THE TV COLUMN

MTV gets adults’ attention with Awkward series

MTV? Is there anything worth watching on MTV?

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m three or four decades beyond the MTV target audience. Maybe five decades for some of the shows.

I have little or no interest in such MTV staples as 16 and Pregnant, Girl Code, Teen Mom, A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, The Ashlee Simpson Show, Date My Mom, Pimp My Ride or Teen Cribs. And I’m sure that MTV is just fine with my disinterest.

MTV (“Music Television”) launched amid some trepidation in 1981. I mean, some of those early videos (tame by today’s standards) were scandalous!

MTV was all music videos, all the time until around 1997, when it slowly drifted over to other programming. The video novelty had worn off and “reality” programming was in vogue.

Think of MTV’s faux drama of The Real World and The Osbournes.

Think of the puerile humor of Jackass and Punk’d. Think of the mind-numbing vapidity of Jersey Shore and Snooki & JWoww.

All that to say this: Imagine my delight in 2011 when I stumbled upon a sparkling little MTV scripted comedy/ drama titled Awkward. Season 4 kicked off last week. The show airs at 9 p.m. today.

MTV has found a promising companion for Awkward. The romantic comedy Faking It premieres at 9:30 p.m. today. Both shows may be aimed at older teens, but don’t let that dissuade you from checking them out.

(Parents: These shows are rated TV-14 for suggestive dialogue, coarse language and sexual content. There’s plenty of that.)

Awkward follows the adventures of angst-ridden California teen Jenna Hamilton (Ashley Rickards), whose life becomes all the more complicated after an accident is misconstrued as a suicide attempt.

Those who follow teen dramas should recognize Rickards from her role as Samantha “Sam” Walker on The CW drama One Tree Hill in 2008-09.

Once part of the invisible high school crowd, Jenna lost her virginity to the popular Matty (Beau Mircoff ) and their roller-coaster relationship is the heart of the series.

The supporting cast is equally talented; the writing is clever; and the situations seem plausible. The humor will remind some of the wit displayed by Tessa (Jane Levy) on ABC’s Suburgatory.

In real life, Levy is 24 and playing a high school girl. Rickards is 21 and this season is entering her senior year on Awkward.

Senior year promises to be most interesting.

Faking It is a romantic comedy about two high school sophomore best friends who have tried over and over to become popular and failed miserably.

One day the girls are mistakenly outed as a lesbian couple, and achieve instant celebrity status at tolerant Hester High.

Relishing their sudden fame, Karma (American Idol alumna Katie Stevens) and Amy (Rita Volk) decide to keep up their faux romance. Hilarity ensues.

Teaser: Amy might actually not be faking it as much as Karma.

Michael Willett plays gay Shane (the outer) who is the keeper of everyone’s secrets and the most popular boy in school. Shane is best buds with the straight school hunk Liam (Gregg Sulkin), who develops a thing for Karma.

Bailey Buntain plays Lauren, the new girl in school and Amy’s new stepsister.

Creator Carter Covington told the TV critics’ midseason press tour that the show’s premise may not be as bizarre as older viewers might think.

“For the young people today, this show is not going to be controversial,” Covington says. “I genuinely think it’s going to feel like an exaggerated version of - but very much based in - the world they live in now.

“Kids these days don’t see the world through the eyes that I did when I was a kid. But the core things stay the same: Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I want the world to see me? Those things are only accentuated with social media.”

Eight episodes are planned for the first season.

Uh-oh. The April 13 Season 7 premiere of AMC’s Mad Men was down a shocking 34 percent from the previous season. Only 2.3 million watched one of the most honored dramas in recent years.

Is the bloom off Don Draper? It’ll be interesting to tally the later DVR numbers and compare with Sunday’s second episode.

One last time. USA has renewed White Collar for a shortened six-episode sixth season. This will be the final season for the crime/mystery drama starring Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay.

Previous White Collar seasons have had 13 to 16 episodes split into two parts.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email: mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style, Pages 29 on 04/22/2014

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