TVSquad

For my daughter's twelfth birthday, she decided to have four of her friends sleep over, and it turned out to be the same night that The Secret Life of the American Teenager season two was premiering. OK, she actually sort of planned it that way. All but one of her friends is allowed to watch the show, and she managed to talk her mom into it "just this once." I totally respect that. I write a family movie column and have kids of my own, so I'm fairly in tune with what is and isn't appropriate for various age groups.

I watched a few episodes of Secret Life last season, and while the subject matter isn't geared for little kids, it seemed OK for kids twelve and older. But this season, it seems like the show has really kicked the sex talk up several notches. Yes, I know it's a show about a teenager who gets pregnant and is forced to deal with the consequences. I'm ok with that. It shows kids that there are consequences, and that sex shouldn't be taken lightly.

As a TV Squad contributor who, admittedly, could be considered a "niche viewer" (in that I watch few shows, but never miss an episode), I was naturally hesitant to check out Roommates on ABC Family. A friend guaranteed me that the show was not only as bad as one might expect, but that it was so utterly, bafflingly wretched that investing thirty minutes in it turned out way more entertaining than I'd expected, and not just in the so-bad-it's-funny way, either.

Roommates is so atrocious, its production should be considered a criminal offense, considering that, even as a basic cable program, hundreds of thousands of dollars (at the very least) have surely been invested in the show. And that's money that could have easily gone toward refugees or food banks or, say, into the budget of ABC Family's other critically lauded programming like Greek or Secret Life of The American Teenager.

It's taken nearly 10 years, but the feature film 10 Things I Hate About You is being made into a TV show. Well, a pilot anyway. We'll see if it goes the distance. This project has a few things going for it:

1) It's on ABC Family, which has done a fabulous job with their programming. Have you watched the network lately? This is edgy stuff that's like the next step up from Nickelodeon and Disney Channel: Lincoln Heights, Greek, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager top the list.

2) The cast is great. Some you might have heard of, others not: Lindsey Shaw, Meaghan Jette Martin, Kyle Kaplan, Nicholas Braun and Ethan Peck. That's him, pictured. He's the grandson of Gregory Peck, and he kind of looks like him, doesn't he?