It seems Peacock is no longer the sole reboot of Young Adult Television gone by. HBOMax is now in the game with the release of their reboot of the successful 80s sitcom, Head of the Class. 

WHAT IS HEAD OF THE CLASS?

Head of the Class originally premiered in 1986 on ABC, ran for 5 seasons, and was even nominated for an Emmy. The series follows a group of gifted students in the Individualized Honors Program (IHP) at a fictional High School. Their unconventional teacher, Charlie Moore (Howard Hesseman), however, was an out-of-work actor turned History Teacher who helped the students aim for their dreams.

In the HBOMax reboot, the new teacher is Alicia Gomez (Isabella Gomez). She used to be just like these students believing grades are the only thing that mattered. But life had other plans for her. After graduating from Yale University and getting her dream job at Google, Ms. Gomez had a breakdown and now finds herself teaching the same IHP club. Ms. Gomez hopes to teach her students to care less about grades and focus more on life.

DOES THE HEAD OF THE CLASS REBOOT WORK?

Returning to the series is original cast member Robin Givens as Darlene. She is not only portraying original characters, but Darlene is also the mother of Terrell (Brandon Severs), one of Ms. Gomez’s students. Filling out the rest of the IHP Club are Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Dior Goodjohn, Adrian Matthew Escalona, Katie Beth Hall, and Gavin Lewis. I appreciate HBOMax keeping the multi-cam sitcom format of the original series. We do not have many (if any) teen-targeted shows like this anymore, and Multi-cam comedy is tough. But, these kids are pulling it off.

While the show is only beginning, I feel in order for the series to be successful they need to dig deeper and use the comedy to tell stronger stories. While yes, they are touching on subjects such as cancel culture, being gay, and peer pressure every episode so far is very surface level. Previously, shows just like this have been used to talk about serious subjects that kids are going through every day. It does everyone involved a disservice to use kid gloves. Take them off. Tweens and teens alike can handle it.

Head of the Class premieres on HBOMax Friday, November 5th. Thanks for reading. Make sure to come back to THS for all your pop culture needs!