S07.E01: Reborn

[KWalkerInc]

Jordan is caught between being a coach and a friend, which causes discord with his boss and Yasi; Kingston's world is upended when he learns the secret that his parents have been keeping from him; Khalil challenges the school system.

(Airs Wednesday, January 29 at 8 PM and re-airs in regular time slot Monday, February 3 at 8 PM.)

-------------------------------------

I couldn't find it, but I wanted to respond to this description with the gif from SNL of Amy Poehler as Kelly Ripa saying, "I don't know who these people are, Reege."  That pretty much sums it up for me.

[KWalkerInc]

I don't think this version is going to go over very well in the ratings, but this episode was okay.  Spencer's voice mail opening and closing the episode was a little cheesy (is he going to be like Ellen Pompeo on Grey's Anatomy?  I never watched but I think she left but still opens the show with a VO).  For some reason, I didn't realize it was him talking until they played it again at the end.  I guess I was just really concentrating to make sure I figured out who the characters were and didn't get confused. 

It's sad that, at least for this episode, Layla and Coop had nothing to do but talk about how they had nothing to do and give exposition (not only about Asher, but apparently for people who had missed the end of last season and didn't know what happened to anyone else).  Their drunkenness was somewhat entertaining, but I don't know that Amina could legally drive them.  I think in some places, teens can't drive anyone but their guardian or can only have one person in the car until they're 18 or something? 

I know she was in high school last season and there have been several time jumps along the way, but it seems like Amina was just 10!  She will probably have Preach tearing his hair out over her behavior.  She knows what happened to her mom and uncle, but still wants to be with the bad boy.  Like Coop said, she's pushing really hard about how "grown up" she is, so that's probably what that's about.  I don't know why the description said that Khalil challenged the school system.  Did they mean because he doesn't go to class?  I also dispute the articles about casting that said he was a recurring character last season.  I do remember him from last season when he was arguing with Deion and quit the Shakespeare thing, then they made up.  I didn't remember his name though.  (Preach will probably wish Amina still liked that guy she kissed in the play when Juliet was supposed to be dead.)

I don't know why we had to have so much about Deion and his sister last season just for them to move to Santa Fe off-screen during the summer.  It made Spencer consider a potential post-football career, I guess.  It was also funny in that episode where people weren't communicating well when Spencer said something about him and Olivia was like, "Who the hell is Deion?"

KJ seems nice and kind of gives me Damon vibes.  That means that if the show continues, he'll probably get dropped due to budget cuts.  I question though him suddenly being excited to stay in L.A. just because of Amina when he'd feared for his life hours earlier.  (I'm pretty sure that Oakland has gangs too, but maybe he hadn't accidentally run afoul of anyone there.)  Jordan might wish he could jump ship to Beverly and work with the nice, talented QB instead of the one he's got.  I'm sure Yasi knows that all practices are required; the supposed "optional" thing is just there so that the schools don't get in trouble for breaking rules that restrict practices.  Our state even has a whopping week in the summer where no one is allowed to take part in any team activities.  I'm sure that really goes over well.

The coach who hates Jordan for being the players' buddy seems odd, as a lot of coaches seem to have an assistant like that to some extent.  But of course, he has some secret reason why he actually hates Jordan.  Does this have something to do with GW randomly revealing at the end of the season that Billy had a secret brother, or will they drop that like Deion?

I hope that the texts that KJ's dad were reading weren't supposed to be important, because I certainly couldn't read them. 

[mojoween]

I am here for Spencer.  I am not here for all these randos.

Although if Coop could be the center of every episode, that would keep my interest.

Advancing the timeline to Spencer getting drafted really hamstrung this show.  Feels like this season will be the last season.  Which was inevitable, they couldn’t be in high school forever, but still sad.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Of all the places TPTB could have used as KJ's home, they chose one of the all-time most notorious spots for gangs - Oakland.  One guess as to which famous football player was a banger in Oakland before becoming the hero of heroes?

That would be Orenthal James Simpson. 

KJ reminds me of Damon in "Homecoming."  He's no Spencer.  His way has nothing to do with the less than hopeful sacrifices necessary.  He's also nowhere near as built out as he needs to be.

I'm super confused about Jordan.  Was he not the hottest NFL QB prospect in CFB?  He was assured to be a Top 5 lottery pick.  Of course, he really wasn't, but the show insisted that he be declared such.   So, the second coming of John Elway he was.  Now, why was he wearing very loose fitting clothes the entire ep?  Looked to me like our hero has developed a gut.

The one thing I really liked in this new iteration is Cassius.  He's the new Billy Baker.

What law school is Coop in?  She sure has boatloads of free time to lollygag around.  

I have no time for Amina.  Of course, TPTB have set her up to be point on the various tensions of trying to live in a Spencer world, or the thug world.  Yawn.  (Not to minimize the VERY real tensions in SoCal and elsewhere).

This continuation is desperate for cameos from the original.  There is so little that is compelling from the add-ons.  

 

[KWalkerInc]

On 2/1/2025 at 9:42 PM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

Of all the places TPTB could have used as KJ's home, they chose one of the all-time most notorious spots for gangs - Oakland. 

I wonder if they only picked Oakland because Grace and D'Angelo live there now, even though I don't know if they intend to have any connection between them and Cassius and KJ.  But they could have just been too lazy to think of any other city in the state of California.

Unless I misheard, they also gave Amina the last name Sims (maybe they'd already said that before).  I don't think she has anything to do with Damon, so there is a severe limit on the number of last names they can apparently use in this universe.

On 2/1/2025 at 9:42 PM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

What law school is Coop in?  She sure has boatloads of free time to lollygag around.  

I think she's supposed to start in the next episode.  She was supposedly studying a lot and getting herself prepared for her first day before she got sidetracked by the daydrinking.

I don't know if the CW really thought this was going to result in the show going many more years; but if they did, they'll probably be sweating out the ratings for the rerun on Monday and trying to justify the original ratings by saying it was just a "sneak peek" and people wanted to watch in the regular slot.  Because it was not only the lowest rated episode ever, but tied for the lowest that Homecoming ever got (once, when it was of course cancelled before the season aired).

Nkechi Okoro Carroll did say that most of the former regulars are going to appear at some point, so I bet they'll be promoting those a LOT when they do.

ETA:  The Monday repeat drew a 0.06 in 18-49 demo, which is tied with the lowest rating from previous seasons, but still twice as high as the Wednesday airing.  So apparently those who wanted to sample the new version either didn't hear about the Wednesday airing, or didn't care to watch on a different night.

Edited February 5 by KWalkerInc
Added note about ratings.