15/Love was a Canadian-produced television series revolving around the lives of the students at Cascadia, a private school in Quebec geared towards aspiring tennis players. The show ran on YTV for three seasons and fifty-four episodes, from September 2004 to October 2006, and enjoyed a relatively successful run, given the odd premise. Sadly, it was notable for having had not one, but two of its main characters killed off in the Season 1 finale following the tragic real life deaths of their actors in a car crash.
The show's characters remained more or less consistent from season to season, with Cody Myers, Adena Styles and Gary "Squib" Furlong present from the first episode until the last. Other mainstays included school president Harold Bates, Butt-Monkey Rick Geddes, and child tennis prodigy Sunny Capaduca.
In Season 1, Megan O'Conner and Sebastien Dube were also a part of the main cast; following their actors' deaths they were replaced by Tanis McTaggart and Cameron White in Season for the rest of Season 1 and all of Season 2. Later in Season 2, the geek chic Nate Bates joined the cast as a recurring character for six episodes across Season 2 - 3. With Season 3, Tanis and Cameron were replaced by Cassidy Payne and Jesse Siegel.
The coach also changed each year with Coach Artie Gunnerson (Thierry René) for Season 1, Coach Rob Skinner (Scott Thrun) for Season 2 and Coach Daniel Brock (Anthony Lemke) for Season 3.
Not to be confused with 15 Love, the Marvel Comics series.
Tropes appearing in this series include:
- Aborted Arc: Due to the tragic deaths of actors Jaclyn Linetsky (Megan) and Vadim Schneider (Sebastien), some arcs could not be addressed despite devoting two episodes to Megan and Sebastien's deaths:
- The slow burning romance between Megan and Sebastien never reached any resolution.
- Also, the first 13 episodes have Sebastien claiming to be the son of a wealthy family who owned "half of France", Squib being a snob towards Cascadia students on scholarships, and Sebastien in reality being a working class scholarship student at Cascadia whose father ran a bowling alley in town.
- In a number of episodes, Squib comments on Sebastien using an old (and cheap) tennis racket, and that Sebastien sometimes disappears from campus (because Sebastien's father needs help at the bowling alley).
- Due to Vadim Schenider's death, Squib never learns Sebastien's secret (at least not onscreen; he would have met Sebastien's father at the offscreen funeral and would have learned the truth then).
- However, near the end of the first season, Squib's roommate goes on scholarship and Squib expresses no disdain, a subtle hint that Squib did learn the truth about Sebastien and that Squib ceased looking down on people without money.
- It is also never explained why President Bates, who runs the school and would know Sebastien's true background and scholarship status, introduces Sebastien as being from France and supports Sebastien's false life story.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Discussed with regards to Jesse's persona. It certainly helps him impress girls, but when it comes to winning over Adena it's his Nice Guy side that ends up helping him out.
- Always Someone Better: How Megan seems to feel about Adena.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Adena's dad who will not stop shouting at her or the refs, and Tanis' dad who works as a mascot.
- Audience Surrogate: Cody.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Squib and Cody in Season 1.
- Big Man on Campus: How Squib sees himself.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Sunny.
- Butt-Monkey: Rick. Geeky, socially awkward, and a bad tennis player. Not a great combo.
- The Casanova: Subverted. Jesse in Season 3 looks and acts the part but has never actually had sex. This more or less kills his reputation when it comes out.
- Closet Geek: Cassidy, who'd rather watch a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon than sports.
- Creepy Child: Sunny again. The girl has no soul.
- Dean Bitterman: Bates is often treated as such by the cast, though in truth, he's much closer to being a Stern Teacher/Manipulative Bastard cross.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: The school doctor. Interactions with Adena and Bates help to thaw her out.
- Drugs Are Bad: Squib's brother died from them, he himself has had issues with them, and Jesse begins abusing them in Season 3, requiring an intervention from Squib to fix.
- Emotionless Girl/Sugar-and-Ice Personality: The coldly professional school doctor, nicknamed Dr. Downer by the students. She warms up to Adena though, and is eventually revealed to have a crush on Bates.
- Evil Redhead: Violet
- Fiery Redhead: Cody.
- Foil: Don't tell Squib, but well-dressed Manipulative Bastard President Bates is what he is going to look like in twenty years.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted and played straight. Due to the actors' deaths, the characters of Megan and Sebastien are killed in an offscreen plane crash and the next episode has all the characters grieving and place a photograph of Megan and Sebastien in the rec room. However, aside from a later Season 1 episode where Adena recalls how a returning guest-star once flirted with Megan, they aren't discussed again for the rest of Season 1 and all of Season 2.
- This may be Truth in Television as dead friends are a painful subject.
- There are more references in Season 3: Season 3 has Adena briefly mention something Megan once said
- The final episodes feature Cody organizing a charity tournament named in Sebastien and Megan's honor, and as Adena struggles in a tennis match, Jesse brings Adena the tennis racket that Megan used.
- The finale is dedicated to Jacklyn Linetsky and Vadim Schneider.
- Give Geeks a Chance: Cassidy and Rick end up this way.
- Gone Horribly Right: In one episode Tanis and Cameron pulled a prank designed to terrify Sunny. It worked—and caused her to hurt herself falling down the stairs, leading to the two of them being assigned to her as slaves.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Tanis
- High-School Hustler: Squib
- Hospital Hottie: Dr. Downer is very attractive, if in a Defrosting Ice Queen kind of way.
- Hot Teacher: The girls hold this opinion of Coach Brock. While he's generally too feared/disrespected to get this kind of treatment, Bates ain't hard on the eyes either.
- Informed Attractiveness: Adena is frequently held up as the most attractive member of the cast. She's certainly very good looking, but not to a ridiculously greater degree than the other female leads.
- Jerk Jock: Squib and Jesse both have aspects of this but get over it. Sunny is a rarity being a young female example (and considerably tinier than the usual jerk jock).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Squib. He's arrogant, sarcastic, and condescending, but far from a bad person.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Occasional Pet the Dog moments aside, Sunny.
- Killer Rabbit: Sunny is a small cute girl. And if you cross her you will pay. Anybody else noticing a pattern here?
- Lady Killer In Love: Happens to Jesse in Season 3.
- Large Ham: Nearly everyone. Squib, Cody, Nate, Sunny, Jesse, and Bates are all up there, with Rick being the greatest example.
- Little Miss Badass: Sunny's the tennis player variant, right down to the cynicism and Manipulative Bastard tendencies.
- Love Triangle:
- In Season 1, Megan and Sebastien are attracted to each other and Adena wanting Sebastien. Made worse by the fact that Megan thinks Adena is much more attractive than she is. Season 3 gets more complicated, with Cody in a relationship with Nate but attracted to ex-boyfriend Squib who wants her back.
- Another version appears briefly in a Season 3 episode where Sunny is crushing on a guy who wants nothing to do with her (can't really blame him there), while a ball boy is crushing on her.
- Manipulative Bastard: Sunny Capaduca, who has the staff wrapped around her finger, and can usually use the other students to her advantage. Squib doesn't do to badly either, and can occasionally manipulate Sunny, usually by playing to her ego. Bates also has his moments; he's basically what Squib is going to look like as an adult.
- Missing Mom: Cameron's mom is dead.
- Mood Whiplash: Hooray! Adena and Sunny set a world record and everyone's having a party! See Wham Line below for how that party ended...
- Ms Exposition: Cody for the audience.
- Nerds Are Virgins: The students at Cascadia are so focused on tennis that in the first season, a game of Truth or Dare reveals that nearly every lead character on the show has never had sex. The one exception is the non-tennis player, Cody, and her first sexual experience would have been before the series premiere. However, this example of Of Course I'm Not a Virgin is treated as a triviality and the show never elaborates on Cody's first time or the identity of her first lover outside of Cody saying she usually goes for nerdy characters like Nate as opposed to jocks like Squib.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Cody (Laurence Leboeuf) starts out the show with her actress using her natural French Canadian accent, but as the season progresses, the accent starts to diminish. By Season 2, Cody is speaking with a faint French Canadian accent and it's only back to full strength when she's angry. Actress Laurence Leboeuf has explained that speaking English for several months will cause her accent to fade out. This is also present in her guest appearances on Being Erica where her character had a strong French Canadian accent that became neutral Canadian later on.
- Pet the Dog: Sunny does it maybe once a season. The best example is the final, where she deliberately throws a match so that Adena will play again. Bates also gets these, and in fact bends the rules several times so that he can avoid expelling a student.
- Punny Name: "Tanis, anyone?"
- Put on a Bus: In Season 3, Tanis is said to have become a professional tennis player, and Cameron has quit tennis to go work for his wealthy father "on his own terms." In both cases, the actor wasn't available, rendering both as a Written-In Absence. Tanis comes back for the finale's charity tournament.
- Really Dead Montage: Towards the end of "Curve Balls" for Megan and Sebastien.
- Romantic False Lead: Nate Bates became one for Cody in Season 3. Originally Season 2 had been intended as the final season with Squib going off to play professionally and Cody getting together with Nate with whom she had a lot in common. When Season 3 began and Squib returned, the writers had to get rid of Nate. This was done surprisingly tastefully: Cody broke up with him after realizing they had too much in common; the two of them remained friends, and Nate eventually left the school to pursue a career in the theatre, something his character had always wanted to do. Violet was a more traditional one for Squib, being a psychotic Yandere who just hid it well.
- Series Fauxnale: The Season 2 finale has Squib venturing off to play tennis professionally (before finishing high school), Cascadia saved from a merger, and Cody and Nate finding that they are each other's other halves. Season 3 has Squib returning to high school at Cascadia due to an injury calling for months of physical therapy and making another bid for Cody's heart.
- School Newspaper News Hound: Cody in several episodes.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Squib cleans up very nicely. Bates is always dressed this way.
- Ship Tease: Sebastien/Megan and Cameron/Tanis were teased heavily, but never got anywhere.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Squib & Bates, Squib & Nate.
- Stage Mom: Adena's dad's a male version, pushing her to excel no matter what.
- The Tease: Adena's a high school variant. She likes to talk about sex and flirt, but has never actually done it.
- Tomboyish Name: Cody.
- The Un-Favourite: Squib thinks that his parents preferred his older brother to him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Squib and pretty much anyone, especially after Sebastien's death.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Nate Bates for his father, President Bates. They get better.
- Wham Line: "Megan and Sebastien were among the passengers, and there were no survivors."
