I was going to start this article after just seeing the commercials, but realized that watching the show would give me a more informed base to make my judgment. WARNING: I don't hold back on the sarcasm and judgment on this one.
My first judgmental act was to automatically get angry about the title. "The secret live of the American Teenager." THE American teenager. No, not just an American teenager, but also the title says that this show will tell you all about how American teenagers are. All teenager in America act like this. Okay, the title doesn't say that straight out, but to a young adult that was always rankled by teenage stereotypes, that is was it said to me. I know that I am not the only one that this bothers.
From just the commercials where it is stated that it is from the creators of ‘Seventh Heaven' I figured there would be some Christian influence throughout. After watching just two episodes I can already see there is a huge chunk of the show dedicated to preaching. There are not just hints here or there dealing with God and religion.
Even though I am not a religious person in any respect, I have no issues with watching a show that has religious aspects. I find learning about religions interesting, but as in real life, I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
From what I can tell, there is really only one depiction of Christians in this show, which is completely unfair. This depiction is of the bible thumping kind of Christian that doesn't want to believe that anyone that is not as devout as them can call himself or herself religious.
Reaching the end of my teenage years at this very moment, I can't say I really relate as well as anyone could, but I probably relate to high school students better than whoever is writing the script for this show. Not all teenagers, not all high school students, talk about sex as much as the people in this show. Don't get me wrong; we talked about sex. Some of the people in our group of friends had had sex, were having sex, we made jokes and discussed the things we saw and read about sex, but it was not our only subject.
On the same note of the writing, I have never, in my nine years of living in a small town, seen some of the reactions these small town people are exhibiting. When the younger sister of the main character dresses up one day in a flowing shirt and jacket, her father flips, wondering what the hell she's doing dressed that way. Again, the subject switches to sex. How does a parent come to the conclusion that their daughter is having sex because she is suddenly dressing differently?
When is comes to the towns reaction to the video of the attack on the character Grace, I was completely shocked. This young girl was approached and nearly attacked by two fully-grown men and all they do is laugh about the fact that she was praying one moment then lifts broken glass up in her defense? I don't understand that one bit. Granted, I thought kneeling down to pray when that man was stalking towards her was a bit odd, but I might have missed something as I was cooking at the same time. Her raising that bottle was understandable in the situation and, I thought, smart of her to at least have done something.
All in all, I think the show is cheesy and way too preachy, but I'm stuck. Along with the other things that irk me in the general sense (Ben constantly telling Amy that he loves her even though they hardly know each other yet) I want to know what happens. It's unrealistic in its views on ‘THE' American teens life as a whole and perpetuates way too many stereotypes, but I suppose it's good enough to fill an hour of background noise.
