An improvement from season one (especially the second half), the first half of season two “The Secret Life of the American Teenager – Volume 3” is more dramatic and entertaining. Season two features a stronger plot-driven storyline relating to the supporting characters including the parents of the series. If you are a fan of the “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”, this latest volume is definitely worth picking up!
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TITLE: THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER: VOLUME THREE
DURATION: 522 minutes (12 episodes)
DVD INFORMATION: NTSC, Region 1, Widescreen (1:78:1), NTSC, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French
RATED: TV 14 DSLV (Parental Discretion Advised)
COMPANY: abc family
Released on December 22, 2009
Created by Brenda Hampton
Starring:
Shailene Woodley (as Amy Juergens)
Kenny Baumann (as Benjamin “Ben” Boykewich)
Francia Raisa (as Adrian Lee)
Megan Park (as Grace Kathleen Bowman)
Darren Kagasoff (Rickey Underwood)
Greg Finley II (as Jack Pappas)
Renee Olstead (as Madison Cooperstein)
Camille Winbush (as Lauren Treacy)
Jorge Pallo (as Marc Molina)
Mark Derwin (as George Juergens)
Molly Ringwald (as Anne Juergens)
India Eisley (as Ashley Juergens)
Josie Bissett (as Kathleen Bowman)
John Schneider (as Marshall Bowman)
Luke Zimmerman (as Tom Bowman)
Amy Rider (as Alice Balko)
Allen Evangelista (as Henry Miller)
Ernie Hudson (as Dr. Ken Fields)
The teen drama that has everyone talking is better than ever in its inspiring third season. Rediscover all the excitement and emotion of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, the critically acclaimed original ABC Family series. It’s a whole new school year as Amy (Shailene Woodley) tries to juggle motherhood, school, work and family, and Grace (Megan Park) and Jack (Greg Finley) take their relationship to the next level. Don’t miss this “top-flight series,†raves the New York Post.
NOTE: There is confusion in regards to the seasons of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”. The second volume was marketed as “Season Two” but abc Family has confirmed that it was a production mistake and the last volume marketed as season two is in fact, the second half of season one. This volume three release is the first half of season two.
The ABC Family series “THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER” received a lot of attention during its first season as the series was critically acclaimed and also how ABC Family didn’t sugarcoat the challenges of teenage pregnancy. Showing us the ramifications of being pregnant as a young teen but also the responsibilities and difficult choices one needs to make. The series was also popular for its portrayal of teenagers of today. Again, nothing sugarcoated and despite it being on ABC Family, the series shows us the real-life challenges that teenagers are facing. These characters are just regular people, not upper class and each of them have their own set of problems.
The series primarily focuses on the life of teenager Amy Juergens (Shailene Woodley). Your typical girl next door. A 15-year-old who plays the French Horn in a band and part of a typical American family ala dysfunctional. During a summer at band cap, Amy met her high school band’s “player” Rickey Underwood (Darren Kagasoff) and with one very quick one night stand, this teenager had her life change in ways she would never imagine. The first season of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” focused on Amy dealing with being pregnant and the months leading to her giving birth and having to decide between giving the baby up for adoption or keeping it.
Her mother Anne (Molly Ringwald) and her father George (Mark Derwin) who thought they have raised a smart daughter is surprised and shocked that they have to deal with a pregnant daughter along with their younger, rebellious daughter Ashley (India Eisley). And this family which seemed perfect, actually broke down with George having an affair and Anne filing for divorce. In the second season, both George and Ashley move out of the house and surprises Anne by moving to the home next door. As for Anne, she begins dating her boss and having sex on the first date. This will lead to major repercussions in this second season (volume 3) in which Anne finds out that she is pregnant which is dangerous for a woman at her age.
As for the baby’s father, Rickey, half of him wants to own up and take responsibility for getting Amy pregnant and being a father while the side of him wants to score with the high school’s popular activist/cheerleader/Christian and a virgin, Grace Kathleen Bowman (Megan Park).
Grace has since decided to go back to her ex-boyfriend and fellow Christian Jack Pappas (Greg Finley II) who lost his virginity to Rickey’s on and off girlfriend Adrian Lee (Francia Raisa).
As for Amy, she has one person who cares for her deeply, her boyfriend Benjamin “Ben” Boykewich (Kenny Baumann), son of a sausage mogul, who loves Amy and is willing to be there for her, not just as a boyfriend but a father if need be.
“The Secret Life of the American Teenager – Volume Three” features the first half of season two with 12 episodes on three DVD’s.
The main characters/teenagers of “THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER” are:
Benjamin “Ben” Boykewich (Kenny Baumann) – A teenager who is Amy’s boyfriend and will do anything for her. His father is “the sausage king” and his mother died several years ago. He offers to marry Amy. He has never been in a relationship before, thus sometimes he says things in the wrong moment. Although close to his father, when it comes to how he should approach his relationship with Amy, he listens to his best friends Henry and Alice and when times get tough, he seeks out the help from the school guidance counselor, Marc Molina (Jorge Pallo).
Rickey Underwood (Darren Kagasoff) – Rickey is the father of Amy’s baby. He is the drummer in the band, very manipulative and a player. His “bed buddy” is Adrian but his goal is to have sex with devoted Christian, Grace Bowman. Rickey also is seeking therapy through Dr. Ken Fields (Ernie Hudson) due to being molested by his father when he was young and being bounced around in several foster homes.
Adrian Lee (Francia Raisa) – Very intelligent but somehow strayed in the wrong path and is a flirt who engages in sex with different guys. She is a majorette and always wonders who her real father is. She sleeps with Rickey and believes that a bad girl deserves a bad boy like him. She has slept with Grace Bowman’s boyfriend Jack and has recently discovered that her mother has had an affair with Amy Juergen’s father. Also, discovering the whereabouts of her real father who she ends up meeting.
Grace Kathleen Bowman (Megan Park) – A devoted Christian and cheerleader who once dated the football star Jack until she found out that he and Adrian had sex. So, now she likes Rickey, a boy who she knows is bad news but feels that he has changed.
Jack Pappas (Greg Finley II) – A football player who can’t get his mind off sex. He’s a son of the pastor and not too thrilled that Grace is dating the bad boy Rickey. In season 2, Jack is messing around with Alice and a few other teenagers.
Madison Cooperstein (Renee Olstead) and Lauren Treacy (Camille Winbush) are Amy’s best friends. They are the only one’s that know that she is pregnant but at the same time, they are quite talkative and unable to keep a secret and word starts to get around the school. Problem with Amy’s friends is that they want some adventure as their friend and even start flirting with Rickey. Camille’s father happens to be the psychiatrist for Rickey.
Henry Miller (Allen Evangelista) and Alice Valko (Amy Rider) are a romantic couple and friends of Ben. Henry and Alice were a close couple and were in totally in love until they had sex. The two break up in the first season and in the second season, Henry has his eyes on Amy’s younger sister Ashley.
“THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER – VOLUME THREE” DVD comes with a total of 13 episodes on three DVD’s. Here is a spoiler-less summary of each episode:
DISC 1:
- EPISODE 24 – The Big One – Anne suspects that she may be pregnant, meanwhile Grace goes against her father’s wishes to abstain from sex until she gets married. Tragedy hits one of the main character’s family.
- EPISODE 25- What’s Done is Done – Grace blames herself after her father is killed in a plane accident. Meanwhile, Ben wants to take care of baby John but Amy refuses.
- EPISODE 26 – Par For the Course – Grace continues to head downward after her father’s death and refuses to admit that she loves Jack.  Meanwhile, Rickey wants to be part of the baby’s life and help Amy out.
- EPISODE 27 – Ciao – Rickey tries to establish a relationship with Adrianne meanwhile David has a surprise for Anne.
DISC 2:
- EPISODE 28 – Born Free – Amy is still adamant of going to Italy with Ben and leaving her baby behind because she needs time away from him. Meanwhile, Grace tells her friends about Geroge’s secret.
- EPISODE 29 – The Summer of Our Discontent – Amy has a hard time with Ben going to Italy, meanwhile Ashley wants her father to confess the truth to Anne.
- EPISODE 30 – Summertime – The summer is over and we see how the characters have changed during their break.
- EPISODE 31 – A New Kind of Green – George offers Adrian and her mother to move into the house which angers Ricky because he doesn’t want Adrian living next door to Amy.
DISC 3:
- EPISODE 32 – Hot Nuts – Jack tries to have man and man time with Tom. Meanwhile, Amy is very upset at Adrian.
- EPISODE 33 – Knocked Up, Who’s There? – Grace and Jack seek religious help via a teen abstinence group and Amy gets upset when her father tells her to not see Ben.
- EPISODE 34 – Cramped – George makes a room for Ashley and Amy is jealous. Meanwhile, Betty moves in with Leo and Ben.
- EPISODE 35 – Be My, Be My Baby – Grace is upset that her mother is dating again, while Ben and Amy question if they should even have a relationship.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“The Secret Life of the American Teenager” is presented in widescreen (1:78:1) and for the most part, the picture quality is satisfactory for this drama series. Also, it helps that the series features various settings, including multiple outdoor shots which definitely makes the PQ for the DVD much better.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The series is front and center channel driven, dialogue is clear and understandable and music comes out quite clear from the front channels. The series is not the type of series that utilizes special effects or the use of the surround channels but if you have a modern home theater receiver and a 5.1 or 7.2 setup, definitely worth selecting audio on all channels on the receiver for a more immersive soundscape.
Subtitles are in English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER – VOLUME THREE” comes with a few special features. Included are:
- Pilot Episode “Make It or Break It” – (44:06) The pilot episode for abc family’s original drama series “Make it Or Break It”. A very captivating drama series that revolves around a female gymnastics team and a girl named Emily Kmetko from Fresno who practiced gymnastics in a public gym and now attending one of the top gymnastic schools “The Rock” (Rocky Mountain Gymnastics Training Center). But life for Emily is difficult as her mother is a single and unemployed trying to take care of Emily and her disabled brother. So, Emily tries to balance her life working secretly at a pizza restaurant and preparing to make the gymnastics regionals but life is not easy at a few of the top girls of the team, especially Lauren Tanner despises her. Lauren, who’s fathers money help build The Rock and knows that only three can go to Nationals, sees Emily as a threat for that third position.   So, Emily has to prove at the competition that she deserves to go to compete and that she is just as good as any of the members of “The Rock”.
- Hot Chat – (6:19) On Disc three is a special feature in which fans get to ask questions to cast members which is put into a hat and the cast reads the question and answers them.
For the first half of season two of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”, the main focus is about relationships. Children not listening to their parents and parents making mistakes and the main characters reevaluating their own personal relationships. Amy is learning that raising a child is very difficult and knowing what sex has done to her life, now she distances herself from Ben (who sees people all around him, including his good friends having sex except him). Meanwhile, Grace deals with family issues that she has never had to deal with before and questioning if having sex with Jack when she was focused on abstinence was a good thing to do, especially when the last conversation she had with her father was him telling her not to have sex. Meanwhile, Adrian and Ricky reevaluate their lives especially Adrian who starts to question why the two desire sex when there is no connection but the sake of doing it.
Season two also features more storylines involving the parents of Amy, Grace, Ben and Adrianna. With Molly Ringwald pregnant in real life (and having had a baby since), the writers included her pregnancy into the storyline and sure enough, an interesting situation with Anne pregnant and having sex with her ex-husband George (who lied about having a vasectomy) and her new boyfriend David. With George not wanting to own up to his lie, will he confess to her that the baby may be his?
The second season definitely gets much better as the the latter half of season one was getting a bit soap-opera-ish but the parent-driven storyline of Anne-George-David were pretty fun, also to see a more emotional episode utilizing Grace’s character and her family definitely made the storyline for the second half quite entertaining. Some acting scenes seem quite wooden at times but for the most part, if you stuck with the series this long, you get used to the small quirks and find the whole series to be entertaining.
As for the DVD release, I still wish there was audio commentary and other special features in relation to the characters. For “Volume Three”, you get one special feature and another promoting abc Family’s latest series which is coming soon. But it would be nice to see more special features included in the next DVD release.
But overall, another solid release for “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”. As mentioned, I felt the latter half of season one seemed like it was straying away from the heart and soul of the series but this second season, things started to pick up. If you are a fan of the series, definitely a DVD release worth picking up!