Good start but... Too many things are contrived for no reason. And most of the teens (except the black ones for a change, thank God) seem to be overly preoccupied with sex. Maybe that's because they don't have anything else to worry about? Perhaps. Leila's zombie stuff totally got on my nerves, so I just fast forwarded through it. I also can't believe Owen and Jayson got suspended for that silly little prank. I can see if they stole the money from the wallet. But they didn't. And they worked hard to replace the money. In Compton, CA, where I teach, they'd probably only get a good talking to and would go right back to class (and wouldn't bother to replace a thing.) Especially in light of a bombing happening in such a close vicinity to the school only moments before. Grand Army must be in some upper income enclave (though it doesn't look like it from what I can see onscreen).
When you don't have but one bathroom, you don't use it as your study room. Does the apartment have no closets? No outside hallway? And, like Dom, you especially don't leave your textbooks right by the toilet as you run into the kitchen to check on something on the stove. I could see the toilet overflowing a mile away. She's portrayed as smart and mature on one hand yet does something so ridiculous. That scene did nothing to move the story forward so why include it? To gross the audience out?
Joey uses foul language to her parents, talks to them disrespectfully, flaunts her body constantly, disrespects the school's policies over a cause that isn't even worth fighting over, talks about sex a lot, dangles a vibrator in her male friends' faces, sits all on top of them in a dress, kisses on ALL of them (and I don't mean on the cheek). (Let's not even consider the movie theater scene where she and her so-called friends are cavorting and talking all throughout the film and no one says anything. Try that crap for real and see what happens.) And I don't recall her saying stop in any forceful manner as they rape her in a cab. I also don't understand why a cab driver would let that go on and then give her a "sorry" look when she pays him. Hell, all he had to do was hit the brakes really hard and that would have given them all whiplash. Yet another unnecessary contrivance.
This show seems like it was written by kids for kids. But if I read correctly, it wasn't. The same stories can be told without being so contrived.