A 23 year old’s take on the latest High School Musical series.

The arrival of Disney plus has allowed for some of us bored folk of the world to binge some of their beloved favourite Disney entertainment. Like most, the vast selection of Disney archives offering some of the best film and TV from the last 50 years, brought me to a complete loss of where to begin. You wouldn’t believe my eyes when I found High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Yes, I do realise that the excessive use of colons is a bit of a tongue-twister. However, the moment I saw the show, I had to click on the play button and have a wave of memories of 10 year old me singing to “Got to go my own way" pretending I was Vanessa Hudgens singing to Zack Efron.

 

The show starts off on the first day back after summer with the new East High School drama teacher, Miss Jenn, watching High School Musical before she announces to the school that she will be putting on a production of High School Musical: The Musical which sends the school into a frenzy of excitement as East High was the filming location for High School Musical.

 

“Time for my first costume change” says Jenn, Cringe, but this is Disney after all and we’re talking about High School Musical, the geek of all musicals. We’re introduced to one of the main characters of the season, Ricky Bowen, played by Joshua Bassett alongside his best-friend Big Red. Following we are introduced to Ricky’s love interest of the season Nini Salazar-Roberts played by Olivia Rodrigo, which, shock twist alert is a love triangle. As they were together before the summer, however during a summer Theatre Camp Nini has found romance with E.J Caswell played by Matt Cornett.

 

The upcoming High School Musical: The Musical performance gives Ricky the idea to win back Nini’s affection by auditioning to play Zack, as Nini is a huge musical lover. While Ricky is telling Big Red his plans, who insists that’s a bad idea because he HATES musicals, E.J and Nini are planning how they will audition for the musical. After the announcement we meet Mr. Benjamin Mazzara who is East Highs S.T.E.M teacher who could be considered the key antagonist of the show, as the TV show reflects the original movie’s premise of deciding between Sport and Theatre where as in this series it’s S.T.E.M vs arts.

 

So basically, the first day we were introduced to all the main characters and the problems that will be addressed throughout the show such as broken families as Ricky is angry at his dad for not getting his mum home, all real issues that do need to be explored. However, a nice surprise was when Nini was visiting her grandmother who was of Asian descent at what I assume was a care-home? We were introduced to her lesbian parents which is a large step for Disney in the age of progression.

 

//plot development

The second day starts off with an aggressive dance scene, by the other female lead Sofia Wylie played by actress Gina Porter. Who is also going for the same role as Nini in the upcoming show, what’s wrong with a bit of harmless competition? The drama teacher who has an assistant Carlos Rodriguez keeps telling her the info in a comical way about all the people auditioning . All of the auditions happen, there’s this weird line when the Drama teacher gives everyone their roles when giving one character the role of Mrs Darmas the teen replied “I am dying, i’m deceased, yes.” Why do adults write teenagers like this?

 

Now the actual auditions start, all runs smoothly until its Nini’s turn to start, the drama teacher suddenly knocks her drinks over and all the lights turn out? And then Ricky finally comes in and says he’s auditing for Troy. Carlos has the cheek to say ‘Zack wouldn’t be late’ has he seen the original film?

 

Anyway, back to Nini, so the lights are out, she decides to start singing anyway Ricky then comes up with his torch light so people can see her I guess? Then E.J gets jealous and joins as she wows the audience. She then finishes and Ricky performs the song she sang for him just before they broke up, ouch. He wows the audience as well after making Nina and E.J feel a little uncomfortable. After singing he walks out and Nini follows him. More drama. They have an argument, she says she wont go back to him and reminds him he doesn’t like musicals.

 

Moments later, the drama teacher comes out with the cast call. Guess who gets Troy and Gaberiella the ex-boyfriend and Girlfriend how awkward. While E.J gets the role of Chad talk about drama, that’s how the episodes ends.

 

I think there are a lot of themes in this show that are touched upon which is something not seen in the films it’s based on, which is a big improvement for Disney channel showing real life adult problems. Another thing I hadn’t mentioned is how it’s filmed, it’s kind of like The

Office but more teenage drama and no looking towards the camera like Jim.

 

I will certainly be watching to keep-up to date to Ricky and Nina’s love life dramas and see how they develop Big Red’s and other characters throughout the show. If you want to watch it and you’re from the UK and have just got Disney Plus give it a watch.