MTV's "Juvie" UPDATE

I saw the first episode of "Juvie " on MTV last night and it was interesting, to say the least.

I liked how the producers juxtaposed the two cases. The first person we meet in the premiere episode is a white girl who ran away from home. She made it all the way from Indiana to Texas before the authorities got her to turn herself in with some not-so-elaborate ruse. Also, she wants to audition for "American Idol" and you get to hear her sing in her cell. She isn't terrible, but I doubt Simon will be so forgiving. Let's just say she's no Kelly Clarkson, that's for sure.

The second "Juvie" was a black 17 year old male who got tagged with stealing a car. He says during his intake that he was driving but that the car wasn't stolen -- it belonged to a friend of his (or the friend's mom, I'm not sure which.) At the beginning, he's very standoff-ish towards the other Juvies he's housed with. But by the end of the show, he comes around and realizes that all the kids aren't so bad or so different from himself.

Anyway, you get the sense that the girl doesn't have the most stable home life but that the guy does. His mom comes to visit him while he's in jail and she's there at his hearing, where he gets to go home pending his next court appearance.

The girl's mom doesn't visit, but she does send her daughter a package of new sneakers with a long note tucked into the shoe that gets confiscated. Apparently if all the items aren't on a packing list, you're not allowed to have them. (Btw, is there anything that screams Crackhead Mom more than, "Here, I got you some sneakers. No love, but at least you got sneakers.")

It seems a little overly punitive when the guard doesn't allow her to even read the note. I mean, sure, take it away, but have a little humanity and let her read what her mother wrote. You get the sense that what happens at the hearing wouldn't have been such a surprise to this girl, had she read her mother's note beforehand. But the guards can't have their authority questioned so after the girl talks back for a while they put her on room restriction, which basically means solitary confinement for the night. It's the Juvie version of the hole, I guess.

At the hearing the Mom says she doesn't think she can control her daughter and doesn't want to bring her daughter home, so needless to say, the court decides not to send this girl home to her mother, from whence she ran away in the first place.

At the end of the episode, you learn that the girl is doing well in her new group home and is working on rebuilding her damaged relationship with her mother.

Here's hoping both of those crazy kids stay out of trouble!