It's been almost a year since ABC Family's "Secret Life of the American Teenager" (8 p.m. Monday) debuted and quickly built a fervent following of young viewers and families. The show still baffles me.
On the one hand, the decision by the show's writers to keep the cad of a dad who's divorcing Molly Ringwald is more realistic than on most shows where the dad simply disappears after the divorce (cough, cough, "Brothers & Sisters"). In real life, dads often remain a part of their kids' lives but rarely on TV.
And lead character Amy (Shailene Woodley) is such an unrepentant brat, another brave choice.
But then goofy things happen, as in Monday's season premiere, when a father wakes his son to tell him about his love life. Awkward. And there's also the strange scene of the show's fast girl lecturing the virginal Christian about waiting to have sex. Just weird. And lastly, the teen lothario lectures an absentee dad on not being there when his daughter needed him. Weirder still.
I keep watching and marveling at the choices the writers make, particularly pairing the death of a character with a teen's sexual awakening in Monday's episode.
Maybe the messiness of the show's stories is the reason it's struck a chord. Life is messy, too, but so often TV glides along on a pre-plotted course. "Secret Life" may be bizarre but it often veers in unexpected, engrossing directions.
Posted
Jun 19 2009, 12:32 AM
by
Rob Owen