Parents' Guide to

High School USA!

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Animated goof on high school drama has sex jokes galore.

TV Fox Comedy 2013
High School USA! Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

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age 17+

Based on 2 parent reviews

laurencatlett25
laurencatlett25 Adult
June 19, 2021
age 18+

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Bigchris
Bigchris Adult
July 28, 2013
age 15+

Defently a new kind of adult toon

Well when I watched this show last nigh my thoughts were stuff like "oh wats the worst that could happen its just 16 minutes " boy was I ever wrong it was just about a guy sending a pic of his ding a ling to a girl. Then. We get a step farther "girls Totaly make out " and then. I saw a croud of naked buts. In a locker room seen " not only did I see things but heard them too "sob p di "oh wat a show wat a show. U want to spend fifteen minutes of you're life better watch ax cop or do or watch anything. But this pile of crap
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Brought to you by the creators of Community, HIGH SCHOOL USA! is a naughty and perverse take on typical teenage drama, creating a world where a bully is urged to embrace his cruel side, and a girl expresses her individuality by copying everything her friend does. The most obvious reference point for HIGH SCHOOL USA! is the Archie comics; you've got Marsh (Vincent Kartheiser) as your bland ginger at the center of the action, you've got your Betty/Veronica thing going on with Amber and Cassandra (Mandy Moore), you've got your Jughead-ish nerd Blackstein and your Reggie-like BMOC Brad. Except here, instead of cruising around Riverdale and listening to good advice from good ol' Mom and Dad, these teenagers are binge eating, visiting secret pro-bullying clubs and learning mom is an amateur porn star.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (12 ):

Many years after the The Simpsons (and later Family Guy and still later American Dad) made mincemeat out of typical family sitcom plots, and shows like Daria and Awkward. did the same for earnest high school dramedies, it takes a really fresh approach to make this kind of humor laugh-out-loud funny. This isn't it. The jokes aren't sharply written enough to make the sitcommy antics funny, and the goings on aren't absurd enough to elevate the same old plots you've seen a million times.

That said, there are some amusing ideas at work here. The notion of a cyberbully teaching a meathead how to really torture people is a unique one, and there's definitely humor to be mined from the concept of a kid discovering her parent has an extremely seamy secret life (though South Park did it better 10+ years ago). But considering the pedigree of the creators of High School USA!, one just wishes this was funnier.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what High School USA! is satirizing. Does the show take on subjects you often see on high-school shows such as Degrassi or 90210? How is the satirical take different from the straightforward one?

  • Is the viewer supposed to empathize with the characters on this show? What about the way they are presented brings you to this conclusion?

  • Do you know what it means to have a "token" representation of a certain type of character? Are Blackstein and Cassandra tokens? Why or why not?

TV Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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