When it debuted in 2008, The Secret Life of the American Teenager raised a few eyebrows for making a pregnant teen the focus of the series. The ABC Family network proved to be very popular with the teen and pre-teen demographic. Even some adults admit to it being a guilty pleasure. Surprisingly, this most recent volume finds the series taking a much darker turn. For now at least, much of the soap opera feel has been discarded, in favor of more mature themes.
Amy Juergens (Shailene Woodley) has finally developed a romantic relationship of sorts with Ricky Underwood (Daren Kagasoff), the father of her child. Despite their past history, Amy refuses to have sex with him. Ricky, who has bedded every girl who would have him, finds the situation increasingly frustrating.
Meanwhile, Ben Boykewich (Kenny Baumann) is set to move into a condo with his pregnant girlfriend Adrian Lee (Francia Raisa). As fans of the series know, Ben was once deeply in love with Amy, and hoping to raise her son John as his own. But, of course, in the world of a teen, that might as well have been a lifetime ago. Adding an interesting twist to the situation, Adrian dated Ricky for awhile, but Adrian slept with Ben just to spite the promiscuous Ricky. Though Adrian now claims to be deeply in love with Ben, anyone who watches the series will likely have their doubts.
Ben is a responsible kid; since Adrian is pregnant with his child, he feels like marrying her is the right thing to do. The realization of becoming a husband and father at such a young age scares him. On top of that, many of his friends, who don’t like Adrian, don’t support his decision to marry her.
As for the other kids, they’re all dealing with issues of sex, and what it does to relationships. Jack (Greg Finley II ) and Madison’s (Renee Olstead) relationship is going well. While they would like to have sex, they’re hesitant: what happens after they do it? Will their relationship change? Grace (Megan Park) and Grant (Grant Harvey) want to have sex as well, but have their own hurdles to overcome.
While there are things to enjoy about Secret Life, I find the show tiring at times. Constant hookups among the same group of people can get redundant. And now they’ve got their second pregnancy with the Ben/Adrian situation. Shouldn’t Amy’s situation serve as the ultimate poster for safer sex? I dunno, I feel old.
The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Volume Six is presented in the 1:78:1 aspect ratio. The picture quality is quite good. The series features various settings, including multiple outdoor shots, all of which show up well.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The series is front and center channel driven, dialogue is clear and understandable and music comes out of the front channels. The series doesn’t really utilize the surround channels.
Subtitles are in English SDH.
There are no special features.
