Parents' Guide to

Zoey 101

By Joly Herman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Tweens will love this fluffy California dream.

Zoey 101 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

age 8+

Based on 15 parent reviews

age 7+

Remember the backgrounds of the kids.

Regarding what you say about the characters being priveleged, we need to remember that that is the background of those kids at home. While we don't want to indulge kids too much while they're at school, we also don't want to make their school too much different from what they're used to at home, particularly at a boarding school. If we do, kids will get homesick and become maladjusted. Therefore, I am less concerned or disturbed about the privileged lives of these kids than I normally would be. You also pointed out that there's not much adult supervision. True, but the kids are well-behaved. While you could argue for more adult supervision, nevertheless the kids show that they can be trusted. We need to remember as well that this is a boarding school. At those places kids are on their own a good deal of the time. There are the standard messages about friendship, etc. What makes this one stand out is that the title character, despite her popularity, is nice to everyone she meets. (Maybe that's why she became popular in the first place.) On many shows, by contrast, the most popular kids tend to be stuck up. And, while they may or may not be at the top of their class, they usually do well in school and do not empathize with kids who struggle in school. Zoey does. Zoey and her friends are also willing and eager to show the boys that girls can do anything that boys can. Indeed, casual viewers would never know that this had been an all-boys school until Zoey's class started. Lastly, although classes are rarely shown, as most episodes take place in the after school hours, the few times we do see classes we get the idea that they're reasonably challenging, thereby discrediting the notion that life is easy there. The show is even made better by the terrific acting by Jamie Lynn Spears. She's even better than her older sister Britney (although Britney is good too).
1 person found this helpful.
age 9+

Zoey 101

Zoey 101 is a really good show, (btw it put me in the adults for some reason I’m eleven) but it is definitely for tweens and teens. First of all, Logan Reese is a super self absorbed teen who only cares if girls think he’s hot. And he always asks the main girls if they want to make out. The last thing is that the girls talk about boobs way too much. Even the dorm lady was talking about how she ordered a 37 D bra and Quinn started checking out her boobs.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (15):
Kids say (82):

Zoey and her peers live in an utterly unreal world, where her character confesses during a truth-or-dare type game that "Once, I burped in church." This is admitted by a kid wearing full makeup and a miniskirt. How do innocence and being expected to make adult choices co-exist in the 21st century? Let's hope that kids viewing this show go a little deeper for answers than these characters.

Nick has kept Zoey 101's plot pretty shallow for a reason: Without adult supervision, kids in the circumstances that they appear in this program would get into a lot of trouble. But besides some bickering and tricky behavior, these are pretty well-mannered kids. Fantasy? You be the judge.

TV Details

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