Maci Had Her Shit TOGETHER

This second season of 16 and Pregnant has lost something. It fails entirely to capture my interest, despite my giving it every opportunity to do so. Every Tuesday I come home from work. I shower, read, maybe clean up a little. I make some dinner and then I go over to Scott and Cisco’s room with some beer. We tune in every Tuesday night at 8pm Mountain Time. And by fifteen minutes in I’ve lost interest.

Now some people may say that it has something to do with the fact I’ve already seen 16 & Pregnant and the seminal follow-up Teen Mom. I’ve gotten my sick gratification of watching teenagers attempt to deal with unplanned pregnancy and in some cases trying to raise their child. Some may say that because the novelty is gone with it goes my enthusiasm. Not so. There are droves of retarded reality shows I could give two shits about in spite of their novelty.

Case in point Jersey Shore. Fairly groundbreaking idea (for reasons I shan’t make clear right now but if you doubt me I am more than willing to defend my stance) but ask me if I gave one fuck about it for any point in time (except for a fairly solid Jersey Shore theme party I went to once) or even watched it.

No I loved 16 & Preggars because the young men and women it followed were allowed to develop. They were shown as more than just stupid teenagers, in spite of the fact that they could very easily be called that by all the rest of us who managed to have sex as teens and not have a child. But this second season is doing a garbage job of making these guys and gals in any way approachable. Part of it may be the hasty way in which this season was rushed into production. Part of it may be that they start every episode off solidly into the 3^rd trimester and go at least a month into the birth as opposed to focusing on solely the pregnancy as with the first season. Part of it may be that real, worthwhile human beings whose lives would make more than just cheap thrills are probably reluctant to have their personal lives plastered all over MTV for some second season run of a show panned widely by most people with brains.

All I know is (and this is just my opinion here) the four girls and their respective male counterparts from the first season and Teen Mom were trying. They might have been fucking crazy (Amber) or spoiled rotten by their crazy parents (Farrah) or technically step-siblings (Caetyln), but damnit if they weren’t trying their fucking hearts out. They were trying to go to college, have jobs, raise their kids and cultivate meaningful relationships with significant others, friends and family members. There was more to them then being teenagers with a baby and no money. I just plain can’t think of anyone shown on this season that has a more compelling story than; we’re broke. And even when it seems like they aren’t as broke as they could be it is obvious MTV is making it seem like they are because some fuckhead thinks that’s why the show was a success before. But what did I expect from the channel that canceled Clone High and How’s Your News and Nitro Circus but kept Bully Beatdown.