grown-ish

The good--Shahidi, her chemistry with Latina Republican roommate Ana (Francia Raisa, of the Selena Gomez-kidney donation), the snappy dialogue--far outweighs the bad, most of which just feels like an awkward adjustment period, baby fat to be easily outgrown.

More than a worthy inheritor to its network progenitor, Grown-ish takes full advantage of Shahidi’s presence and energy to realistically explore what the undergrad experience is like in the modern age, without ginning up a cautionary tone or diluting the honesty of its plot points.

Grown-ish is a clever show that knows how clever it is.

The new characters can still use fleshing out. Meanwhile, Ms. Shahidi’s laid-back, dry performance, a great fit with the more antic “black-ish” ensemble, takes getting used to as the focus of a series. What grown-ish does have from the get-go is a sense of itself and a lot to say.

The show clearly possesses promise. Yet despite passing that first test, Grown-ish is going to need to do some more growing to avoid getting lost in the crowd.

I think I can spot the fine show that Grown-ish may be evolving into, or at least latch onto the potential. But as its title is meant to imply about its college-age characters, it's a show that's not quite grown, still trying to make it on its own.

Grown-ish is a cell-by-cell clone of The Breakfast Club and its celebration of sophomoric melodrama, where cynical wisecracks inevitably give way to mock profundities, shouting matches to hyperemotive tears, and clichés to stereotypes. (Or maybe that one is the other way around.) The wholesale piracy is so blatant that Grown-ish even tries to make a joke or two about it. But the admission that you're stealing somebody else's work doesn't make it any less larcenous.

The first 2 seasons were actually good, clever and fun. But now this show is just a soapy mess of rich kids trying to be woke and relatable