Almost anyone who grew up in the mid to late 2000s remembers the iconic Nickelodeon show, “Zoey 101.”
I was one of those kids at 6 or 7 years old that watched the reruns on the TeenNick cable channel before streaming services like Paramount+ existed and Netflix went fully digital.
So of course, when I saw the trailer for “Zoey 102,” I was stoked. I wasn’t expecting a reboot, let alone a movie reboot of “Zoey 101.” Regardless, I re-watched all of “Zoey 101” to refresh my mind for the new movie.
If you don’t remember, “Zoey 101” follows Zoey Brooks – played by Jamie Lynn Spears, the younger sister of pop singer Britney Spears – as one of the first girls to attend Pacific Coast Academy (PCA), a former all-boys boarding school.
In the series finale, Chase becomes Zoey’s boyfriend after being friends for three years, and they go to Hawaii together after graduating in 2008.
Now comes “Zoey 102.” 15 years later, the PCA kids are all grown up and have careers and separate lives. Most have relationships and some are married or about to be.
“Zoey 102” was not only a PCA reunion. It’s also centered around Logan and Quinn getting married, and Zoey feeling like an outcast because she has not made the time to hang out with her old friends. While her job as the only female producer for a Love Island-esque TV show is demanding, some characters speculate it’s because she’s still stuck on her now ex-boyfriend, Chase.
Because of these rumors, Zoey hires an actor to play her boyfriend at her best friend’s wedding, where Zoey is the maid of honor and Chase is the best man.
I knew that Chase and Zoey broke up based on what I saw in the trailer released for the movie in June and I wasn’t surprised to hear that both of them ended up breaking it off, but it did leave me wondering why they broke up until the movie was released.
I didn’t agree with hiring a guy she found in the audition submissions archive of “LOVE: Fully Charged,” the show she is on the production team for, but I do understand why, as running into your high school ex can be very awkward for everyone involved.
I had a feeling that Zoey and Chase would end up getting back together at one point or another just because they do have great chemistry. I thought it was well done, it was funny how it came about because in high school, they were best friends for three years, then they became a couple and then 15 years later, it was an exes/enemies turned lovers trope.
Regardless of how it came about, I’m glad they got back together, it’s clear they still had feelings for each other even if they both said that they moved on, they clearly didn’t.
Zoey admits to everyone, Chase included, that she hired an actor to play her boyfriend at the wedding so she wouldn’t go alone. When Chase and Zoey meet up on a beach after the wedding is canceled, he admits to Zoey that his plus one was his ex-girlfriend, who agreed to come to the wedding so Chase wouldn’t go alone.
Personally, I thought this movie turned out great despite it being unexpected. Like the show, this movie was agonizing and made me go, “Oh my God, just tell her already.” In the end, everything worked out, and I think everyone would be happy with the results.
I was a little sad to see that Lola, played by Victoria Justice, wasn’t able to return to her role, but the movie was still good. And her character and Kristen Herrera’s character, Dana, were briefly mentioned in the movie, so if they were one of your favorites, don’t be sad just yet.
I was disappointed to see how the relationship between Zoey and Chase really ended. I thought it just didn’t work out in Hawaii and they ended up having some sort of fallout leading up to them not talking anymore, which isn’t much better, but hearing that Zoey feared the worst and ghosted him is heartbreaking but they worked it all out in the movie which made me happy.
I am hoping in the future, Paramount+ does something more with a “Zoey 101” reboot instead of just releasing “Zoey 102” and leaving the audience wondering how Zoey and Chase’s lives and Logan and Quinn’s marriage turn out.
But even if there isn’t another show based around Zoey and the other PCA graduates, the movie was good enough for me.
