The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Season Two (DVD)

High school is challenging enough for most teenagers--doubly so for a pregnant 15-year-old. Amy (Shailene Woodley) and Ben (Ken Baumann) start the year by planning a wedding at the same time her mother, Anne (Molly Ringwald, who sings the pop-tastic theme song), looks for work and files for divorce from the obnoxious George (Mark Derwin), leaving Amy out of luck in the childcare department. It almost plays like a sequel to Saved!, except the comedy isn't quite so edgy. Amy's friends include good girl Grace (Megan Park) and bad girl Adrian (Francia Raisa), with whom she has something in common: "troubled narcissistic underachiever" Ricky (Darren Kagasoff), the father of her baby, who dates Grace by day and sleeps with Adrian by night. The Secret Life is, essentially, a teen soap, an impression reinforced by the presence of Beverly Hills 90210's Jason Priestley in the director’s chair and Melrose Place's Josie Bissett as Grace's mom (another familiar primetime face, John Schneider, plays her father), but it still bears comparison to Brenda Hampton's 7th Heaven, since there are several well adjusted Christian characters, like the Bowmans (Grace's family) and the Stones (Grace's sometime-boyfriend Jack's family). As the second season swings into full gear, Anne meets a new man, Adrian falls for her stepbrother, Amy's sarcastic 13-year-old sister, Ashley (India Eisley), gets her first boyfriend, and Amy finally decides whether to keep the baby or not. Supplemental materials include the featurette "Character Secrets," in which the actors discuss their roles, and "Cast Close-ups," in which they reveal information about themselves. Ringwald, for instance, cites The Breakfast Club as the top pick from her filmography, while Baumann acknowledges that he used to be a department-store-catalog model. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Season Two (DVD)