Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
Chelsea has spent her entire life pursuing higher education. Paper after paper, deadline after deadline, she’s never skipped a beat. Never missed the mark. Being smart is her thing.
Now that she’s finally graduated, she’s preparing to write a book while pursuing the future with her uber-clever boyfriend, Dwayne. And while she waits to meet up with her supposed soulmate, she packs up her stuff and does the unthinkable: she says ‘yes’ to staying with her sister Claire, in California, for three days.
She’s never really had too much in common with Claire, which became even more obvious after their parents divorced. See, Claire is too flighty, too scattered. But if Chelsea can breeze through complex reading material and debate with the best debaters in school, surely she can suffer through some time with her estranged sis.
But while Chelsea’s in California, Dwayne announces he isn’t really interested in a future with her after all. Now, she’s on the rebound and stuck living with bubbly, absent-minded Claire and her roomates: gay social media influencer, Jayden; former lawyer-turned-healer, Solana; and Claire’s attractive, sexually promiscuous ex-boyfriend, Grant.
It’s Chelsea’s worst nightmare come true: living with a group of people who provide anything but mentally stimulating discourse. But Chelsea doesn’t have much of a choice, seeing that she has no money, no job and no real way to apply her years of knowledge.
But soon, she’ll find that while learning is beneficial, forming friendships and bonding with her sister is exactly what she’s been missing her entire life.
Netflix isn’t necessarily known for its sitcoms, but it aims to change that with Pretty Smart. This TV-14 sitcom takes a piece right out of shows like Cheers or Friends, as the focus isn’t necessarily on plot or a complex storyline. It’s really about getting to know each quirky character.
But that doesn’t mean you should necessarily get to know the show.
As you’d expect, each episode is about 20 minutes in length and focuses on sexual content that’s mostly implied and inappropriate sexual jokes that rely heavily on a laugh-track. And spiritual issues pop up here too, as Claire’s roommate is an ex-lawyer who quit law school to become a healer. Which basically means that she has plenty of incense burning and references crystals and auras quite often. There’s no profanity in the first episode, but that doesn’t mean that crude words don’t get thrown into the mix later on.
If you’re looking for something with moral lessons in each episode, you’ll find a tiny bit of that here. Pretty Smart reminds us that loving your friends and family are the most important things to be learned. But this positive comes with plenty of problems like new-age spirituality, mind-numbing, unoriginal jokes and a storyline that depends on sexual content to get through.
After genius Chelsea gets dumped by her boyfriend, she’s forced to move in with her bubbly sister, Claire, and Claire’s three roommates.
A guy named Grant works out while shirtless and later we hear him having sex with two women behind a closed door (Chelsea and Claire both comment on the fact and watch two girls leave his room). Grant makes an inappropriate joke about his penis. Jayden, Claire’s gay roommate, tells his friends that an attractive male was flirting with him at the store. Girls sport cleavage-baring tops and crop tops.
Solana, Claire’s roommate, says she dropped out of law school to become a healer. She walks around with a crystal, “clears” the room of “bad energy,” and references auras and other new-age spiritual elements. Chelsea is rude to Claire and her friends and insinuates that they are stupid multiple times.
People drink beer and wine at a restaurant. Claire tells Chelsea they should drink wine after Chelsea’s breakup. We hear words like “stupid,” “douchebag” and “crap,” as well as a misuse of God’s name.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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