On January 3rd, 2017 the much-anticipated show Grown-ish, the spin-off from ABC’s Black-ish, made its debut. When the advertisements for the show first came out, I thought to myself, “Finally, a show that we can all relate to as college students.” Boy, was I completely off and wrong. The show is centered around 18-year-old Zoe Johnson, a college freshman who is just trying to figure things out. From boys, to work, and friends the show seems to at least try to talk about everything.
We’re now six episodes in the first season and although I like the show, it’s not very realistic. The show negates to show the real struggle of what college is and how real college students get through it. Most of these characters come from well-educated parents who are financially well off, therefore they don’t struggle financially like the average college student does. Many of us are barely making it because college is expensive and a lot of students either don’t have time to work or can’t seem to find a job on campus to at least have a little pocket change.
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Other than that, Zoe’s love life is definitely not something I could personally say I have witnessed. Zoe went from dating two guys, which is perfectly normal to the next week dating someone new. That new guy is the character Cash Mooney, the big shot basketball player on campus and the number one prospect in the nation for the draft. They literally met at the end of one episode and in the next, they were a couple and Zoe was not only in love, but she had also lost her virginity to this guy and was willing to follow him to wherever he went if he was drafted in the next six months. OK, cool, it’s fine to be in love and everything, but it feels as though the show is being rushed.
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It’s only the first season, with all this different drama going on, I can’t imagine what they have planned for the second season. I don’t want this to come off as if I hate the show I actually think it has a lot of potential. I would just like for the show to feel more relatable to everyday life. Maybe they should look into talking to real college students to gain a real perspective. Overall, the show isn’t too bad it just needs some adjustments and I think it will prevail.