Just watched Episode One.
It has the air of a pilot, in the sense that they've tried to cram as much into half-an-hour as possible. However, I thought (for a pilot) the production was generally very good, not ragged around the edges in the way that they can be.
Having watched Lunch Monkeys recently (which is basically aimed at the same type of audience) Off The Hook showed that with stronger writing and better casting you can produce some potentially interesting characters.
The writing was generally strong, but the performances of the leads really added a lot. They were universally good.
The first/pilot episode scared me (possibly as it did others) as soon as it opened, with kids standing around laughing about the inhaler "incident". Oh God, I thought, it's not going to be one of those type of shows, is it? However, structurally it got straight into the action and didn't hang around, which was good. The basic premise was delivered efficiently and you knew what the show was about pretty darn quick.
There were far too many contrivances and coincidences in the plot, but again viewing this as a pilot one can make some allowances for that. The art class, the bacteria-infested milk cocktail & party, the Third World lecture speech... all of these were crammed in and relied on a hefty suspension of disbelief. The performances and pace of the show managed to paper over these cracks to an extent. I didn't like the "hot girl" (Becky) introducing "Mr Shiny Face" as "this is my boyfriend from back home" - the kind of expositionary line which makes me whince! Nor the sudden decision to dump said boyfriend in the denouement. However, if you watch this as a pilot trying to buy itself a series, it's (almost) forgiveable.
The dialogue was well-written, though there were too many "I can't believe you've/I'm/he's...!" type of lines for my liking (but maybe teens do now all talk like they're constantly reviewing their own lives). There were no huge laughs, but some nice original-sounding lines. The tone of the script erred more on the side of cheerful optimism, as opposed to charmless cynicism. (I suspect the writer is a big fan of Superbad, but there are far worse comedies to crib from.)
I imagine as the series develops it will settle down and not rush to cram in plot strands, but to spend more time developing the characters. This show has quite a lot of potential, so we'll see whether it fulfils it in the weeks to come. Should be interesting to watch.
Oh, the title. I may be just too old, but I don't see why this was thought better than Fresh? I can sort-of see where they're coming from with Off The Hook; but that feeling doesn't just apply to kids who leave school for university, it applies to anyone who's left home for the first time. Then again, I thought The Inbetweeners was a dreadful title when I first heard it. (In fact, in some ways I still do, but it fits the show like a glove.)
(P.S. Apologies if I have made some of the same points as others, which having re-read this thread once more, I definitely have. 
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