movie that actually portrays a realistic middle school setting. The closest thing we can probably get is anime, but middle school in Japan is treated much closer to high school in America than in the US from what I've heard. So why is middle school such an underused setting? Is it because it's often considered the worst years of your life (which would actually make sense)? Is it because America doesn't want to portray 12-13-14 year olds as actual 12-14 year olds who swear and talk about sex? What is it?