The Australians are WRITING! This show may be good, but is it good for your teen? We hope this guide can help you make the right decision for your family.
In a nutshell: Heartbreak High is a Netflix reboot of a 1994 TV series. The series follows a group of students at Hartley High School whose names were found on a sex map written on a wall in their school. Teens who enjoy crude humor, relationship drama, diversity/representation, and friendship dynamics may enjoy this series. This show is rated MA, and may be too much for teens who have not yet been exposed to graphic language and sexual content.
Genre: Drama/Comedy, leaning more toward comedy than drama in most episodes. It can get dark at times, especially the last episode of both seasons. The series leans more soapy toward the second season.
What's it rated? Heartbreak High is rated TV-MA for mature audiences.
What's it about? Best friends Amerie and Harper have been documenting their high school's hookups on a map in a hidden stairwell of their school. When their sex map is found, the students written on the map must take a sex-ed class called the Sexual Literacy Tutorial (SLT---the students call themselves the "sluts"). The series follows these students as they navigate their relationships, friendships, families, and futures.
Know your kid: We think the series will be okay for most older teens. The language can be intense ("cunt," "fuck," "bitch," "shit," "slut," "faggot," "cumlord." Most teens will have heard this language at school. Though the sex scenes are not fade-to-black, they are not graphic in nature (though there is brief nudity of a man's butt in one scene). Teenagers who have already been exposed to sexual content should be okay, but the show may make teens who are not sexually active feel bad about not having sex. Diane would have been fine watching as a teen, but it would have been too much for Gabriele.
If your teen is sensitive to:
then it might be best to skip!
For a more in-depth review, find our Heartbreak High episode on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts and iHeartRadio under Watch Like a Kid.
Feel free to email us if you have any questions! watchlikeakid@gmail.com