There's really no shortage of teen dramas in which a teacher and student hook up. Dawson's Creek, Degrassi, Pretty Little Liars, Riverdale — all featured plot points in which teachers break their moral codes in order to hook up with one of the teens in their classes. Heck, the original Gossip Girl did it twice: First, with Dan Humphrey and his English teacher, and then again with Serena van der Woodsen and her former boarding school professor.

On paper, all of it is icky, not to mention illegal, but for the average viewer, you wouldn't know that based on how the show handled it. After all, the Gossip Girl hookups between a teacher and student were portrayed not much differently (if just more illicit) as ones between students. Of course, we know that isn't good... and given the current situation on HBO Max's Gossip Girl revival, I'm hoping that the new version of the series moves in a smarter direction than some of its predecessors.

The new series introduces us to Max Wolfe, who is basically a queer, Gen Z version of Chuck Bass. Like Chuck, Max feels free to sample anything on the sexual menu that he sees fit — and, in the first episode, he sets his sites on his teacher, Rafa Caparros.

Max and Rafa's relationship is tense, initially. Max tries to seduce him, and Rafa promptly rejects him. Max even approaches Rafa while in the bathroom at the gang's favorite social club haunt. However, the one thing that Rafa doesn't do is make it clear to Max the consequences if he doesn't stop. Rafa never asks a guidance counselor to intervene, or calls Max's parents to handle the situation more discretely.