Stream It Or Skip It: ‘All American: Homecoming’ On The CW, A Spin-Off About World-Class Athletes At A Struggling HBCU

All American: Homecoming spins off All American‘s tennis star Simone Hicks, who had quite an eventful last year at Beverly Hills High School. But when she visited Bringston University, a fictional HBCU in Georgia during the show’s third season, it was a backdoor pilot for this new series.

ALL AMERICAN: HOMECOMING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of Atlanta, and the Bringston University campus. A group of marching band members play as freshmen move in on campus.

The Gist: One of those freshmen is Simone Hicks (Geffri Maya), whose last year at Beverly Hills High School was eventful to say the least. She had a baby that she placed for adoption, and got married to Jordan Baker (Michael Evans Behling), whom she told was the father. After all of that blew up in her face, she defied her mother, who wanted her to go to Stanford, and took her tennis talents to Bringston, an HBCU.

When she gets there she’s greeted by the friends she met when she visited, Keisha McCalla (Netta Walker) and Nathaniel Hardin (Rhoyle Ivy King). On her first day, she already gets on the bad side of Thea Mays (Camille Hyde), who informs her that she’s team captain and will be helping the coach evaluate the hopefuls for the remaining slot on the team. This surprises Simone, thinking that her special arrangement with the coach led her to a guaranteed spot.

Another athlete, star pitcher Damon Sims (Peyton Alex Smith), has decided to go to Bringston instead of entering the MLB draft. The school’s baseball team is at a low point, having been decimated by an academic scandal that was reported by one of the professors, Amara Patterson (Kelly Jenrette). A new young coach, Marcus Turner (Cory Hardrict), is under pressure to bring the team back to championship level that semester, or their funding might be cut. But during his first practice, Damon gets pulled for mouthing off about the team’s lack of talent.

Simone and Damon know each other, and she talks to him about struggling to fit in while they are at an orientation bonfire. Damon comes back and tells her that he’s adopted, though he knows his birth parents are Bringston alums, something his roommate and catcher, JR Raymond (Sylvester Powell) overhears and finds interesting.

Hungover, Simone blows it in practice the next day and the coach — watching from afar due to NCAA rules — tells Thea to have Simone leave the court. Then Simone gets more bad news: Her mother didn’t pay for room and board, and she’ll have to move out until things are settled. Luckily, Prof. Patterson, Simone’s aunt, gives her a landing spot and gives all of Simone’s friends a sense of family support while they’re at Bringston.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? All American: Homecoming feels like its parent show, All American, combined with a college-centric show like grown-ish.

Our Take: While All American: Homecoming, created by Nkechi Okoro Carroll, takes place in college instead of high school, many of the themes are similar to shows that take place at both educational levels. There’s going to be love triangles, rivalries, frenemies, and many of the other aspects you see in similar shows. The only difference here is that it takes place at a fictional HBCU, which should inform the show’s stories. But we’re not sure if what the show is doing is anything revolutionary.

Sure, it’s trying to balance heavy issues and the usual college fun, bringing in the cultural and financial issues faced by students at HBCUs, but having a show set at one isn’t new; A Different World did it 35 years ago. And, even though a show like grown-ish is at a big state university instead of an HBCU, there still are a lot of stories that revolve around race and bias, which we’re sure is what Carroll intends for Homecoming.

What needs to happen is that the world around Simone and Damon needs to evolve and develop, and Simone needs to leave things from home behind. The links back to her life in Beverly Hills aren’t just limited to Jordan; Cam Watkins (Mitchell Edwards), a buddy of Simone’s ex, is also going to Bringston. While its nice to have connections back to the parent show, Simone’s story needs to stand on its own for the show to go anywhere. It does look like Carroll has a solid cast and the beginnings of stories for the supporting characters, so there’s certainly hope.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After finding out that Damon’s birth parents where Bringston alumni, JR goes into his closet and finds a picture of the brother he never knew. Yes, his parents were also Bringston alumni. Could they be brothers?

Sleeper Star: Rhoyle Ivy King does a lot with their few scenes as Nathaniel. It seems that they will be there to give advice, guidance, someone to complain to, but also provide the tough love that Simone needs.

Most Pilot-y Line: The coach of a rival team, who was Bringston’s coach who left because of the scandal, recruits Damon on the field after his team beats Bringston in a scrimmage.

Our Call: STREAM IT. All American: Homecoming has some generic elements that we hope get straightened out over time, but its compelling cast and some of the potential stories set up by the first episode have us intrigued.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.