All American Mingles the Old With the New in Season 7’s Soft Reboot — Grade the Premiere!
It’s the start of a new school year on All American, and we’ve got quite a few new classmates to meet.
The CW drama returned for its seventh season on Wednesday night — its real time slot will be Mondays at 8/7c, with Episode 2 airing Monday, Feb. 10 — and at last debuted the creative overhaul that was teased throughout its hiatus. Of the series’ original cast members, only Michael Evans Behling (Jordan), Greta Onieogou (Layla) and Bre-Z (Coop) are back as series regulars this year, while the rest of the Season 7 ensemble is comprised of mostly new faces.
More from TVLine
Before you tell us what you thought of All American‘s soft reboot, let’s recap the newbies who were introduced in the premiere:
First, we’ve got the Jeremy family — football coach Cassius (Citadel‘s Osy Ikhile), his wife Ava, and their football-playing son KJ (David Makes Man‘s Nathaniel McIntyre). The family is typically based in Oakland, where Cassius coaches at KJ’s high school, but they’ve been in Los Angeles for the past two weeks so KJ can attend football camp. Little does KJ know, though, that he and his dad are staying put in this city; as Ava and Cassius tell him later, they’re going to attempt a trial separation after a rocky stretch in their marriage, and Ava will remain in Oakland while Cassius and KJ take their football talents to Beverly High.
KJ is initially furious at the news, unwilling to accept that his parents would so casually decide his future without asking for his input. But after some illuminating, well-timed conversations later in the episode with Jordan and Preach’s daughter, Amina — more on her in a minute — KJ returns to his parents and says they’ll still be a family no matter where they live or how much distance is between them. He now trusts the decisions they’re making on his behalf, and KJ seems genuinely excited when Cassius later takes him to the Beverly High training gym and tells him, “This is our new home. Welcome to Beverly High.”
Elsewhere in the premiere, we’re re-introduced to Amina, as well as her South Crenshaw classmate Khalil, both of whom have been upped to series-regular characters for Season 7. In the time between seasons, though, things seem to have taken a dramatic turn for Khalil: He’s now hanging out with a violence-prone, gang-adjacent group of friends, and he’s missed so much of his junior year that the school is asking him to take 11th grade all over again.
Amina and Khalil have been friends for a while, but Amina’s clearly got a crush on him now. Unfortunately, when Khalil is a bit of a jerk to Amina during a day at the beach, Amina impulsively kisses KJ — without even knowing his name! — to get back at the real object of her affection; that later prompts a fight between KJ and Khalil on the beach, which comes to an alarming end when one of Khalil’s buddies pulls a gun on KJ. No one’s hurt, and even Khalil tells his friend that every problem can’t be answered “with your damn guns,” but… still. Yikes.
Khalil apologizes to Amina later for their beach confrontation, but he remains cagey with her about whether he’s going to start taking school seriously. Plus, although Amina clearly wants to be with Khalil at the moment, there’s an obvious spark between her and KJ, too — and with KJ now attending Beverly High, I’m sure that will be fun for all involved.
All American Season 7: Everything We Know
And hey, we can’t forget about our OGs! Coop is a few days away from starting law school — it looks like she opted for GAU’s law program, after all — and Layla has already been awarded a Top 25 Under 25 accolade for her career achievements, which has her concerned that she’s peaked in life and has nothing else to accomplish. (Ha!) Meanwhile, Jordan is settling into his new role as South Crenshaw’s quarterback coach, but he tends to blur the lines between being his players’ coach and being their friend.
After an awkward confrontation between Jordan and his starting quarterback, Yasi (That Girl Lay Lay‘s Elijah M. Cooper), Jordan understands that he does need to set boundaries with his team. To that end, he creates a new Instagram account for his gig as coach, and makes his personal account private. South Crenshaw’s head coach, Coach Bobby — who has been suspiciously tough on Jordan for his buddy-buddy relationship with the players — sees that Jordan locked his personal Instagram, but he doesn’t seem satisfied just yet. And when another member of the Crenshaw coaching staff asks Coach Bobby why he’s been especially hard on Jordan lately, Coach Bobby merely answers, “Well, I’ve got my reasons.” Hmm…
Plus, a nice treat for those of you who are missing Daniel Ezra’s Spencer James: Spencer leaves Jordan an encouraging voicemail at the end of the hour, reminding Jordan that he’s capable of inspiring a whole new generation of South Crenshaw football players — and, in typical Spencer fashion, his words are exactly what Jordan needs to hear.
OK, your turn. What did you think of All American 2.0? Grade Wednesday’s premiere in our poll below, then hit the comments with all of your thoughts.
Best of TVLine
Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
