High School Confidential

Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron

The series, from Liese's Herizon Prods. and New Line Television, is remarkable for the way it compresses time and hones in on pivotal moments.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

This unsettling documentary series on the cable WE network, which follows a dozen Kansas City girls through four years in their suburban high school, suggests we've come a long, hard way from "Grease."

Boston GlobeJoanna Weiss

As much as this is a story of the pressures facing teenage girls, it's also a striking, honest look at the parent-child relationship, with its ebbs and flows of communication and trust.

San Jose Mercury NewsCharlie McCollum

Although a bit rough at times (it's nowhere near as slick as "Laguna Beach"), Confidential is strong, emotionally charged stuff with the kind of real kids not often seen on TV.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

The result is a picture that feels true. It's very likely incomplete because few people tell everything to a camera, but the insecurities and the growing confidence are conveyed with language and an attitude that seem fairly natural.

New York PostAdam Buckman

High School Confidential is an illuminating documentary series more in the tradition of director Michael Apted's series of films, starting with "Seven Up!," that have been tracing the lives of its subjects since 1964.

SalonHeather Havrilesky

Clumsy and tone-deaf as it sometimes is, High School Confidential offers a fascinating look at the challenges and heartbreaks facing today's teenage girl.

The New York TimesGinia Bellafante

While High School Confidential has its flaws--it is choppily edited and far too spare in its depictions of the girls living rather than talking--it does us a service by portraying teenagers beyond the media’s typical parameters of exceptionalism

VarietyBrian Lowry

Certainly nothing here is "groundbreaking," as WE's production notes claim, given past exercises such as Michael Apted's landmark "7 Up!" series. Yet High School Confidential is the kind of personal document that merits attention--inviting curiosity not just regarding how these teens navigated through high school, but what their lives will be like seven years from now and beyond.

Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm

The lives shown here, in surprisingly frank profiles, are fascinating enough to sustain interest.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

Some episodes feel a little padded, and the show occasionally skates nervously over the more painful aspects of these girls' lives, but High School Confidential is a mostly compelling study of the lives of 12 girls in a middle-class Kansas community.

SlateTroy Patterson

Failing to realize high ambitions, High School Confidential skims across the lives of 12 teenage girls growing up in placid Kansas.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

I can't say I was riveted by either of the episodes I watched, which largely consisted of interviews with the girls and their parents, together and separately, interspersed with scenes from extracurricular activities and parties. But if there are parents who can actually get their teens to watch with them, it might get a conversation going.

Washington Post

Somehow, even after following these girls from ninth through 12th grade, Confidential manages to make their stories boring.