tv: I have spent the past year, dating back to last summers first season of Awkward referring to it as "that shitty high school show on MTV." But who am I kidding. That is just too easy. Sure it is a high school dramedy on a network more famously known for its reality shows than the music in its name, but it is time to come to terms with the how I really feel and what seems to be the truth: Awkward, arguably the best show about high school on television, just ended its second season. And in doing so it was almost one hundred percent on point.
The second season was built mainly around the love triangle created at the end of the first season, between Jenna, Mattie, and Jake. The season one ended with Jenna shunning Mattie to be with Jake and Mattie wanting to fight to get her back but not being sure how to do so without hurting his best friend, Jake's, feelings. That conflict drove the season and was at best interesting, until the show decided to real show its chops. A little more than half way through the season, Awkward did a two part episode centered around the wedding of Jenna's mom, Lacey's, best friend Ally, played in brilliantly insane bitchy out of control way by Barret Swatek, referring to Jenna as Li'l Bitch. At that point in the season the show had been kind of meandering its way through a more or less typical love triangle. But all of a sudden, in an episode that could have been "just another episode", the shows tension began to mount. Jenna wastrying to figure out how to show her true emotions to Jake after he said he loved her while her mom, at that point separated from her father, was facing seeing a former sweetheart at the wedding, that could permanently put an end to her marriage. While all of that even seemed not so interesting, both men on the outside looking in decided to fight back; Mattie and Jenna's dad, Kevin. And as all the secrets that had been building up over the first season and half of the show began to be revealed, viewers were left with a brutal part one cliff hanger and an even more brutal part two as all of the aftermath of finding out truths was revealed that ran at a surprising emotional depth. The other true highlight of the season was the second to last episode, Once Upon A Blog (I feel weird using the word "penultimate", typically associated with second to last episodes, when not talking about shows like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones). This was a great episode because it really flew in the face of a common theme in shows about teenagers and relationships. It was the story of Jenna trying to sort out what she wanted to when faced with the ultimatum by Jake and Mattie to choose who she wanted to be with. She began to fantasize about how much better things would have been if she had just been more honest. We got a fake scenario of how things would have been if she had been up front about her displeasure over Mattie's unwillingness to DTR (as Jenna's BFF Tamara would say). And then there is a scenario where Jenna tells Jake before their first kiss about her past relationship with Mattie. In a conventional show we are taught that to just be open and honest is always best. But Jenna sees nothing go right. A brilliant move by the creators to show, not that lying is the way to go, but to show that just the simple virtue of honesty is not enough to insure happiness.
That brings us to last nights finale (finally), which aired last night. With Jenna having chosen Mattie over Jake, the tension of the show centered around a potential trip to Europe for the school that Jenna wanted to go on but would have to without Mattie. As she waded her way through her decision making process, she got opinions from all sides. Val, the counselor/principal, and one of the funniest characters maybe ever (see her Baby Got Back callback in this episode), was not only encouraging her to go but encouraging her parents to make financial sacrifices so that she could. Her best friend Tamara, and even Mattie, were supportive of the trip. Even her mom, who has proven to not be the worlds best mom after admitting she wrote the letter that kick-started the series among a plethora of other mistakes, gives Jenna rather heartfelt advice about why she should take this great opportunity and go. Still Jenna is having doubts, considering spending the summer at camp with Mattie, where they first hooked up.
This is a great idea for a way to end the school year, and the season, until the final scene. There, as Jenna doubts herself, we see her looking out onto the dance floor at Tamara and Jake, who halfway through episode became a thing, dancing together. Jake the third in the season long triangle, Tamara who she gave her trip to Europe to. There is an ambiguity about who her doubt is geared towards. It could be geared at Tamara and her chance to go to Europe. But based on the Jenna's mom gives her and a story about her high school sweetheart, that comes back in something Mattie says right at the end of the episode, her doubt could be geared towards Jake and the decision she made to be with Mattie. It could even be both. The show to that point had been all about how good things were going. And yes, the love triangle was the main conflict of the season, and yes the show is built around Jenna's ability to step in it and make her life more awkward and harder, but the season was coming to an end. Why not let that conflict be at and end and create a new one in the form of tension over Jenna making a decision about Europe that reflects her turning into her mom, who is exactly who she doesn't want to be, so that we have have something new to move forward with?
Despite my preference for specificity in the end of the episode, like all the other episodes of Awkward, this one was right on. It hit all the emotional beats and drove home all of the major plots of the season. But most importantly it seems to be a good representation of what its like to be a teenager. They do drink. They do have sex. They do swear (although it is bleeped since MTV is not HBO). And Jenna's best friends, Ming and Tamara, give a great look at other points of view on life high school while being interesting and hysterically funny. I don't think I"d even be going too far to say that Tamara is the best part of the show. And maybe most importantly, they are incredibly overly dramatic and awkward. As long as those truths continue to be the foundation of the show Jenna, and the most amazing Tamara and all her awesome catch phrases, will continue to make Awkward not what we feel it should be, that shitty MTV show, but what it is, really damn good.
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