An Awkward Reminder

In breaking news, MTV has an awesome show. No, not the Jersey Shore. And it's not Teen Mom either. But it's a scripted series based on the second most uncomfortable period in everyone's life. And for most of us that means high school.
Now obviously there are people who actually say that high school was the time of their lives and actually believe it, but I usually end up feeling sorry for them. High school ends. And while it is a wonderful period to find who you are, many people have trouble in between the self discovery.
That's what is so lovable about Awkward. It stars One Tree Hill alum Ashley Richards as Jenna Hamilton, a fifteen-year-old who has a few friends and a lot of enemies. The series opens at summer camp with Jenna losing her virginity to Matty McKibben (Beau Mirchoff). And it's anything but romantic or special. Even though Matty thinks this is just for fun, it's obvious Jenna develops feelings quite quickly.
She comes back home to an anonymous letter from a really mean person.The letter pretty much tells her to suck it up and be herself instead of fading into the background. Jenna is depressed and tries to take some aspirin but ends up in an accident that looks like a suicide attempt to everyone else.
As a result, rumors circulate that she's suicidal-so she becomes the target of head cheerleader, Sadie Saxton (Molly Tarlov). This is partly due to Sadie's quest to hook up with Matty and also her need to put people down.
Jenna remains encouraged by best friends Tamara (Jillian Rose Reed) and Ming Huang (Jessica Lu), she faces the humiliation. But she also is challenged by the fact that Matty is only interested in casual sex and not a relationship. Eventually he does admit to liking her, but he doesn't want anyone to know. So, as a result the meet in private.
Matty does try to invite her to a party, with mixed results. He pays no attention to her and she ends up leaving with Matty's best friend Jake Rosati (Brett Devern). There's an obvious chemistry and eventually they kiss which sets up the triangle between Matty, Jenna, and Jake.
Matty finally gets the courage to ask Jenna out on a real date, more than an hour out of town. But it turns out he really did want to make an effort. However, he still doesn't want to be with her as much as she wants to be with him.
When Jenna gets an invite to the Winter Formal from Jake, she pushes Matty to finally admit  they're a couple, but he can't. Jenna finally gets the self-esteem to dump him and goes with Jake "as friends." Jake was hoping for otherwise, but when Jenna invites Tamara, it's obvious she's trying to set new boundaries.
 Throughout the series, there are other twists and turns. Another key storyline is Jenna's relationship with her image-obsessed mother (Nikki DeLoach) and her more level headed father (Mike Faiola). They became teen parents and Jenna is their only child, but it's obvious they never fully grew up themselves.
What's intriguing about the show is that it doesn't sugarcoat the "great divide." The great divide being the distance between the popular and unpopular crowds in school. It also deals with prevalent teen issues such as the hookup culture, underage drinking and partying and the pressure to fit in..
The show's already been renewed for a second season which could be really good or really bad. MTV's other high school show, The Hard Times of RJ Berger got the ax earlier this year after a ratings dive from the first season. It was similar to Awkward, except that it had a male protagonist and that the humor was more raunchy.
Here's hoping that Awkward continues to grow into itself.