The more ABC Family moves to corner the market on a "Young Adult" niche, the more I seem to like it. Such titles as the soon to return Make It Or Break It, new effort Pretty Little Liars, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager aim at something that is otherwise underexplored. Though certainly not the best efforts television has ever known, and squarely in the guilty pleasure category for many, they take their young adults more seriously than most efforts.
Like the newfound and wildly popular section of your local bookstore, ABC Family has set its sights on an untapped market that will hopefully draw great ratings, but also on the idea that something more legitimate ought to come between cartoons and concepts designed for thirty-somethings.
ABC Family’s #1 show is back for an exciting and inspirational fourth volume. The Secret Life of the American Teenager, the critically acclaimed original series follows teenage mother Amy (Shailene Woodley) and her friends as they survive high school jealousies, betrayals, break-ups and make-ups, while also experiencing the drama of home life.
Volume Four's twelve episodes kick off following one of the show's more constructive developments, Amy and Ben's split. That really sets the tone for the episodes you get here, and while the ups and downs of friends of family are the usual fare for the series, which is to say that everything as complex as possible, a good portion of our time is devoted to expanding the show's reach in terms of its characters. Things are complicated enough, but this is a show that's clever enough to realize it has to play around with its world to keep our attention.
Secrets and drama drive things, like any guilty pleasure page-turner, but the characters are solid and increasingly fleshed out, and in a simply amazing move for a television effort, they actually grow and change.
It may not be among my top choices for televised entertainment (mostly because demographic marketing actually does work in some respects), but it's an impressive effort, and I like to see television that has such respect for the young. There is guilty pleasure and then there is more or less calling your audience stupid, and TV hasn't been sure of the distinction for a long time.
Check out a few clips below.
Gossip
Families
Awkward Moms
Ben’s Dilema
Bonus: Scoring Music
Bonus: Shooting Hoops
Own it on DVD today!
Win it!
Leave a comment below and you are automatically entered to win your very own copy of the DVD release. U.S. only. Winner will be randomly selected July 4th.
RU?
© 2010, Are You Screening?. All rights reserved. Reprinting without express permission of the author is prohibited.
About Marc Eastman
Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.
Twitter | Facebook | More Posts (1450)
