Hidden Gems: Awkward.

Stop scrolling. Put down the adaptogens, and talk to me about this genre of TV, my favourite genre: coming-of-age yearning. It was huge on MTV in its heyday. Look into it.

Now, let me introduce you to Jenna and Matty.

Awkward. ran on MTV from 2011 to 2016. It's told through the eyes of Jenna Hamilton, played by Ashley Rickards. Jenna records every thought, feeling, and spiral of her life on a private internet blog, which she eventually makes public, and that is a whole thing - no spoilers. This show aired before short-form video and infinite scroll really took over our lives. Jenna didn't have TikTok; she had a WordPress. The confessional energy of Jenna's voiceover narration comes straight from the early-2010s Tumblr age, when girls were just out there processing in real time for everyone to see. Some people called it oversharing. I think they owe those girls an apology.

This show kicked off with a bang. Please go put on"Young Blood" by The Naked And Famous while I explain this to you.

It's the summer before sophomore year, and Jenna is finally losing her virginity. To who? To literally the most popular boy at school, Matty McKibben, an Abercrombie ad with a heart of gold who she happens to spend her summers with because they both work as counsellors at Camp Pookah. No wonder I always thought summer camp was a sexy place to go. So yeah, they have unsexy sex in a closet, Jenna floats home on whatever that feeling is, and then she arrives to find an anonymous letter waiting for her. Her friends dub it the "carefrontation" because it basically says "Jenna, babe, I say this with such love, I think you're a loser" and then gives her a list of things to change about herself. Immediately deflates her post-boink high. After that brutal little knife to her budding sense of self, she just wants to have a nice relaxing soak in the tub - which, through a string of chaotic events, ends with her breaking her arm in a fashion that, to outsider observers, looks like a suicide attempt. Huge misunderstanding. Lol*.

So poor Jenna turns up day one of sophomore year with a big fat cast on her arm and a messy reputation. And to make it so much worse, Matty is acting like he's embarrassed to be seen with her. If you've ever liked someone of a higher social standing than you, you know that's devastating. So Jenna, who just wants to be loved by this boy, God bless, starts working her way down the anonymous list of personality flaws. And that kicks off five seasons where she figures out self-worth, real friendship, what she actually wants for herself, and how like, you can't be loved by the cute boy at school until you love yourself.

And the characters around her are just as, if not more interesting. There are her besties: Ming Huang, witty underachiever who takes on the whole Asian Mafia, and Tamara Kaplan, a lovable dork with the best vocabulary I have ever encountered, like I'm taking notes. She speaks entirely in self-coined acronyms and abbreviations. I might actually start doing that. Then there's Jake "Hottie" Rosati, who was the Golden Retriever boyfriend before that was even like, a thing. Sadie Saxton is, on paper, the mean girl, but Molly Tarlov plays her so three-dimensionally. Plus, there's a guidance counsellor, a God-fearing cheerleader, a bad boy love interest, and Jenna's parents, who are young and hot and relatable, and they have a fantastic arc.

This is an ensemble, guys.

And we cannot exclude Matty, played by Desperate Housewives alum Beau Mirchoff. No, he doesn't look 16; he looks timeless, like a Roman statue. Matty has flaws and insecurities and a dysfunctional household, but he is kind and open-minded.

Even though he starts with a lot of growing up to do, I'll tell you right now, he has a good heart. He handles all of their teen romance ups-and-downs with more grace than any of my early boyfriends ever did. And those guys were, like, almost thirty and had "vinyl collections". Matty is the gold standard, and I think we all deserve a guy who looks that good in a blue hoodie while apologising for his emotional unavailability.

God I love this show. Go watch it.