TV REVIEW: Awkward Season 1

Awkward.

Possibly my favourite (and most used) word ever. Awkward. 'Awkward' seems to be a rising phenomenon these days. I mean if you think about it, new 'awkward' hand signs are created every day. We started with your standard turtle but now we've moved on to bigger and better things - my favourite being the awkward salmon. So it kinda makes sense that someone would tap into it and entitle a television show 'awkward'.

This TV show is basically about a 15 year old girl, Jenna Hamilton, who is the school loser, barely noticed by anyone. Until, that is, she has an accident and she breaks her arm, but rather unfortunate circumstances make it look like attempted suicide. Now she's getting all sorts of attention at school, but not the attention you'd want - at least not at first. She's figuring out what it means to be a teenager and how to deal with the bitchy cheerleaders and the fit jocks - two of which seem to have a very keen interest in her.

The show premières with Jenna losing her virginity in a cupboard and this is probably what made me a fan of the show. No, not because I'm a sick minded freak, but because it truly was awkward. I hate how the majority of teen dramas make everything in life and love look so god damn easy when it isn't. Losing your virginity is awkward, sure a lucky few have those magical firework moments but the majority of teenagers don't, so I praise them for telling it as it is.

I thought that the acting was pretty good in this series. Teen dramas have a tendency to over exaggerate absolutely everything and go totally OTT with the preppy accents, but this drama seemed a lot more realistic. I think that the reason this show just works is because they actors don't really have to act. They've probably all experienced it before and for once someone has made a TV show about what it's actually like to be a normal teenager. The main character, Jenna Hamilton, is played by Ashley Rickards, also played Sam on One Tree Hill, and Matty McKibben is played by Beau Mirchoff, probably best known for playing Danny Bolen on Desperate Housewives.

The plot is interesting with all sorts of twists and turns that you weren't expecting from the onset and it's not a predictable drama. Some would probably say that this isn't any more realistic than your other teen dramas like 90210, but it is. Sure if the hottest guy in school fell for the biggest loser and proptly announced to the whole school that they were dating it would be pretty unrealistc. BUT. The hottest guy in school fell for the biggest loser and struggles to accept his feelings because he doesn't want to hurt his social reputation and that's a hell of a lot more realistic - in my opinion anyway.

Yep, they are behind a dumpster.

Probably the only thing about this show that bothers me is the fact that the main character is 15. She doesn't look 15, she doesn't act 15, and the things she does certainly aren't very appropriate for a 15 year old *cough* flashing at school and lots of sex *cough* I just think that this is sending the wrong message out to fifteen year old girls and they should have made Jenna's character at least 16 or 17.

There are only ten episodes in the first season and episode 7 aired last night so if you're going to start watching this, you've got a bit of catching up to do. However, I definitely recommend that you do watch Awkward, especially if you're a teenager trying to figure out how to make it through high school because you'll be able to relate to Jenna Hamilton. It won't take you long to catch up as I only started watching this show yesterday (yes, yesterday) and each episode was only around 21 minutes long so if you've got a couple of hours to kill this evening I'd give it a shot - I'm already hooked.

Catch Awkward on MTV every Tuesday evening.