The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Season Two

Two people deciding to get married so an unborn baby can have a family sends a wholesome and responsible message, but when it is 15-year-olds making that decision… well, it’s a different story. Most of season two of The Secret Life of the American Teenager has Amy (Shailene Woodley) struggling to make decisions that will give her baby the best life — including a secret marriage to her boyfriend Ben (Ken Baumann), considering adoption, finding a job and ultimately deciding to keep the baby.

Her friends and family are extremely supportive, which is setting a positive example to today’s youth, but all of the support is a little unrealistic. This show and movies like Juno make having a baby in high school seem so simple, when in all reality it isn’t as easy as it looks, and it shouldn’t be an act that is praised. While most parents would want to be supportive of their daughter or son, not everyone would be. Some parents disown their children for reasons like this, or at least vocalize how irresponsible their child was for having unprotected sex at such a young age. But alas, ABC Family is owned by Disney, so the story lines have to be as happy-go-lucky as possible.

All of the characters are dealing with real life struggles, but there are too many wrapped in to one for it to be truly believable. The parent characters are going through divorces, dealing with cheating spouses and dealing with their unruly children. These things do happen, but the three main sets of parents (The Juergens, the Bowmans and Adrien’s unmarried parents) on The Secret Life all dealing with these issues is a little overwhelming. It seems as though every family has issues, when in reality, some families are “normal” with happily married parents and average children who aren’t pregnant.

As for the individual characters, they all are over-acting. Ashley (India Eisley) is the sinister and sarcastic sister of Amy, who speaks in a monotonous tone and is eager to be witty. Before watching several episodes her lack of enthusiasm can be taken as bad acting, but half way through the season one can tell it’s combination of that and her character’s traits. Adrien (Francia Raisa) is the show’s bad girl. Her character is the slutty one of the clan, whose dad isn’t in the picture, hence her sluttiness. Her exotic beauty is key to her role, so her actual acting skills can be put on the back burner. Additionally, she wears enough lip gloss to share with the entire cast.

The guys of the show also have very set roles and their characters lack depth. Ricky (Daren Kagasoff), the baby’s father, is the kid with a bad background and parents in jail. He displays a tough exterior not wanting people to get close to him and he tries to have sex with most of the females on the show (with the exception of the mothers—but maybe that storyline is being saved for season three). Ben is the dorky, but smart boyfriend of Amy who will do anything for her. He, at times, tries to be the voice of reason by attempting to make amends with Ricky, though deep down he is so obsessed with his love for Amy that he doesn’t do anything for himself—which leads to the most overused theme of the show: love.

Just in twelve episodes, Ricky is “in love” with Grace (Megan Park), Amy and Adrien. Grace falls “in love” with Jack then Ricky then Jack. Jack loves Grace, then Shawna, maybe Adrien and then back to Grace. Adrien is “in love” with Ricky, but sleeps with everyone, is “in love” with her brother then back to Ricky. Even Molly Ringwald’s character, Anne, falls in love with her boss just after seeing him twice, while she is still married to Ashely and Amy’s father, George (Mark Derwin). Kids in high school probably think they are “in love” with everyone they date, when they really aren’t,but the show should really start to focus on real feelings of true love instead of mistaking feelings of lust and like for love.

Perhaps in the upcoming season, characters will start to come into their own, shedding some of the overpowering stereotyped character traits, with better acting with two seasons of experience. But since a preview clip reveals that Anne gets pregnant with her boyfriend while still married to George, it’s doubtful that the show will instantly become more realistic than dramatic.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.