Episode Review: AWKWARD., "Once Upon a Blog"

I really should have thought it over before I decided to recap Awkward. because now that Glee's back, Thursday night was jam packed with high school angst and melodrama. Thankfully, this week's episode was by far my favorite because it felt like it was written with me in mind.

Now that Jenna's love life has become her school's newest obsession, she decided to retreat to her blog as a way to work out her thoughts, but making everything public backfired because now people were actually reading and throwing in their two-cents. In order to get at her true feelings, she decided to fictionalize her life and look at how things would've been different if she had do-overs.

In one version, she refused to hook up with Matty at camp unless he got to know her first. Since Matty and Jenna actually worked on a real relationship, he had no problem introducing her to his friends. Things were a little tense at first, but when she impressed Sadie, she was immediately brought into the cool kid fold and became a mean cheerleader. Like Kitty mean. She ended up ditching her friends, getting a boob job and was just plain nasty. So nasty, Matty decided to dump her for Ming.

During another do-over, she played out a scenario where she was with Matty but came clean with Jake about her feelings for him. They dumped their respective companions for each other, but things didn't quite work out because Jake realized that they lacked chemistry. When she caught wind that he was planning on going back to Lissa, Jenna faked a pregnancy to keep him around, but the joke was on her because she ended up really being knocked up.

When it started to look like being with either one of them would end up in disaster, she wondered what it would've been like if she didn't even go to camp and never got involved with Matty. In this scenario, the boys were nice to her but not interested one bit. Oh, and they were a couple.

All of the different scenes that Jenna played out in her head actually gave her some clarity, and she decided on who to be with. She even called him up, but of course we'll have to wait to see who just ended up picking.

First off, I was super excited that both of my fake shipper dreams came true during this episode. It's so apparent that Matty and Ming have chemistry, that I actually cheered when they kissed in the middle of the hallway. And like I pointed out in my last post, Matty and Jake together does make the most sense. So what if all of these epic moments transpired in fictionalized realities?

Another reason why I enjoyed "Once Upon a Blog" so much was because it was a meta-commentary that addressed all of the issues that I have with Awkward. If Jenna had just been upfront with Matty from the get go, none of this drama would be going on. I don't think she would've morphed into a crazy cheerleader, but her lack of communication always bugged me. Ditto with her fake Jake sequence. Everything would've been so much easier if she gotten out of her own way and had been honest with the boys, but then I guess the show would be pretty boring.

Other Odds and Ends

• I watch way too many teen based shows. "Clear eyes..."
• Jenna's Twilight homage was more entertaining than it had any right to be.
• I cannot look at Ming the same way again after watching the New Normal pilot. Hello Kitty, ha!
• Man, Lissa cracks me up.
• Tamara needs to stop talking. "Digitized?" Eww.

Seriously, best episode ever! "Once Upon a Blog" was just what I needed because it made me laugh without getting me all worked up due to the whole Team Matty vs. Team Jake non-sense, and the show's wit was on fire. I just hope next week's season finale can keep up, and to be honest I hope she ends up picking neither of them. Team Make, all the way!