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I Hate My Teenager Daughter: And We Hate You

As someone who spent seven years as a teenage daughter, I find the title of this show pretty horrifying. Maybe it becomes funnier when you're the parent of a bratty teen (and if it does, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about it), but to me, all I can think is, "Do we really need another show that makes girls feel bad about themselves?" Those who can get past the phrase surely can't stand the classic platitudes seen in the pilot about how horribly vicious, self-destructive, insecure and controlling ladies can be... right? I have a lot of questions, most of which I'm going to hold back asking, considering the fact that this series is going to be cancelled in a heartbeat, considering how horribly unfunny it is.

What I will say is that there are better shows to look forward to in coming months that deal with female competition in hilarious, unique and constructive ways. ABC's GCB (the series formerly known as Good Christian Bitches) and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 both explore the challenges of womanhood without painting one-dimensional portraits of everyone with a vagina (and no, that wasn't a punchline).

Now, misogyny aside, I really can't stress how terrible Teenage Daughter is. In fact, the only time I felt the slightest bit of joy when watching the pilot was at the very sight of Kevin Rahm, as he plays my beloved Lee on Desperate Housewives. Otherwise, every joke about and made by Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran's characters fell absolutely flat for me, which I again blame on the fact at how contrived and obvious the premises of the gags were. I never thought I'd say this, but Saturday Night Live already covered the I-don't-get-pop-culture-references angle way better a few weeks ago in its "Charlie Day/Maroon 5" episode. And the whole "I didn't eat my cat" thing felt more like a lame Nickelodeon series joke than something on a show meant for grown-ups -- but even then, iCarly can land a reference to The Wire (and, ha!, Denis "Cutty" Wise actually plays one of the dads in this thing), while Teenage Daughter sinks so low as to have a joke about how stay at home moms are "lazy whores."

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3 Comments

December 1, 2011 11:47 AM
stephanie
Reply

The funniest part of this show was the end. I only LOL when the moms decided to "get back" at the daughters by dancing in public at the school dance.

December 1, 2011 3:03 PM
Steviecat
Reply

You're right. The show sucked in ways I didn't know even existed. I'm glad you didn't devote a second page to reviewing this piece of trash. OMG. It was so offensive to both men and women. Who approved this trainwreck to go on the air?

December 1, 2011 5:34 PM
lacey
Reply

I watched it last night because nothing better was on and I didn't completely hate it like I thought I would. It's not a great show and has many areas where it could improve, but it does have some funny moments. Jamie Pressly is as funny as always but her sidekick needs to be toned down. The best part was of course was the brother-in-law whose name I think was Hank. The bratty daughters are a bit much but probably realistic. The show should be renamed "My teenage daughter" or "Life with a teenage daughter".

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