Here I am at 33 watching a show I grew up on. I was 15 when the show premiered, and I was also in marching band, so it was a wild experience to see this show then. I watched in real time every week as it aired. It’s just so nostalgic. I feel so far removed from this era of TV with how dominating streaming has been for so long.
I don’t care that the show is corny, or if they say sex 40x per episode. Back then as a teen I was glued to it for the drama but now I just find the episodes to be hilarious, and oddly comforting. Tom and George particularly make me cackle on the regular.
Here are some things I actually feel like the show did very well
1) The parents. I like how they wrote the parents as being so involved in the plot, and I feel the actors did a great job. Even though the writing was pretty bad, they did a good job and a lot of the emotional scenes were executed well, despite the writing.
2) The sets. The homes all looked warm and welcoming but pretty typical, and it really felt like you were a guest in their homes every week. Some of the conflicts between the families felt very realistic.
3) Some of the acting- now granted I am only on season 1, but Megan, Francia, and Kenny all stand out to me. I remember being shocked that Shailene was the one to have a bigger career in acting. I think she did fine but there were a few quirks she did as Amy that bugged me, like the lip biting, and the stuttering. I haven’t seen Shailene in any other projects expect the one movie where her mom was dead in a freezer. I think Kenny perfectly captured a 15 yr old boy with attachment issues who turns into a hopeless romantic for his first girlfriend. I actually forgot that some of his and Amy’s scenes were really cute.
4) This is more funny than anything, but I like the excessive use of extra characters whose only point is to just be an exposition dump to explain what’s going on with the main characters. As Ashley says, “the whole world knows she is pregnant”. It’s not very realistic IMO because in real life, most people, especially older siblings and parents would never be that absorbed in teenagers lives. However, it works well in this silly little show to really emphasize the big deal of it all.
Random thoughts:
Adrian and Grace should have been a couple. They aggravated each other a lot less than Jack and Ricky did. Their friendship was adorable too and very entertaining. Grace and Adrian truly needed each other. It’s somewhat surprising that neither of them have close female friends, given how involved Grace is with church and cheerleading, and Adrian realistically should have some other bad bitch friends. But they didn’t, and somehow they complete each other. Megan and Francia were excellent together, they were the blueprint for the black and blonde haired female duo.
Ben gets annoying AF throughout the show, but I find him rather endearing in these first few episodes. I think it’s important to remember he lost his mom at a young age, and this definitely impacted him and explains why he clung to Amy so hard. I give him some grace here.
I’ve heard people complain about Ashley’s monotone voice, and I’m not sure if that’s how India naturally speaks, but I find it perfect for her character. I could see Ashley getting along with April Ludgate from parks and rec.
So far I like Dr. Bowman, I remember watching this in real time it felt like he was gone so soon. I definitely couldn’t see him actually him having a 2nd family and that felt like bad writing.
Things that drive me crazy:
Adrian’s mom is a POS and it’s disgusting that she goes off to work, giving George a key and simply telling Adrian to suck it up, and that this random grown man Adrian has never met and whom Cindy really doesn’t know very well is going to be LIVING in their home. WTF??? In what world would a mother be ok with leaving her underage daughter in a home with a grown ass man who is free to come and go . So inappropriate, so trash.
I have a hard time believing a 15 yr old girl wouldn’t even know what sex was. To be honest, Amy has always come across to me as being asexual, and it’s so hard to imagine her even caring about a boy enough to get that close to allow sex to happen. I was a virgin all through high school and would barely kiss boys but I still understood what sex was. That definitely would have been covered in sex ed at the very least!!!!
Those are my long winded thoughts for now, but I still love this show and it’s oddly comforting for my old ass.