With the exception of two of her guy friends, they all bond and become inseparable so quickly that it doesn’t quite seem realistic for a show that’s clearly going to deal with some realities of heading off to college.
Those behind the scenes at Grown-ish have done a solid job of making sure Zoey is surrounded by interesting, well-played characters who can challenge her, teach her or even get her into trouble, but the dynamic between those characters isn’t as strong as what we started with on Black-ish.
I actually think the start of the show would have been better had Zoey not connected with so many other students right away to really drive home how little she understands about making life work when you sort of have to start from scratch.
Some of that might just be because it’s easier, from a storytelling standpoint, to create interplay between members of a family, but, even though she finds her friends almost immediately and we’re shown repeatedly that they are the people Zoey will be hanging with, they didn’t quite feel like a real friend group.