'Awkward.''s First Season Takes on High School Drama with a Keen and Charming Eye

For the longest time I couldn't even begin to put into words why I liked Awkward.. It's such an unassuming teen comedy that it really is at times hard just to put your finger on why it's so effective. The series is incredibly charming and sweet, that was certainly part of its appeal. But as I get further and further away from high school, I find it somewhat strange how continually drawn I am to narratives about the subject matter. I'm a big defender of Easy A, and a lot of the wiles and tropes that Easy A played around in are front and center in Awkward.. There's a voiceover prompted through a blog that gives us insight into the protagonist's thoughts and the series primarily deals with the protagonist navigating high school, especially relationships, sexuality, and the drama that can come about from both of these things. While these are the types of stories that are so well-worn and played out that it would be hard to imagine some piece of pop culture making them fresh, Awkward. largely succeeds by being incredibly earnest about these topics and making them specific to its characters and the situations they find themselves in.

The show is trafficking in tropes, but it's the way the series so often provides nuance or emotional resonance to a trope it's using that so consistently makes them work. Take queen "bee-atch" (show's word choice, not mine) Sadie, played with delightful despicableness by Molly Tarlov. The series gives just the slightest glimpses to orient us to the reasons for her mean girl sadism that it doesn't fly off into space and become totally unbearable or utterly unrealistic. While the series never feels the need to constantly reiterate what makes Sadie, or any other character for that matter, tick, it's the nudging reminders that nicely relate that there's more to these characters than the wacky antics belies.

The show is often at odds with its broader sitcom-like structuring and its deeply felt emotional authenticity that comes out in smaller doses. The sincerity of the series underlies nearly everything the show attempts, and its undercurrents are sensed in the more goofy, more directly funny moments. But the show still can pull out the stops and stick a solidly emotional moment that feels satisfying, well-earned, and honest.  

So much of what makes Awkward. work is Ashley Rickards' performance as protagonist Jenna Hamilton. The performers in general are really fun, but Rickards command of the central performance is what sells so much of the show. All the hesitation, frustration and longing that comes with being in high school are brought out in Rickards who plays between daring-do moments of lacerating confidence and self-deprecating anxiety as Jenna constantly reinvents herself and accepts her place in the spot-light. It helps that Jenna is never allowed to be a completely sympathetic figure; she's our protagonist and most of the show is seen through her eyes, but Jenna frequently fails to understand where other people are coming from, whether it be her friends, her love interests, or her mother. By allowing the dynamic between characters and within the plot be a bit messier than say a John Hughes movie (which the series even makes reference to at one point), the show becomes a bit more practically relatable. Yes, the kids of The Breakfast Club are relatable, but that's because they're types; they could be anybody. Jenna could be us but she's also very uniquely herself in a way that she's her own fully formed character.    

While much of the show can be much too broad, at times too much so in its characterization, the show at its best moves beyond its tropes. It provides a lovely little lens on the politics of everyday life in high school. This is most clearly apparent in the show's handling of the love triangle that drives much of the season, but it also plays out nicely in the ways in which Jenna is forced to confront the attention thrown at her at many different turns.

The series has this great ability to be rather dirty and yet lose none of its sincerity in a way only a handful of other series can pull of (may be New Girl and Bob's Burgers are as up to the task). Few series would consider taking pinkeye and turning it into an storyline that restates major character tenets in sweet and hilarious fashion. The show is very open about sex, alcohol, etc. and demonstrates the heightened, charged overemphasis these things have in people's lives at this age.

But therein lies the thing to most take home about Awkward.. The series captures that wonderfully delicate state of being so peculiar to being in high school. The sense of self where you imagine that every bit of drama will be the end of the world, but where you could "disappear and no one would even notice". The twinfold burden of believing everything is the end-all be-all that will send the world crashing in on itself, but deep down knowing that not much will probably come of any of this drama. The series never looks down upon this outlook or the behaviors that stem from it, but accepts it as the norm of being in high school.

Awkward. doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's a fun, smart, and emotionally resonant series with a lot of charm and heart.