Awkward. Really???

Okay, so this isn't really a rant. It's more like...my thoughts on the show Awkward. Am I the only one who finds it weird that I'm blogging about a show about a blogger?? No? Then let's get on with it...

 Awkward. has been one of my favorite shows ever since it came out. If you haven't seen it, I'll summarize it for you. The show is basically about a girl named Jenna Hamilton and her adventures throughout high school. What makes the show so appealing is that it's not done in a style you typically see. It's a show that you can relate to, even if you aren't a teenager. Everyone has gone through something embarrassing - most likely a few things that were embarrassing - in high school and that's what the show is about. Being in that awkward stage of finding out who you really are and what you want.

Jenna, right after she and Matty have sex the first time

The show starts out with Jenna losing her virginity to her long-time crush, Matty McKibben. That opens the door for them to become friends-with-benefits until halfway through the first season. Jenna wants to date Matty and finally tells him so, but he says he isn't ready for a relationship. They keep their relationship strictly about sex until Jenna gets tired of it and finally tells Matty to get lost if he isn't going to make her his girlfriend. He decides that he does like Jenna enough to date her and they begin dating, but Matty takes her out to a secluded restaurant an hour away from their hometown and it makes Jenna think he's ashamed of her. She starts to tell him what she thinks when she finds out that the restaurant he took her to was his uncle's and he'd never brought a girl there before.

Everything comes to a head when the winter formal dance comes along. Apparently, there is some tradition at their high school where the guys make big, public displays of asking their girlfriends to the dance. It's the last day before the dance and Jenna is freaking out that Matty hasn't done anything yet. When she can't take it anymore, she lets out all her thoughts about how she felt Matty was ashamed of being with her. She breaks up with him and leaves without another word.

Matty, however, had been planning a display to ask Jenna to the dance. He'd gotten a fortune cookie specially made with the fortune asking her to go to the formal with him. He throws the box with it away as he goes over to his friend Jake's house.

Jake Rosati

Now we have to talk about Jake. He'd been going out with Lissa, one of the girls on the cheerleading team and best friend to Sadie Saxton, Jenna's number one enemy. However, he'd also been getting to know Jenna and kissed her halfway through the season. Jenna made it clear that she only wanted to be friends. Lissa found out about the kiss. She and Sadie write a letter for Jake to read to Jenna if he wants to continue his relationship with Lissa. After reading the letter, Jake breaks up with Lissa because they wanted him to say absolutely horrid things to Jenna.

All of this winds up making Jenna and Jake to go to the formal together. Matty shows up at Jenna's house after she and Jake leave, asking her parents if he could take her to the formal. They inform him that she is already there and Matty goes to the formal to find the girl he loves and his best friend together. Jenna and Matty have a very vague discussion in front of Jake about the girl - who is Jenna - that was supposed to go to the dance with Matty. He asks if it's too late to get her back and Jenna says yes, wrapping her hand in Jake's.

The "carefrontation" letter

While all of this is going on, Jenna receives a letter that she and her friends - Tamara and Ming - call a "carefrontation". The letter starts out, "Jenna, as you are now, you could disappear and no one would notice," and it gives her a list of things she needs to fix about herself. They think Sadie sent it at first, but eventually confront her about it and she denies it, saying that she'd put her name on it if she sent it to Jenna. They decide she's telling the truth and then go through a list of suspects, never finding who it is. In the last episode, Jake brings Jenna home. When she opens her front door, the alarm goes off and she quickly tells him goodbye before calling her parents for the code to the alarm. As she's talking to them, she digs through their "junk drawer" to find the code, instead finding a notebook with the exact same pattern on it as the "carefrontation" letter. Jenna then figures out that it was her own mother who sent her the letter.

Not as much happens in the second season, so I'm going to glance over it. Jenna and Jake are dating, but Matty isn't over Jenna. Being Jake's best friend, Matty hangs out with the two of them a lot, making things awkward for Jenna, especially because Jake never knew they'd dated. All the while, Jenna and her mom are trying to fix the gap that her mother put between them with the letter. Jenna's father finds out about it and leaves. Things come to a head when Jenna's mom's best friend gets married. At the wedding, Sadie - who is the groom's niece - tells Jake about Jenna and Matty dating. Jake freaks out and dumps Jenna. While Jenna's relationship with her mother is becoming better, the relationship between her mother and father is deteriorating. Ben - Lacey's(Jenna's mom) ex-boyfriend - shows up to the wedding. Jenna worries that Ben will be the final breaking point for her parents and tries to keep him away from her mom, but gets distracted when Jake dumps her. Luckily, nothing happens between Lacey and Ben when Lacey tells him that she still loves Jenna's father.

Jenna wants an explanation for Jake's actions, but he won't give her one. She walks home, calling Matty and telling him what happened. She asks him if he said anything about the two of them, but Matty tells her no. While they are on the phone, we see that Matty is with another girl - who is topless - at his house. When he hangs up the phone, he tells the girl that Jake and Jenna broke up and that he needs to leave. The girl protests, but it doesn't do any good. Matty leaves and goes to Jenna's house, meeting her at the french doors at the back of her room. Jenna let's him in and the two of them talk, Matty making sure that Jenna is okay. They come to the conclusion that maybe it's finally the right time for them to be together. They kiss without realizing that Jake is at the french doors, looking inside.

Jenna keeps trying to get a hold of Jake so they can talk about what happened, but he never answers. When he finally does, he sends Jenna a picture of she and Matty kissing, with the text "you're a cheater" at the bottom of it. She tries to explain things to him, but he doesn't listen. During lunch, Jake is leading the wheel of pep, a wheel that lists games to play that get everyone ready for the game that afternoon. He calls Jenna and Matty up to spin the wheel and Jake and Matty wind up getting into a fist fight over Jenna.

Matty, Jenna, and Jake

They get in trouble by Val, the school counselor, who is one of the best characters on the show. You'd have to watch it in order to see what I'm talking about. Or you could go to MTV's website and watch a few of her clips. Click here for Val clips She lets them go after they talk about what happened without any repercussions. They then tell Jenna that she needs to choose between the two of them.

At the end of season 2, Jenna chooses Matty. She's looking forward to a summer with her new old boyfriend, but her parents sign her up to spend the summer abroad in Europe with Val and other classmates. Tamara decides she wants to go when she hears Jenna is going and decides to sign up for the trip the next week. Matty, on the other hand, isn't interested in going. Jenna comes to the conclusion that she needs to talk Matty into going. Tamara hosts a Europe themed party and they both try showing Matty all the cool things he'll be missing by not going on the trip. During the party, Tamara mentions to Jake that she wants to go on the trip and will be signing up for it the next week, but he informs her that he took the last spot. She flips - her longtime on-again/off-again boyfriend was dating someone else and she wouldn't be able to spend the summer with her friends since they were all leaving - and goes outside to sit in her car, crying.

Lissa is at the party and keeps trying to find Jake now that he's single. She wants to go back out with him, but Jake doesn't like her anymore. He winds up hiding with Tamara in her car to get away from Lissa. Jake and Tamara have a heart-to-heart about all the sucky things in her life and end up making out. Thus, a budding new relationship is formed.

Jenna sees them kissing in the car and freaks a little, until a really nice guy who's been secretly commenting on her blog and helping her tells her she has nothing to worry about because she's with Matty. She admits he's right and, when Tamara tells her about the kiss with Jake, Jenna tells her it's okay and that she's happy for her. The second season ends with Jenna giving Tamara her spot on the trip so the two new couples can spend the summer together. But Jenna still has a little doubt about her and Matty's relationship.

Matty & Jenna, Jake & Tamara

Now we come to the present, season 3. This is where things become frustrating. Jenna is with Matty and Tamara is still with Jake. The season starts with Jenna having a pregnancy scare, which she keeps from Matty. When she finds out she's not preggers, she tells Jake absentmindedly, who talks to Matty about it. Matty and Jenna have their first big fight over her telling Jake before Matty. They make up, of course, with Jenna promising that she would tell Matty things that were important about their relationship from then on.

From there, things seem happy and perfect in relationshipville, with both couples getting along fabulously. That is, until now. I just watched the most recent episode of Awkward. and I have to say...I'm not impressed.

Collin

They've introduced yet another guy to complicate Jenna's love life. His name is Collin, a really hot guy who is in Jenna's creative writing class. The two have gotten along well all season - sort of. But in this most recent episode, Jenna is challenged by her really strict creative writing teacher to write something personal and read it on stage at a local cafe's open mic night.

She reads one of her blog entries, the first blog she ever wrote on the show. It was about losing her virginity with Matty in the supply closet after summer camp. Her teacher commends her on her performance, something that has never happened before. Sadie and Collin are there, Sadie giving her insults the entire time and Collin telling her that she was great. After her reading, Collin invites Jenna and Sadie to have some pizza, but Sadie declines, leaving Jenna and Collin alone.

Jenna and Collin after Jenna's performance

When they get done eating, Collin gets a call from his girlfriend. He grabs Jenna's wrist as he tells her to hold on while he's on the phone. This is what Jenna "says" - we frequently get peeks into Jenna's mind throughout the show - when it happens:

"...something was happening and I couldn't explain it. It was coming fast and swift, and out of the blue. I was feeling a swirling deep in my gut that was exposing...my rut."

Collin then says, "Angelique says hi." He holds his cell phone over his arm so his girlfriend can't hear when he adds, "She's trying to make me jealous." Back to Jenna's thoughts:

"But it was working on me. Because, suddenly, I was jealous of Angelique, and looking at her boyfriend as if he was...my own."

Okay, stop, rewind and freeze. What the hell just happened here? Throughout the entire season, Jenna's been talking about how much she loves being with Matty and how amazing he is. So, how did this happen? I remember being a teenager - I technically still am one for another month - and that has never happened to me before. Sure, I'd gone out with guys I had doubts about, but that only lasted about a week. I consider my Matty to be my current boyfriend, who I've been dating for two and a half years now. He's the only guy I've ever dated that I had zero doubt about. With all the other guys I'd dated, I kept wondering about whether I was kissing right or saying the right things. With Joey, my current beau, everything was easy. I never worried about being with him. I was always comfortable, never even thinking twice when the time came for us to have sex.

That's why I don't understand how Jenna could be all, "I love Matty so much," in the beginning of this episode, to, "Wow, Collin has gorgeous eyes. Maybe I should be with him," at the end. I know that the writers have to have something conflicting with their relationship or it would get boring, but yet another guy? Come on, now. That makes Jenna look like a total whore. Now, I know some people will think that's a little harsh, but let's put all of this into simple terms.

Jenna really liked Matty and began dating him. 

She then broke up with Matty and began dating Jake immediately. 

Then she and Jake broke up and she immediately made out with Matty. 

Jenna and Matty began dating again, and now she's questioning their relationship because she's getting feelings for Collin.

Tell me that doesn't sound like a cheating whore. I really like Jenna. I find her character relatable, but that isn't going to mean anything if she keeps second-guessing herself all the time. If they really wanted to introduce another possible love interest to keep the drama going, they should have made Matty get semi-interested in another girl. Or, better yet, because the high school they attend always has rumors running around, they could have a rumor going that says Matty was hooking up with another girl in the sanctuary - a spot under the stadium bleachers where everyone goes to make out. That would be something easy and completely believable. 

I'm afraid that if they keep this thing with Collin going, I won't be watching the show anymore. What would be the point? The same thing keeps happening over and over again. If I wanted to watch a show about a girl being a ho, I'd watch Teen Mom or 16 and Pregnant.

So I have something to say to the writers of Awkward: Get your shit together. Figure out who you want Jenna to be with and have her in a happy relationship for a while. I don't think there's a single show out there for teenagers that shows the happy side of being in a relationship. It's always drama, drama, drama. In real life, there are plenty of happy couples who have real problems to deal with, like figuring out how to keep their relationship going while attending two different colleges in two different states.
 

Another thing they could do is give Tamara and Jake some drama. Those two have been in a perfect relationship ever since they started dating. Why are the two relationships in this show polar opposites? Give Jenna some happily ever after for a while and let Tamara know what it feels like to be the damsel in distress. Geez.

Well, that's it for now. See you the next time I find something that irks me.