Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I am knee deep into a The Secret Life of the American Teenager marathon.
This week I was originally going to talk about the finer points of the television cliffhanger. The Secret Life of the American Teenager is something that I didn’t catch on its original run, however, and the show is entertaining and very engrossing. In typical fashion I neglected watching the show due to a perception of what the show was about rather than what it was really about.
When the show originally premiered I thought The Secret Life of the American Teenager was a show produced to tap into the Juno Oscar popularity. I thought this because the concept seemed similar: the story of a 15 year old teenager that gets pregnant. I’m sure based on just those words you might think the same thing. What I discovered was an ensemble show that featured not one life but an entire class of american teenagers, each facing the pressures and frustrations of “coming of age” in the new millennium. Even though each character represents a stereotype that is something that has to be forgiven since the stereotypes are needed to provide the conflict needed to keep the stories moving. Besides, high school is all about stereotypes, isn’t it? Everyone picks a niche to fit into in order to define their own character on their journey to find themselves (at least in this writers opinion).
Another tricky thing that the show does is makes each character have redeeming qualities, as well as setting people in a realistic light. The womanizing boy that knocks up the main character, Amy, has a history that makes you sympathetic to why he does what he does. Although the nerdy boy that is pursuing Amy did so originally in his pursuit of sexual growth he turns out to be a very sympathetic character who seems to genuinely care about her. All of the other characters also have their own personal dillemas and character flaws to deal with and each gives me that flashback to life as a teenager (although no where near as dramatic or complicated).
As you will see below The Secret Life of the American Teenager has its season premiere on Monday. I only wish I had recommended last week for you to watch the marathon that I’m currently watching.
Now, to get back to the concept of the cliffhanger. There is a fine art to the use of the cliffhanger. Anyone attempting to write a good cliffhanger has to do so with great caution since a good cliffhanger makes you want to tune in while a bad cliffhanger frustrates you so much that you have to tune in later. I really prefer to watch things out of desire rather than spite.
One great cliffhanger was Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s season 2 finale with Buffy leaving town after plunging a sword into her vampire love Angel‘s stomach and sending him into a hell dimension (wow, that reads a lot nerdier than it was to watch). This cliffhanger gave us solid payoff with a sucker punch and the stunned wonder of what was next. Last year’s mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica accomplished the same goal with humanity finding Earth, the joy and excitement of this accomplishment and the payoff that Earth seems to be an irradiated wasteland of devestation. Was that really Earth? What happens next? Questions that make us eager and not angry (at least not this particular viewer).
One lousy cliffhanger was the first season of LOST. After all the great episodes that season had we were left stunned by the kidnapping of Walt and not one single glimpse of what was inside the mysterious hatch that had just been blown open.
This brings me to the final aspect of the cliffhanger: the payoff. If you write a cliffhanger you can’t string the audience along when you get back, and you better have had your payoff planned when you wrote the cliffhanger. LOST was guilty of poor payoff both with the season 2 opener (too confusing) and the season 3 opener (too boring… and confusing). The season 4 opening to Charmed had to recover from a cast shakeup with the exit of Shannon Doherty. The writers had the challenge of wrapping up the previous season’s cliffhanger as well as introducing a new character to keep the show going. Somewhere between the two they made it very unclear how we got from the season finale to the current episode. Great cliffhanger, lousy followup.
Now that I have given you the followup to last week’s cliffhanger about the discussion on cliffhangers, let’s look at what is available for viewing this week.
MONDAY
ABC Family – 8:00 PM: The next season premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager picks up tonight where it left off. If you missed the Sunday marathon (or if you watched it and discovered there’s two more episodes they didn’t show) you can catch the last two episodes of last season two hours prior to the premiere.
ABC – 8:00 PM: Get ready to say “Awwww” as the single father rejected on The Bachelorette makes a TV spectacle of himself again with 25 hopeful women on The Bachelor.
SCIFI – 8:00 PM: Last season of LOST brought us many new characters, 4 of which we really got to know. You can see them again tonight with the syndicated running of the episode Confrmed Dead.
TBS – 10:00 PM: See how it all began with the pilot of My Name is Earl. To bad you can’t relive all of those magazine inserts with Jason Lee talking over and over again.
TUESDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: Another season of The Biggest Loser starts with another run at “Couples“. This time they are boasting the eldest player and the heaviest/youngest player ever. As long as they really are improving lives I’ll reserve judgement.
TheCW – 8:00 PM: The hyper-real 90210 returns tonight, but after the simple lives in Secret Life it’s going to be hard to take this show seriously.
ABC – 9:00 PM: I’ve been waiting a long time to see Scrubs come back on it’s new network and tonight with guest star Courtney Cox.
CBS – 9:00 PM: If you’ve been watching The Mentalist from the beginning than you’ve been waiting for the moment where Patrick Jane finally gets down to finding Red John. I’m sensing a false lead with this one.
WEDNESDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: The three episode arc for retooling Knight Rider starts tonight. Even though I haven’t been watching these next three ep’s will close up more of the “government conspiracy”, show us the evil KITT counterpart KARR, and lead to more stand alone episodes. Is it enough to save the ratings challenged but well sponsored show?
ABC – 8:00 PM: The Alphabet Network is hoping you won’t notice the lack of Pushing Daisies on tonight by re-airing last nights premiere of Scrubs.
CBS – 9:00 PM: The 35th Annual People’s Choice Awards are on and I get a chance to see again just how much my choices aren’t like the choices of others.
MTV – 10:00 PM: Seven strangers are once again picked to live in a house with the premiere of The Real World: Brooklynn. I’m going to tune in for the nostalgia but will probably just grumble about “kids these days.”
THURSDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: My Name is Earl is back tonight with tonight’s episode titled Got the Babysitter Pregnant. I was already going to watch but now I’m REALLY going to watch.
HIST – 8:00 PM: Cosmic collision, environmental disasters and Armageddon are all the uplifting topics discussed in Nostradamus: 2012.
NBC – 9:30 AM: 30 Rock also returns tonight and Liz is dating guest star Peter Dinklage. I’m guessing the relationship will be short lived (oh no I didn’t!).
FRIDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: Howie Mandel leverages his Deal or No Deal fame into a Candid Camera knock-off called Howie Do It.
USA – 8:00 PM: The Magnum P.I. inspired commercial for the new season of Monk has had me waiting eagerly for the shows return. Tonight the wait is over.
SCIFI – 8:00 PM: Tonight the series finale of Stargate Atlantis kicks of with a re-airing of the Vegas episode before the 9 PM airing of Enemy at the Gate.
USA – 9:00 PM: Psych is back with Shawn investigating the death of released sea lion. What, you expected a serious investigation?
SATURDAY
FX – 8:00 PM: See the love begin to bloom between Brad and Angelina in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
AMC – 8:00 PM: Are you strong enough for six hours of Charles Bronson? If so, then try to sit through Death Wish through Death Wish 3.
CMT – 11:00 PM: Nothing reminds me of childhood more than watching Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed getting the best of Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit.
SUNDAY
Tonight is nothing but a flat out face off… everyone else against Jack Bauer.
FOX – 8:00 PM: Nobody likes Jack Bauer’s tactics until they find out who is behind a terrifying terrorist threat with the return of 24. After an entire year without the show I bet everyone at the network is sweating the ratings.
NBC – 8:00 PM: Can The 66th Annual Golden Globes defeat Jack Bauer? Doubtful.
ABC – 8:00 PM: The alphabet network stands by their regular schedule with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Desperate Housewives to try to bring down Jack. I think they stand a better chance than NBC.
– Will Wilkins is living the Not-So-Secret Life of an American Middle Aged Guy.
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January 11th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Courtney Cox will probably give Scrubs a big PR boost, and she’s pretty funny as well