16 & Pregnant, Season 1 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The show is terrific. It sheds realism onto the difficult and controversial topic of teen pregnancy. Instead of irresponsibly trivializing the issue, "16 and Pregnant" focuses on the hard-core real-life drama of having a baby and raising it while still being a teenager. The episodes often have re-curring sub-topics, such as parental relationship to the pregnant teenager, finishing high school/earning a GED while pregnant, facing the intense demands of a screaming newborn, trying to keep your relationship going strong while coping with a child.....etcetera....the only downside to ordering the DVD, that you should expect ( I wish somebody had told me this before I ordered the DVD ) is not to see the episode "Unseen Moments: Season One". In the first season of "16 and Pregnant", we had six hour-long episodes sharing the stories of teen parents. After the last parent's episode, we had one episode that was the "Reunion Special" and we had the episode "Unseen Moments: Season One". "Reunion Special" IS included on the DVD, but the "Unseen Moments: Season One" episode is not. Kind of a drag, since technically it IS part of the first season. There are also no English subtitles, so some of the dialogue is difficult to understand.
As for a summary of the stories in Season One, here is a brief synopsis:
Episode #1: "Maci". Maci is an overachieving teen whose life heads in a whole new direction after she gets pregnant. Her fiancee, Ryan, is very immature and Maci is not sure if she can depend on him or not.
Episode #2: "Farrah". Farrah is a pregnant teen who risks losing her friends due to her pregnancy. She also has issues getting along with her parents and finding the right place for herself emotionally.
Episode #3: "Amber": Amber is an expectant teen who drops out of high school and moves in with her older boyfriend, Gary. The pregnancy and the animosity between themselves and their families threatens to destroy their relationship.
Episode #4: "Ebony": Ebony is a teen mom-to-be who is trying to maintain her high goals, along with her impending motherhood. She and her slacker fiancee, Josh, try to deal with making sacrifices in order to make their family work.
Episode #5: "Whitney": Whitney is a childish yet likable pregnant teen who is trying improve her living situation with her boyfriend, Weston, her mother ( who is also pregnant ), her mother's boyfriend, and her grandmother.
Episode #6: "Catelynn": Catelynn is an expectant teen from the wrong side of the tracks. She is fortunately in a good relationship with her boyfriend Tyler, but the couple faces the toughest decision of their lives-adoption-without their families' support.
Tough stuff. Emotional.
The "Reunion Special" episode is on the special features disc. It is a Q&A forum with the teen mothers and a live audience. It is very interesting and Dr. Drew Pinsky does a very good job of neutrally hosting it.
I would recommend this show to teen moms, young moms, or even anybody who knows a teen mom or a young mom. If I had watched this show as a teenager, I would have looked at it from a teenager's point of view, and the parents' opinions in the show probably would have annoyed me. But now I am an adult, and I can see both sides-the parents' points-of-view, and also the angst-ridden points-of-view from the teenage moms and their boyfriends.
Very good show. Just wish the DVD was better :-(

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