Critic Reviews

I'll take the heavy-handed product placement and all the gratuitous skin shots in the world for a drama that celebrates academic accomplishment and tries to communicate to its teen viewers the danger, exhilaration and joy of daring to exceed social-class expectations. [12 Jul 2000]

The acting is really, really good. And there’s not a clunker in the group.

It doesn't make for an original TV show, of course, but Young Americans still manages to be guilty summer fun. Mindless and cliche, to be sure, but escapist entertainment nonetheless.

What a tacky way to begin the show. But things get better as the premiere goes on, and as the series goes on, who knows? They might even get good.

Its sexual-confusion subplots alone will make for a summer’s worth of sincere young actors reducing its target audience of skeptical young people to shrieks of appalled amusement.

The only sparkle comes from Bosworth, who seems to be aware that "Young Americans" might work better as spoof than as semiserious drama. [12 Jul 2000]

The show could turn out to be one of those guilty pleasures like the early years of Dynasty or Melrose Place — a show that's fun because it is so melodramatic and dumb.

A bubbling stew of raging hormones, buff bodies and the culture shock of rich meets poor. [12 Jul 2000]

If the show stimulates anything above the neck, it's the realization that prettier-than-thou programming like "Young Americans" is little more than glossy magazine ads set to motion.

Time marches on, or crawls very slowly, if you happen to be watching Young Americans. [12 Jul 2000, p.D01]