Watching Sitcoms

Please, please somebody tell me that Shailene Woodley is as tired of Amy’s whining on The Secret Life of the American Teenager as I am. Please.

I watched the last two eps of this season, as I promised myself I would, and it just seemed to get worse. I was hoping that once the baby was born, she’d pull herself together and be happier. But even then, she still cried and whined (more…)

Here’s the deal. I’m getting bored with The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I know there are only two more eps in this season, though, so I’m gonna stick it out. I can’t answer for next season, but I guess that all depends on how I feel at the time.

Part of this is really the fact that I already have so many other shows to watch and my DVR keeps getting filled up. Then I’m basically forced to say up late or get up early to watch things when I don’t feel like it. But the other part of it is that the show just isn’t holding my interest anymore.

Last week’s episode, (more…)

My recap of The Secret Life of the American Teenager this week is gonna be less detailed, once again. This is mostly cause I have such a heavy TV watching schedule, I just don’t have the energy to watch it and blog it at the same time, so I watched it and now I’m blogging.

So I’m just going to make a few observations. First, Amy is turning into a major pain in the butt. I know she’s pregnant, but she’s being such a complete jerk to everyone about everything.

I’m kinda over the whole storyline with Jack and Duncan. It seemed like it might be fun at first, but now it’s just silly.

I like George acting all crazy. It makes it all more interesting. (more…)

This week’s ep of The Secret Life of the American Teenage had a little too much of Anne being perky, George being weepy and Amy being whiny.

I’m not doing my traditional recap this week, cause I was very tired and I was laying down while I watched. Now I’m just gonna give you the basics as I recall them. Anne is determined to find a job for both her and Amy. Amy is not interested in working at all.

George is realizing that he still loves Anne.

Donovan and Leon decide that they are not going to adopt the baby, but that they want to go after their foster kids.

Ben gives Ricky a word beat down, basically telling him that he will never be able to support the baby for the next 18 years.

Ashley’s new friend, Thomas, comes to visit. He tells her he is 15, then tells her he is 13. I thought he looked older, but what do I know.

Adrian, with Grace’s help, decides to become a virgin again. (Can this be done? Is this something people do?) So they consult with the Rev. Stone. I thought the scene with the three of them was really compelling. The Reverand comes across as a very nice guy who sees more than he lets on and who really wants to help people. He isn’t pushy at all, which I like, cause too often Christians are shown in a bad light. Like they are always trying to convert people to their way of thinking. Rev. Stone seems like he’s very tolerant. I like that, too.

Adrian then shares with news with Ricky, who doesn’t seem like he believes her, but they are interrupted by Adrian’s brother, whose name I still haven’t caught. Adrian tells her brother about her determination to become new and not have sex until she’s married. Of course, he seems like he’s now ready to move the relationship along. But he also seems like having sex or not is not a deal breaker. Good on him.

A man flirts with Anne at the Hot Dog Hut, where she is now working, much to George’s dismay.

Leo tells Ben off for telling Amy that she doesn’t have to work if she doesn’t want to cause he can take care of her. Leo’s response, “No you can’t, you don’t have a dime. I have dimes.” I love that man so much.

Jack sells (with Grace’s help) some candy bars to help Duncan raise money for disadvantaged kids. On his way to Duncan’s house, the money is robbed, then his keys and his phone, and then his car. He is running around trying to get it all back, when he comes up a couple of guys who look tough. They take his shoes, his money and his wallet. Then they admit they were just playing with him. They tell him that Duncan is the thief and that he was scamming Jack. They also tell Jack that Duncan won’t let him anywhere near Shawna just because he won’t let anyone near her.

Honestly, other stuff may have happened, but try as I might, I don’t remember. If you do, please help me out.

I know I haven’t been writing about sitcoms too much lately, which is a little sad, since this site is called Watching Sitcoms. I guess there just aren’t too many sitcoms that I like to watch anymore. Maybe there never really were. At least not anytime in the last few years.

There are a couple I still watch, every week, even though I don’t always talk about them, and they are The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. The last couple of weeks were repeats, and so is this week, which makes me unhappy, cause I do miss them when they aren’t on.

I think part of the problem why I haven’t been blogging about the eps, which were great, is that Mondays are a very busy night. At 8:00 pm, I’m also watching Chuck, House, The Bachelor and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I’ve basically been DVRing two shows upstairs (Chuck and House) and two shows downstairs (The Bachelor and Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother). I have to DVR The Secret Life when it repeats at 10:00 pm. Of course, I also watch Heroes and True Beauty on Mondays (or at least I DVR them and watch them at some point).

So what that all means is that I end up watching The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother on Tuesday and Wednesday during my lunch hour when I come home from work to eat. So I’m downstairs and not near the computer. I should take notes so I can blog later, but I never do, cause I’m eating.

And that’s really my entire story about why I don’t talk about sitcoms too often. I’ll try to do better.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager starts out this week with Ricky back in therapy and telling Dr. Fields all about his dad’s visit. Ricky also tells him that he will go along with the adoption for a while, but in the end, he will fight it to keep his baby.

Amy is still upset over Ben and doesn’t want to go to school. She seems to be trying to talk herself into settling for Ricky. George offers to talk to Ben for her, but she says he shouldn’t. Meanwhile, Ashley disappears and Anne tells George to go find her. George convinces Amy to go with him to find her. Instead, some guy finds her at the bus stop and he offers her a cigarette, which she accepts, then George and Amy drive by Ashley, George asks if she’s taking the bus and she says yes so he leaves her there. The guy asks Ashley to skip school with him, but she says she’s meeting someone else.

George then has it out (more…)

This week on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Amy is all mopey about being pregnant and Ben’s being angry. She and Ashley have a disagreement about Donovan and Leon adopting the baby. Ashley thinks that Amy is just giving the baby away so she can be with Ben.

Ben and his dad are having a heart to heart about what happened with Amy. His dad says he did the right thing standing up for himself the way he did. He also tells him that just because he loves Amy, that doesn’t mean that everything is going to turn out the way he wants it to. They are only fifteen years old, and that’s why people their age shouldn’t get married.

Duncan’s sister Shauna calls Jack and confesses that she doesn’t have a boyfriend, she just said that because he is too young for him. She is 20 and he is only 16. Shauna tells him that she likes him, but she doesn’t like clingy. Then Jack runs off to fix the mess he made by telling Grace about Ricky and Adrian.

Madison and Lauren are discussing that its a good thing that Ben and Amy are over. They also have a short discussion about how Lauren’s brother is only dating Madison because he is a lazy dater. She’s like the only girl he knows besides his sister. We also get to see Ben’s friends, Henry and Alice telling Ben how much they hate Amy for what she did to him.

Ben goes to see Mr. Molina about his personal problems, and Mr. Molina kicks Ben out because he says from now on he will only talk about school related stuff. Then Jack shows up to talk about Shauna and he throws him out, too. Then Adrian shows up and says, “I’m thinking about having sex with my brother.” Mr. Molina gets up and walks out.

Ben and Amy see each other in the hall, but (more…)

This week on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, stuff happened. What I mean is, I was really busy getting ready to go to NY Comic Con while I was watching and I may not have been paying as much attention as I should have been. But here’s what I believe was going on.

Ricky slept with Adrian a few times. Adrian also fooled around with her step-brother, who is a total hottie.

Amy and Ben and Ricky obsessed over what Amy should do with the baby. Amy wants to put him up for adoption, Ben and Ricky don’t want her to. Ricky doesn’t want any responsibility, though. Ben does want it, but its not his to take.

Grace finds out that Ricky is still sleeping with Adrian and she’s mad, but she sounds like she is going to forgive him.

Jack fools around with Duncan’s sister, and then finds out that she’s just playing him along.

Anne meets with the Rev. Stone to discuss potential adoptive parents. He proposes lots of people who don’t sound too good, and Anne realizes that he’s trying to discourage her. He finally admits that he promised Ashley he’d try to get Anne and George back together again and if that happened, maybe they would want to keep the baby.

George is invited to have dinner at Donovan’s house, with him and his partner, Leon. It turns out that they make a great meal, which includes a luscious looking chocolate cake, and then they tell George that they would like to have a child, in hopes that they might be able to adopt Amy’s baby. George tells Amy about the plan, warning her to keep quiet so that Anne will think the idea is hers and agree with it. That way, he will still be able to see his grandson.

Finally, Anne tells Ashley that she has to stop treating her so badly and speaking to her in such a nasty way, and Ashley admits that she’s just hurt and scared.

Maybe a couple other things happened, but nothing that important. *giggle*

I think one of the things I like about The Secret Life of the American Teenager is that it does have a message and it’s not just a teen drama, it also includes adults. On many another show, a young girl can get pregnant and there’s little if any parental involvement. It’s like the parents don’t exist or don’t matter. I guess when you’re a teenager, it seems like they don’t. But in reality parents are very much part of life, like it or not. Secret Life acknowledges and embraces that.

This week, Ricky opens up and lets Adrian know about what his dad did to him when he was younger. There was a moment during Ricky’s tirade when he reminded me briefly of Christian Slater in Pump Up the Volume. Don’t ask me exactly how, it was just something about the way he was speaking. He also goes to speak to Grace’s parents, tells them his story, and asks them to keep Grace away from him so she will be safe from Bob. At one point, Grace’s dad opens up to Ricky and tells him that his own brother was abused by their neighbor and that his brother committed suicide.

Ashley decides to go speak to Rev. Stone, but then runs into a cocktail waitress who offers her a job. Apparently, she looks way older than 13 to this woman.

Amy is going for her sonogram and there is lots of discussion about whether or not Amy will find out the baby’s sex, since she may want to give the baby up for adoption. Ben is somewhat disappointed to find out that Amy doesn’t want him to come along especially after his dad tells him that she won’t want him.
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This week on The Secret Life of the American Teenager we get to see a little bit about Jack’s step dad, the good Reverand something or other. He shows up at Amy’s house to see if he can help. Crazy! Doesn’t he know that this family can’t be helped? Well, he does try, as Ashley follows him out and asks him to help her parents stay together. Later, Anne even calls him and he presents her with some home truths of what her life will be like once she is single, working to support herself and going to school.

Meanwhile, Ricky’s dad, Bob Underwood, shows up at Amy’s house, terrifying her and Ashley who are sitting in the garage when he arrives. He then goes and speaks with George, who he wins over when he starts talking about helping out with money for the baby. He does come across as fairly normal, telling George that Ricky is a liar and won’t help them. Later, he calls Grace’s house looking for Ricky and Tom tells him that Ricky and Grace are at the batting cages. Tom then has a change of heart because the unidentified man on the phone laughs at him and he realizes that this is a “bad man.” So Tom calls Jack and convinces him to go tell Grace and Ricky. Jack is reluctant, because he thinks he is aiming for stalker status with Grace at this point. Of course, Ricky doesn’t believe them and Grace is just angry they are there, once again ruining her date with Ricky.
(more…)

Well, it’s actually just the wedding that’s over. On The Secret Life of the American Teenager this week, the wedding is over but the fall out is about to begin.

It starts out OK, with a party in a hotel room, dancing and food. Except for Grace, who is arguing with Tom and his date, Tammy, who are still insisting on getting married. Ricky watches from the sidelines, enjoying himself, while poor Grace gets more and more frustrated. Finally, she calls her mom, who is forced to intervene, but she doesn’t have much luck either. She does, however, get Tom home where his dad, miraculously back from whereever he’s been, sends Tom to his room. He’s just in time for Grace to share how she is in love, too, with Ricky. Then he takes away her fake ID.

The party however, is ended when both Amy and Ben’s dads show up, having heard through the grapevine about the wedding. Now Ben has some ’splaining to do to his very angry dad. Amy’s dad, however, is less angry and more worried that this is going to cause more trouble between him and Anne, so he tells the girls they will keep it a secret. Poor Anne is mostly upset when they all get home, because no one will talk to her about how Ashley’s first date went. She allows her frustration to get the best of her as the ep goes on, though, and ends up sleeping with George. She then confesses that she did have an affair, too, when she went away, just as George thought, and she’s not sorry. Now all she wants is a divorce.

When Adrian gets home she finds her dad there waiting for her. She’s a little unhappy that her mom is not there with him, though, but she had to go to work. Adrian’s dad wants to have a talk with her about stuff she doesn’t care about at all. Then he wants her fake ID. But Adrian’s night gets better when, after her dad leaves, Ricky shows up. Even the next day, when Ricky is back with Grace, Adrian is still happy because, as she tell’s Ricky, I’d tather be the one you cheat with than the one you cheat on.

Ben and Amy have some rocky moments, when he wants her to tell her mom and she won’t, and then Amy overhears Ben telling Mr. Molina (who’s back from getting married himself) that he knows it was a mistake for them to get married.

Meanwhile, Jack has decided to swear off girls, and is looking for another outlet for his energies. When he finds out that Adrian’s father is at the school handling a shakedown on the fake ID ring, he quickly gathers up all the fake IDs and turns himself in as the person who made them. Even though Mr. Molina doesn’t believe him - he’s got the real culprit already sitting in his office - Adrian’s dad takes Jack at his word and takes him away to deal with his crimes. Luckily, Jack only gets community service, which he is happy to serve.

Amy hasn’t worked up the courage to tell her mom yet, but she doesn’t get the chance, when she runs into Marshall at a law office. She is going to talk to someone about a divorce, he is there trying to find away to keep Tom from marrying Tammy. Unfortunately, he spills the beans about the wedding, so Anne heads right over to deal with Amy and Ben. She tells them to face the truth, that getting married doesn’t fix anything. A real, live baby is coming, and they can’t pass that responsibility off on a maid or someone else. They have to raise the baby. And no matter how much they may want to, they can’t put Ricky out of their lives, because he is and always will be the baby’s father.

Just then, the baby kicks.