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RSS'The Secret Life of the American Teenager': Marshall's funeral
It was time for Marshall Bowman's funeral on this week's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." Grace would not be attending, at least, that's what she told Jack at the start of the episode. You and I knew better, didn't we?
Why did Grace not want to attend? As she herself stated, Grace has begun to hate herself for what happened to her father. She blames herself, so that statement wasn't surprising, but it would also (obviously) be a wrong decision long-term for her not to be at her own father's funeral. Thankfully, Ricky talked her out of the car and into attending.
For the past few weeks I've found myself agreeing with Adrian all too much, that changed tonight. She was wrong, completely wrong about Grace not having to go to the funeral if she didn't want to. Haven't we all heard of closure? No, the funeral wasn't going to provide closure for Grace, but if she didn't go to the funeral she'd never find closure. Okay, so Adrian was having a hard time getting blamed for Marshall's death, but her way of "helping" Grace wasn't so much helping as hurting and she ought to have stayed quiet.
Speaking of staying quiet, what was up with Jack's dad talking to Grace tonight? That guy is the funniest character on the show, and while his talking to Grace was almost certainly helpful, he definitely has a problem giving a little too much information. I do think though that he got through to her, but I don't think he needed to discuss such in such detail the pros and cons of having sex.
I was really happy to see that Amy had the same reaction to Ricky taking John to the nursery that she had last week to Ben's watching John. Clearly Amy's issues are about leaving John in general, not leaving John with Ben. As anyone with a baby will tell you, the way Amy feels about that is completely and totally understandable, irrational, but completely normal.
As for Anne and George, I feel like a little kid who can't accept that his parents are getting divorced. It definitely looked tonight like George and Anne are headed that way, but I'm still hoping against hope that they're not going to. I know, I know, there are some things I need to learn to accept in life, but this isn't like the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus, this is TV, they're not necessarily getting divorced. Tell me they're not... please.
Come on now, Anne had that fight with David this week, so that relationship isn't going particularly well. David seemed all over-protective in cancelling the meeting and asking about the doctor's appointment. That's just the sort of opening George could exploit if he wanted to. Please George, don't let this family fall apart!
Odds and ends:
- Jack blaming Adrian for Grace being angry at him and maybe for killing Marshall? That came out of left field (Jack is angry, but I didn't think he bought into Grace causing her dad's death).
- Ben's figuring that maybe he could sleep with Adrian because he comforted her (and he totally though that) -- awesome.
- Also awesome (in a macabre, you're going to think I'm wrong way) -- Joe taking bets about whether or not Grace was going to attend the funeral.
- We're not talking about Amy trying to get out of work today in order to go to a funeral. Of course she wants to go out and have fun sometimes, but she has people who want to babysit and so she could go out sometimes. Trying to get out of work to go to a funeral to socialize obviously wasn't appropriate.
- See, I knew Jack was drinking.
- As a complete aside -- where do these people live that they have a lovely little local butcher shop? What's next door, the drug store with the old-time soda fountain?
The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - we took the "Grace would attend" side of the bet and hope you did too.
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Zap2it Twitter Talk 
So yeah, I keep seeing these recaps so I thought I would try watching this show. I have an incredibly high tolerance for bad acting and writing, I mean geez, I actually watched Hannah Montana this weekend. But wow, the acting on this show, wow. Even the experienced actors should be embarr***ed. Ricky was the only person all night that I believed his acting at all. That Amy chick, holy bratty little b**ch batman! We lose Eli Stone, Privileged, etc etc, and this is a hit? I just don't get it. I think the story is really interesting, but it is SO hard to watch!
I watch this show, as my niece loves it. We also watch Hannah Montana and all the other shows so this one, with adult situations, is a little more tolerable. However, the Amy character is getting on my last nerve. What a whiny brat! She is ordering her mom around and demanding answers to questions that are completely inappropriate for her to be asking. If I ever talked to my mother that way, I surely would have been smacked right across my face...writers need to tone that down or have her mother address it. I realize this isn't real life, but please, let's try a little bit here writers.
I commend what this show is TRYING to do- but I am so sick of all the sex talk. Every single person on this show is talking about sex non-stop. People DO have conversations and situations in their life that is not all about sex. The death of Grace's father was reduced down to another topic about sex. Instead of showing a grieving family trying to deal it was all about sex, sex, sex. I am getting ready to quit this show again. I stopped watching it last year but for some reason watched the marathon. I decided to see if this year would get any better and it just hasn't. I don't get the popularity of this show, actually. Especially when I see REAL quality shows get cancelled. It is frustrating.
Understand that this is what a bunch of 30-something men and women (mostly men, I imagine) THINK teenagers say/think/do on a daily basis. Trust me, having worked with this age group before, there are many, many, many other things teens in the 21st century talk about. This show is a disservice to adolescents because it presumes that teenagers are only interested in the areas between their legs. Most teens I know are, if not future Einsteins, at least interested enough in the world around them that they can hold relatively-intelligent conversations, even with people who they might consider as "old." Also, they think this show is crap.
Just remember, anytime adults over a certain age are attempting to write what they think teens are like, they are almost always wrong. That, and SLAT has some of the most atrocious acting on the planet. I've seen better dramatic performances from kindergarten students doing mini-plays based on Shel Silverstein poems. Oy vey.
Thanks for the recap. Despite the bad acting, the poor writing and outrageous story lines, I love this show. It like a bad train wreck we know it is inappropriate to watch but you just can't keep your eyes away.
There's a nice little butcher shop in my town. Next to the little playhouse and non-Starbucks coffee house. Small town living still exists! But I'm almost positive the local pastors don't talk that candidly with grieving teenagers about sex.
What? No mention of the totally weird golf cart funeral convoy and dumping of the ashes on Tom's feet? Sorry - that is all I could think of when I saw that scene. I mean wouldn't it have made more sense to put them in the sand trap?
I can't put my finger on the odd acting and/or writing in this show. It's written like an after-school special from the 1970s and the actors seem to be reading the lines word for word from a cue card-- actually no acting involved at all. Children under 13 don't seem to mind.
omg secretlife is an awesome show ricky is soooooo hot he is a hottie i thank amy shoul stay with him!!!!i do not like ben at all and plus he is ugly.i hope amy and ricky get baxck togather so the baby john dose not have a hard life .the baby is soooo cute