Yup, kinda unbelievable isn't it? I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant sounds like an urban myth more than a reality series, but this multi-episode show interviews women of all ages and shapes who never figured out what was going on with their bodies - until the contractions started - and even then they blamed it on a bad hot dog. When the drama Mad Men put one of its lead characters in a similar situation, the fantastic plot almost made sense since career girl Peggy (played by Elizabeth Moss) grew up in a strict Catholic household in the 1950s. Peggy's denial seemed plausible. But the women featured in this show don't have that excuse. In tonight's back-to-back episodes, 19-year-old Erin is partying hard in college and thinks she's gained the "freshman 15" until she ends up in the emergency room and discovers the truth. Then there's Celia, a single woman who thought she would always be childless until an ER doctor explains: No, she doesn't have the stomach flu. The clueless women are interviewed months, even years later, and actors dramatize their stories with all the cheesiness you've come to expect from this type of show. Each episode tries to explain why the woman didn't clue in and plays up the drama of the surprise birth. What's missing is any kind of serious reflection or reporting on the damage these women may have caused their children because they didn't know they were pregnant. That would at least make the sideshow spectacle of I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant easier to stomach.
Wednesdays, 9 p.m. on TLC