MTV’s ‘Awkward’ season 3, episode 13 review: Is Jenna Hamilton’s story getting too dark?

What in the world is going on with “Awkward“? A show that used to be a pretty strong ratings contributor (at least around the 2 million range) is starting to fight to keep itself above a million, and it’s suffering when it comes to holding on to what it originally was for MTV: A funny, sometimes-dark comedy starring a girl in Jenna Hamilton that almost anyone who went through high school can relate to.

We continue to say that when it comes to at least nailing the high school portion of the tale, “Awkward” really hits this better than almost any other show out there. It’s a pretty accurate portrayal of just what that experience is like suffering and not fitting in, but at the same time Tuesday night took the show down a very dark path. Frustrated that her friends did not go to her party, which was an attempt to force everyone to like her new boyfriend Collin, she cut all of them out of her life.

Basically, Jenna is taking herself down into a miserable place, and it’s really not all Collin’s fault. While his flirting was bad, she could have said no or broken up with Matty rather than cheating on him. It’s also not his fault that Jenna threw the party or that she cut her friends out. He didn’t ask for her to do that.

But what this probably feels like more so than anything else is that period in a romantic comedy where everything seems miserable for about fifteen minutes before the story turns around there is a happy ending again. The difference here is that in a TV show, that sad period lasts for a heck of a lot longer, and young people may not take to being so depressed with an episode featuring a Jake / Tamara fight and Jenna losing her friends.

We’re hopeful that things will turn around for her eventually, and we do have the bizarre story of Sadie (probably our favorite character thanks to how terrible she is) “falling” for a guy who is a complete creeper. “Awkward” still is a great show, at least for an audience that is a little more mature than the Jenna’s of the world. (It is far more relatable than almost any other high-school series out there.) We just wonder how many actual high schoolers are enjoying watching a tale that has become so sad. Grade: B.

One last thing that we’ll say when it comes to the ratings is that we don’t blame it all on the dark story; we also blame it on whoever thought it smart to have this on at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on a Tuesday. This was a much better summer show, even if we are getting many more episodes this way.

Photo: MTV