Thoughts on Season 2 of "Awkward."

 Spoilers Below:

Awkward.’s second season was more insular than its first. Its first season felt like it was constantly branching out, testing out the possibilities within its high school, teen drama setting. The second season always seemed like it had been given a lot less leeway for the options of its storytelling. The second season's major plot device was the love triangle between Jenna, Matty, and Jake. This quickly wore its welcome though, especially as we got glimpses of other stories that weren’t being given as much time because of the emphasis on the love triangle.

The strongest story of the second season was between Jenna and her mom Lacey. When Jenna discovered that her mom wrote the letter from last season and then confronted her about it, the emotional material for their scenes became increasingly potent. When Lacey tells Jenna that she’s a terrible mother who doesn’t deserve to be loved, it’s the most devastating, teary-eyed moment that the season pulls off. 

But the Jenna-Lacey scenes took a back seat to Jenna sorting out her conflicted feeling between Jake and Matty. Initially this was interesting but then the story kept repeating the same beats over and over, and it became less compelling. It refreshed itself to a degree when Jake broke up with Jenna after discovering she had been with Matty (and then a little bit after Jenna’s blog went public – which led to some delightful metaness). But I kept wanting to learn more about Ming (a fun but underused character), who had already been sidelined a little too much last season. This was the case with a number of supporting characters. Lissa was barely given screentime and Sadie’s stories (primarily involving her relationship with Ricky Schwartz) felt reductive.  

This isn’t to overstate my frustrations with Awkward.’s second season. The show remained incredibly charming and refreshingly sincere while playing around within this genre. There was never an episode that made me dread watching more; Awkward. is the kind of show that makes you feel delightful just to inhabit its world a little while. These characters are good (occasionally silly and fast talking) people. They mean well, but most of them are teens in high school figuring out the world and navigating the difficult terrain of high school politics and romance.

I think the show missed some opportunities. The fall out over the discovery of the letter’s authorship was passed over a little too quickly and the anonymous blog commenter felt like more of the same plot devicing as the letter from last season. The choice of who Jenna ended up with also occurred off screen which came off like a cop out after being so heavily a concern for this season. But the paths the series went down were true to creator Lauren Iungerich’s vision, even if they weren’t as neatly plotted out as the first season, and remained interesting and entertaining while never entirely losing sight of the characters, even the supporting ones who could use a greater presence.