So realistic

Girl Who (Doesn't) Wear Glasses of the day/week/month

Gossip Girl's Nelly Yuki.

She started off as the girl that was going to keep Blair from getting into Yale, because she was prepared to get perfect SAT's but Blair drafted her into her little mean girls group. Somehow this year she's on probation and we're supposed to see her as a wannabe. It's pretty sad because she seemed pretty cool--Lane Kim without the rock and roll, so not all that cool--but she's taking Jenny's place as the main wannabe. Anyhow, since Blair may get top grades but doesn't fit the smart girl paradigm, and Jenny is more the artist, and Serena just drifts through life and clearly doesn't care about much besides her family, friends, and love life, Nelly is the closest thing to a retro smart girl there is on this show. It would be nice to think she'll break out of her mold in a good way, but as a very minor character I think she's doomed to be the stereotype and eventually disappear as the gang goes off to college. She's got more personality than the original Asian girl on this show at least.

I really don't think the writers of The Secret Life of the American Teenager have never met any teenagers. Or any adults. Or anyone who has ever been to high school or might eventually go. No one on this show does anything at all that resembles anything I, personally have ever done in my life, or anything that anyone I've ever met, heard of, or read about has actually done. No one gets married at 15 using fake IDs to a boy who isn't even the father. No one moves into the garage when his wife kicks him out. No one starts off making pancakes and ends up in a queen-sized bed in said garage with his ex. No one has meetings between the police, the high school counselor, and students accused of making fake IDs, or between the counselor and not-really-married-students-because-it-isn't-really-legal-with-a-fake-ID with the door open, and the "wife" would never really walk past at the most inopportune moment. No one (at least no one sane) wants to be "the girl being cheated with, instead of cheated on." No one runs into your ex's ex's current husband at the divorce lawyer and has a lengthy conversation with him that is the first time she finds out her 15 year old daughter is "married."

The only thing that did ring slightly true was that when I faulted Josie Bissett last week for not calling her ex when she heard about the wedding, it turns out she hadn't bothered to ask whose wedding, so she didn't know it was Amy and Ben's. So I suppose she's slightly off the hook for that as she did pick up the phone as soon as she found out. And clearly Amy wanting to find a way out of having to go to school, work, and take care of a baby does make sense, but not this way. The really awful part is that apparently real tweens thing this show is "so realistic" and don't think Ben is a creepy stalker and for all I know probably think Ricky the sexually confused Lothario is "so cute!"

Of course, also, no one leaves their 17-year old son in charge of a multi-billion dollar company, especially their 17-year old son who has never worked a day in his life (I don't think running his burlesque club really counts), especially at said company and probably doesn't even know what the company does, since I don't, or with a planned mentoring/training system or anything like that, and no one is suprised when he fails spectacularly, but that's Gossip Girl and I doubt teens think that show is realistic. They all act like they're at least 30, and just happen to drop into school every once in a while to keep up with their social lives.

I also watched the end of Masterpiece Classic's "Tess of the D'urbervilles." Thomas Hardy sure seemed to hate men. There isn't a good one in the bunch. I'd be interested in reading about the various controversies, but don't have time at the moment. Too much TV to get to. Oh, and work, too.