MTV’s ‘Awkward’ season 5, episode 14 review: What happened with Jenna and Matty
Human. If there is one way to describe the actions of some of the characters on Tuesday night’s new episode of “Awkward,” that would be it. We consider this episode more or less a reminder that these characters, despite graduating from high school, are very much going through some issues.
Almost none of the episode took place in the present, and we were instead treated to a number of flashbacks that served the primary purpose of explaining (finally) what happened to Jenna and Matty. The answer to that was ultimately rather easy to figure out: They just wanted different things. They are very opposite people in many ways; Jenna is super-literary and a little bit pretentious, while Matty is the ultimate bro and couldn’t care less about many of her interests.
A good deal of much of what they said to each other was true after he made the long trek from Los Angeles to Maine. He acted like a jerk to some of her friends, but to be fair they were all extremely judgmental and rude to him, not really giving him much of a shot to show that he was more than what they had decided in their head was the right role for him. He called most of them boring, and from his vantage point, they probably were.
What the show could have done a better job of making clear was that it was how he and Jenna spoke to each other that caused the split. He was right to call some people out on their holier-than-thou attitudes, and she was right to question whether or not he really wanted to transfer after pulling a 180 overnight on her school. The issue was just rather than saying “let’s think about it and spend some time figuring out if you really like it here,” she lectured about it and acted like he was running away after not making the soccer team at Berkeley. She didn’t like the idea of Matty taking away from the person that she had become, but she framed it in a way almost that she was embarrassed to be around him.
Ultimately, both were in the wrong and its over … for now. Meanwhile, Tamara was too busy being a shopoholic with Sadie to pick her calls. Back in Palos Hills, we saw the origins of the new relationship between Jake and Lissa, and how he got a job working at a country club to get his life going in a new direction. There were a few definitely-funny moments, but we actually found this hour stronger from a sociological perspective than anything else. Grade: B.
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