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The Secret Life of the American Teenager
SERIES: ABC Family, Tuesday 8:00p (60 minutes)

7.6 based on 15 reviews read critic reviews how did we calculate this? based on 55 votes read user comments rate this tv show

Get more information on this show at TV.com.

• Official Show Site

Starring Shailene Woodley, Molly Ringwald, Mark Derwin, Daren Kagasoff, Megan Park, Greg Finley, Francia Raisa, John Schneider, and Josie Bissett

Molly Ringwald stars as a mom to a pregnant teenager in the ABC Family series by the creator of "7th Heaven" and "Blossom."

GENRE(S):	Drama, Family
CREATED BY:	Brenda Hampton
FIRST AIR DATE:	July 1, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

Secret Life feels a lot more authentic than many teen dramas.

75

New York Post Linda Stasi

The show, like the old "90210" and "The O.C.," looks to be--from its premiere, at any rate--a top-flight series about a group of high school students, most of whom I liked immediately.

70

Baltimore Sun David Zurawik

As entertainment, the pilot is a most impressive work of economic and focused storytelling.

67

Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker

Woodley's performance lifts a well-meaning, rather brave, but ramshackle show a notch. [8 Aug 2008, p.53]

60

New York Daily News David Hinckley

Shailene Woodley is terrific as the teen in question. Unfortunately, other parts of the show feel so contrived they border on soap opera parody.

60

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

It's far more realistic in scope and situations than "Gossip Girl," but there's such an earnestness and one-dimensionality to the characters that they seem a lot less believable.

50

TV Guide Matt Roush

A good girl’s surprise pregnancy is a strong premise, but creator Brenda Hampton (7th Heaven) undercuts it by surrounding Amy with an uninspired ensemble of precociously cardboard classmates.

40

Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd

It feels thin, mechanical and confused.

40

Variety Brian Lowry

From the tramp to the Christians, everyone but Amy feels more like a type than a genuine character. Although a degree of shorthand is to be forgiven, these characters are caricatures at best as the series careens all over the place.

30

Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond

This new ABC Family effort from Brenda Hampton (“7th Heaven”) works feverishly to make an educational institution look like the equivalent of a Nevada brothel but succeeds mostly in transforming high school to high camp. Were these stereotypes any more simplistic, they’d need to come with their own parental warning label.

30

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

ABC Family means well but could not have done worse. Secret Life doesn’t take the fun out of teenage pregnancy, it takes the fun out of television.

30

Time James Poniewozik

Campily depicting high school as a den of sluts and predators, Secret achieves the noble goal of making sex thoroughly unsexy.

30

Newsday Verne Gay

The pilot was so uneven that the whole affair nearly veers into "Reefer Madness" territory--the kind of over-the-top cautionary fable that subverts honorable intentions through hysteria or cliche. Despite its pedigree, Teenager doesn't appear to have ever stepped inside a high school, either.

25

Chicago Sun-Times Misha Davenport

It's a shallow portrait of youth, and I can't see how Hampton and her team of writers will be able to sustain things over the course of the series if this continues to be the focus.

20

Boston Globe Joanna Weiss

Nothing about it feels original or even especially timely, and it certainly doesn't reveal any great secrets about society.

The average user rating for this tv show is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 55 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Molly Y. gave it a1:
The only reason I gave this show a score at all is because I could not stop watching it because of how incredibly stupid it is. The parents of the pregnant girl are so dense and are sorry excuses for a parent. The parenting skills are a disgrace. Each character is such cliche, textbook label that it is disgusting. Nobody is like that in high school. Yes, teens have sex. Get over it! I find the acting to be below par, worse than Seventh Heaven by far. I still cannot believe Molly Ringwald stooped that low to be in this show. Also, there is no way a teen would take off their shirt in school (especially a girl) and not get into any sort of trouble. There are dress codes, you know.

Elizabeth Z. gave it a10:
This is seriously my absolutely favorite show ever! I am a 15 year old girl in 10th grade and even though a very few things are unrealistic, it does show a great deal of what really happens in high school.

Sophie F. gave it a4:
This show is so corny, it's unbelievable. The only one who acts like an actual teenager is Amy. Ben sounds way too superficial, repeatedly saying he loves her, calling her his "woman", asking her to marry him and having his father support this idea? Come on, they are 15! Grace just sounds too overly religious, it's so funny yet irritating. That's not what a typical teenager, even a christian teenager sounds like AT ALL. This is one lame show.

Daniel L. gave it a9:
I've seen more than 300 Teenage shows around, but none ever like this one. Since I'm just about over my teenage years, and have experienced many of what some people so call " Unrealistic situations", and i say to them "Your completely wrong.". The majority of this show represent realistic situations such as young pregnancy, which also happened to a very close friend of mine. Although the indiscreet usage of the word "sex", it has and is being used as a common word in high school lately. I'm just basing myself on the show and other people's non-sense comments. Great show!

Gabby R gave it a10:
I think this show is great i go nuts every tuesday because i love it so much. I'm hooked!

Allyson F gave it a10:
Yes, the show might be way out in the ball park for High School drama but it brings the real views of what is on teenagers minds then the rest of those TV teen drama shows. From Labels to Religion it brings up every topic you can think of that teenagers think through. Other then the drug factor and I do for once hope they don't bring that in, it will do wonders for the plot but drug opinions are crazy and won't help anything. The show brings out new meaning to the word 'Secret' because not only does the main girl act secretive she has a big one of her own and makes you wonder if she has any others. If you hate it just because it's unoriginal or unrealistic then take a look around, it's life at its funniest and TV appropriate. I know I sound like a teacher or something but if you hate it you don't have to watch it or comment it, ruining other peoples good times and favorite things can't be all there is to do in the world; I mean the main character is pregnant at 15 how about you go try getting what she has... A life.

teen mom gave it a10:
I cant wait till the next episode...you can tell the guys watching...I watch with my 15 year old boy and am able to use alot that goes on to get him to understand. I graduated in a small school and it is funny that alot of this actually happened in my school.

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