i watched High School Musical The Musical: The Series.... HUH?!

it's the year 2006 and google  buys youtube for 1.65 billion nintendo comes up with a wii console italy  wins the world cup pluto is no longer a planet and most importantly high school  musical comes out on the disney channel what now why should i care about a disney  channel movie you may ask since i sound so grown up and put together and not at all still  watching teen musicals you see in 2006 i was also a little girl who lived in the far off  land forgotten by almost all touring artists latin

america forgotten by most but not by  high school musical the high school musical tour was the very first concert that i ever  saw live the very first dvd that i ever owned and the very first time that i saw my weird  theater kid ass represented on screen now that little girl is 26 now and unable to let  it go when in walks mr disney plus what with but a remake of her favorite childhood movie  musical shut up and take my money needless to say and you've probably already figured this  out i was

obsessed with this franchise and i will neither confirm nor deny my participation  in various off-off off-broadway productions of high school musical that took place in my living  room with me playing all of the characters i don't know what you're talking about and you have  no proof welcome back everyone if you're new here my name is Sofia Maffei and i'm a vocal  coach singer and actress and today we're going to be talking about high school musical the  musical the series the review it's show t

ime i guess by now you guys see my conflict here right  remakes let's be honest tend not to be very good there's something about the magic of the original  content that doesn't always translate that well into a remake and while we're here let's all take  a moment to mourn fate the wink saga which was crushed under the unbeatable source material maybe  i could do a video about that later but let's get back to this one squirrel so when the high school  musical remake was announced i was shaking in

my jazz shoes and it took me a very long time to  pluck up the courage and watch this show i watched the first episode and i was going to share my  reaction here with you guys like i always do but the more i kept pondering about the show as the  days went by i realized i have lots of opinions so here is my take on high school musical the musical  the series from what i saw on the first episode this is obviously not a season review and much  of what i say here may develop differently as the show

goes along and that is normal but i  personally find that if the pilot doesn't do it for me i tend to not watch the rest of the show  so the pilot is actually crucial to the show doing well in the long run in this review i'm going to  show you some clips of my reaction to episode one and let me know down in the comments if you guys  would like to see my reaction to the rest of the episodes i will finish watching season one and  do a full season review before season two comes out so don't you wo

rry plenty more content to come  these are of course my opinions that's my opinion they are in no way facts of life or a diss to  the creators or the actors i do have my thoughts though which we are all allowed to share because  this is the internet and we all have a voice for better or worse and if you happen to like those  thoughts please make sure that you hit the like button that you subscribe to the channel and  click on that bell icon so you'll always be notified of all future videos with

that being  said and as i mentioned before i'll be showing some clips to illustrate my points but please  do support the original content as this review is not a market substitute for the show now on  with a video part one the concept straight off the bat i want to say that unlike many others i  don't have a problem with the title of this show i think it's very meta it's the show making  fun of itself and being self-aware which is something that i love to see it's so refreshing  especially when

i saw the high school musical the musical the series they're special i mean it's  quirky it's funny it's controversial and in that i think it does what it intends to do it gets people  to talk about it i don't know if many non-disney fans would have talked about the show as much if  the title hadn't sparked that much controversy i also have to say that i am elated that they  didn't go the route of high school musical 3 with new younger characters i remember vividly watching  high school musical

3 when it came out on theaters and upon those scenes just going no no no no no no  no and i guess i feel bad for the actors playing the younger characters i mean it's not their  fault god i hope their careers are okay anyway i like that this is a separate world because it  allows for a lot of comedy and hopefully some cameos from the cast in the future i myself am  praying for ashley tisdale is a phrase that i say on a daily basis i won't make a comment about  the story as a whole so far because

i obviously have the rest of the season to watch so i'll  leave that for my season review video i really like that the show revolves around theater kids  i mean you know me i empathize with that so much and i think that's going to be the aspect of the  show that i'm going to be the most interested in how they navigate through being a young artist and  the peer pressure family pressure that can kick in in the first episode called the auditions we see  just that the kids auditioning for a product

ion of high school musical with a fun fact that the  school that they go to is the school where they actually shot the movie and that the drama teacher  was apparently a dancer in the movie miss Jenn though not the actress i checked intertwined with  the production of the show we get the friendships the family and of course the relationship drama  thank god we actually get a team cast because that will give the show the possibility to go  on for more seasons if it wants to and then the character

s are still gonna look the age that  they need to how do you do fellow kids but most importantly we get an insanely talented cast led  by olivia rodrigo and joshua bassett and i have to disclaim this straight off the bat i am way  biased in my love for olivia her talent and our shared swiftie identity on a strict vocal level  i actually think that the kids in this show may actually outshine the original high school musical  cast oh my god i can't believe it just said that i just think the actors

in this show are more  musicians who can act and the original high school musical cast were more actors who could sing and  that's not to say that any of them are bad at any of the two things but as performers we always have  one of the areas that we're just more comfortable with and as a professional vocal coach myself i  am here to simp over the amazing musical skills to be displayed in the show no doubt starting by  olivia's fabulous rendition of start of something new in episode one but we'

ll talk about that later  keep watching if you want to see me make a fool of myself online and lose my call over her talent so  as far as the concept i like it i think it works and as a pitch for the show i'm here for it so now  let's move on to part two the characters now first things first characters are always a combination  of two factors and if one of the two is not great then the whole preparation can go sour very  quickly these being well-written characters and well-performed characters o

n the part of the  actors i think they were brilliantly chosen they deliver really really well and i'm super excited  to see all their careers develop in the future now as for the writing this is where the show fell  a little bit flat for me at least in the first episode and it pains me to say this i just think  that the actors weren't given the best material to work with most of the jokes and punchlines are  rather cheesy and the moments that really make it work for me are the actors delivery o

f the line  rather than the writing itself i know being cheesy and corny is probably part of what they were going  for but i don't know i just couldn't help but cringe a little bit here and there i'm dying i'm  deceased yes we also need to talk about how the show handles inclusivity and its characters in all  of its nuances and at that i am ecstatic to say that it does a great job with one caveat on the  first episode and i hope that i'm proven wrong as the show goes along that is actress dara r

enee's  character courtney being the 02 old stereotype of the mandatory sassy black friend whose only job  in the story is to support the main character much like the spicy latina trope which i myself  have fallen victim to in the industry as a latina actress myself this trope really has no place  in media anymore there should be so much more to care about in her character than her just being  sassy that should not be her one characteristic trait if you want to learn more about how the  stereoty

pe originated and how it still affects our communities today i suggest that you go check  out danielle's video on the hissy fit channel and also this analysis on black stereotypes in the  media by the take i will leave the links for their videos in the description box they explain it  so much better than i ever hoped that i could so please go check them out if you're interested but  that's not all she is also an angry woke feminist that is not at all a storyline written by 40 year  old men who a

re just trying to cash in into the metoo movement avengers endgame anyone and the  problem is obviously not with a character being feminist or sassy or being understandably angry  at the way the patriarchal society works and still oppresses women everywhere that is a conversation  that we definitely need to keep having the problem is that this feels to me at least like it's  being played for comedy it's a punchline maybe i'm completely misunderstanding this and it could  be the case but i hope t

he show proved me wrong in the end and that will get to know Kourtney  as a human being and much more than just an angry black woman or ninny's friend and as of the  first episode we've gotten to know nothing about her personal life her likes her dislikes even  how her summer went all of their scenes together so far have revolved around her being sassy for  comedic purposes or asking questions about nene's life but as i said i'll keep an open mind and  i really hope the show does good by Kourtne

y in the end i also want to point to the casting of  the show in terms of body positivity diversity and lgbtq representation our main character main  character is young actress olivia rodriguez who is a filipino descent the ensemble cost is also  diverse in every sense of the word and although i wish that we didn't need to reward corporations  for doing what should be just deemed as decent and human i do want to talk about it in the hopes that  more casting directors will follow suit and as for

body positivity i'll quote Kaycee Stroh who's the  actress who played martha in the original trilogy everywhere i look there is beauty in so many  colors shapes and sizes to say that i'm elated about it is an understatement and i agree lgbtq  representation also seems to be at the forefront of this show which being a disney product is a  huge deal considering how much they've avoided to talk about the subject for years kenny ortega  himself has been vocal about his desire to depict openly gay ch

aracters in high school musical  but he had to resort to innuendos and letting the audience draw their own conclusions i mean  am i the only one who saw the sexual tension in i don't dance on a high school musical too real  shame disney wasn't ready for that story in 2007. so to open this show with the scene of nene and  her two moms just having a family conversation and the topic of same-sex parenting not even being  an issue is just a testament to how much we've evolved as a society we still h

ave miles to go  from here but i do want to acknowledge the good work being done i like the character so far kind  of obviously ninny and ricky are the ones that we're supposed to root for so they get a little  bit more backstory but i do like what i saw from gina in her interview carlos and ashlyn seem quite  interesting as well and Kourtney i've already talked about i hope we get to know more about her  soon i don't want to talk about big red that much mainly because i find it really hard to k

eep a  straight face when i remember that his friends call him big red huh no one finds this ridiculous  no one how can they say that with a straight face anyway so far i've found his character to be  a little bit cheesy and his lines are a little bit cringey more suited for a kids show than  a teen show in my opinion but we'll see what happens in the rest of the season EJ is a really  nice twist from the typical depiction of jocks and shows and movies and he seems to really like  nene and appre

ciate her he's super talented but i have a feeling that he's going to be demonized  so that they can make space for nene and ricky and i really don't want to see that EJ doesn't  need to become a horrible character in order for nene and ricky to work i don't know why i have a  feeling that that's what's going to happen but i hope i'm wrong now nene nene is my favorite so  far nene is literally me as a theater kid but with way more confidence which i love to see she  stands her ground she knows w

hat she wants and she goes for it but she's also you know nervous and  relatable she can also have a bit of self-doubt not much else to say so far about nene but i am  here for the olivia rodrigo fan train and i'm very very happy to have a new character to love now i  have to say this and i hope i don't get cancelled for this opinion ricky bugs me there i said it  i don't know why i just find him annoying and i know what you're gonna say it's just episode one  and i should give him a bit more ti

me but i just wish that i could have gotten to care about him a  little bit more from the beginning in this episode alone we learn quite a few troubling facts about  this character from the douchey way that he reacts to nene telling him that she loves him which she  did through instagram which was you know a little bit awkward but they had been together for a year  a year like what are you talking about dude how are you surprised by this and in this scene we see  him pull a ross which is the las

t character from friends that you ever want to emulate ross i don't  think i've ever been this angry what about the time i said we were on a break apart from david  schwimmer's fantastic performance and comedic timing ross sucks he is the worst you do not want  to be like ross and then to top it all off he just barges in in the middle of nene's audition with  the sole purpose of getting the girl even after nene told him that she didn't want anything to do  with him that she has a boyfriend and t

hat this audition meant a lot to her but no ricky just has  to step in during her song probably freak her out and then proceed to flash a blinding light on  her face while him and EJ are having a bro off what but no no no no that is not all either ricky  is also highly unprepared for the audition and he ends up singing nene song to her face while EJ  is watching we're supposed to root for this guy and i have to say it nene's face during the scene  is giving me life yes yes please give me some mo

re eye rolling so let's get this right this kid who  has never in his life taken part in a school play arrives late reads the lines that he's given  with the grace of a rock and then manages to pull off a convincing monologue because it's  not actually a monologue because he's actually professing his love then sings a song that  is not what the director asked him to do and then gets the lead what i am super chill all  the time he gets the lead over not just ej but all the other theater kids who

have been busting  the butter for years in the theater program how is any of this fair how has he shown any aptitudes  for acting i mean sure he can sing but this is a musical you need to act too what is happening here  this is so unfair there's people that are dying and i get why nene was cast over gina a little bit  more nini's performance was mind-blowing and she's been in the theater program for so long she's  paid her dues and she deserves this still not the most realistic thing as gina is

clearly more  experienced and maybe if i had been the director i would have been more comfortable giving the role  to gina because i would think that she wouldn't crack under the pressure but i can let that one  slide because nene has earned her spot but ricky no no no no no that is some hollywood level magic  bull i am not buying also why are EJ and gina the understudies for the leads when they're also  playing chad and taylor she thinks i'm a chad from my experience at least understudies tend

to be  ensemble members are not other lead characters in the show i guess that's obviously here to create  some tension like on high school musical 3 and or the understudy drama wouldn't it make more sense  if ricky had been cast as basketball player number three and troy's understudy and then he could have  had those scenes with nene who could have been either gabriella or gabriella's understudy and  that storyline could have still happened but then we wouldn't be repeating the god-awful sin fr

om  the original movie when sharpay and ryan didn't get the lead in the school musical which they  absolutely deserved because they were way more qualified and that's not my opinion that is fact  i mean it is my opinion but i stand by it sharpay was robbed we need to save our show from people  who don't know the difference between a tony award and tony hawk also what on earth does carlos mean  with both sequels i've seen the original movie 37 times and the first 15 minutes of both sequels  have

you not seen the cult classic 2011 movie sharpay's fabulous adventure shame i'm getting too  emotional and carried away by this aren't i let's keep going as for our beautiful array of secondary  main characters we still have much to see from them but i like what i see so far apart from big  red no this but also this gina in particular is the most interesting to me so far i love the  little backstory that we already got from her i do think that she comes off a little too strong  on Nini but i und

erstand and i don't think that we should judge her character with adult standards  because she's still a teen gina is a stressed out kid in need of some love and understanding  so i really like her and i hope to see way more from her we barely got to see these characters on  episode one so i hope that we'll get to see a bit more from them in the future great call not being  gender-specific in their casting of sharpay though a testament to the fact that no one can even come  close to what ashley

tisdale did for the role the reinventing the role is perfection love it chef's  kiss now the drama teacher let's talk about her she's played by broadway actress kate reinders who  was born in 1980 and still somehow calls herself a millennial with a meta look into camera from  ricky which we love to see but it's obviously the show being in on the joke as well but i think  it would have made a little bit more sense to make her character just a tad younger to appeal  to the actual people who grew u

p watching and loving the show and who will probably empathize  with the teacher a lot don't get me wrong i love nene but i'm probably going to empathize with a  character that's closer to my age a little bit more and let's be honest when we're talking about  the bulk of the high school musical audience those people were probably between 10 and 17 when  the first movie came out making them around 25 to 32 now maybe even mid-30s wouldn't we  have connected with this character a little bit more if

she had been like a 30-something year  old millennial still trying to figure herself out and dealing with the aftermath of child acting  i don't know i just would have related to that so much personally i'm still super happy that we  got kate reinders so maybe this is me just being incredibly nitpicky wouldn't be the first time  part three the format now let's talk about the format of this show and this is where i saw the  most problems i am confused to say the least i think this is the case of

a show wanting to be  everything should we be 18 romcom should we be a drama should we be a parody should we be the  office should we be modern family should we be glee let's be all of the above like we get these  moments where the characters break the fourth wall and have an interview type scene which i loved  like i honestly found that so refreshing it's just different but then we get flashbacks like this let  my feet stink because i feel like my feet snake oh sort of how does this make sense

in the context of  the logic of this show just because something is a parody doesn't mean that logic just gets thrown  out the window everything has to have some sense of purpose even the wackiest shows and movies have  a certain code that they go by a certain set of rules the audience gets and plays by i saw someone  in amanda the jedi's comment section who said that it would have been really fun if they had kind of  played these flashbacks like awkward reenactments and i don't know if that wo

uld have been a good  idea but placing this flashback scene right after nene and ricky's interview scenes kind of makes  you believe that that flashback is part of the mockumentary that makes no sense and look i get  it it may sound good on paper to take resources that worked for other shows and try to see if they  work for your show it's been done before and this is obviously not to say that other people don't  like it i know that many of you guys watching this video are probably very unhappy w

ith the fact  that i didn't really like this format this is on you design on your cow i didn't hate it i just  don't get it and honestly it's driving me kind of crazy because i really really wanted to love  this show i wanted to connect with my nostalgia i wanted to listen to some fabulous olivia rodrigo  singing and overall just have a nice time watching some wholesome disney content and instead i have a  headache and it's not about the show being a drama and a comedy at the same time some of t

he best  shows in the world have managed to toe that line wonderfully think friends fresh prince of bel-air  gilmore girls even shows like brooklyn 99 and community have managed to talk about super serious  issues while remaining some of the funniest shows i have ever seen more recently a show that i think  manages to play with this concept really well is julie and the phantoms no surprise here i've been  raving about the show for weeks on my channel but there's a reason some of you guys may be

here  from my jewelry reactions but if you haven't seen them yet i'll leave the playlist for that  up here in a card for you my main takeaway when i look at julie and the phantom's next to high  school musical the musical the series is that the former knows what it is it's a show about  music and family and friendship it's about being true to yourself overcoming life's hurdles and  connecting with your art it's also really funny but never at the expense of the story some parts  in high school mu

sical the musical the series kind of give me the impression that disney just wanted  to make a bit more money off of the high school musical machine what inspired you to build a  second krusty krab right next door to the original money and one of the reasons why i want to keep  watching the show is because they've managed to land one of hollywood's biggest newcomers and  i'll be honest so far she really makes the show you are so talented and now it's easy to see oh so good that was magical i kno

w what you're  thinking is this a review or a stand video for olivia rodrigo it's both okay it's both but the  thing here is that it's not really clear whether the show wants you to take it seriously or not and  the line between seriousness and meta comments and breaking the fourth wall is so thin it's just a  tad distracting and while we're on the subject of writing it gets weird we get awkward lines  written by 40 year old men who think that they know how teens talk because they downloaded tik

  tok the one time your teen characters do not need to say hashtag every two seconds because  teens are interested in more than just social media i know that social media is a huge part of  their lives but it's not everything that they are if this had been intended as some sort of  parody of these stereotypical teen tropes maybe that would have worked better i don't  know but it's sort of everything and not much at the same time and look i'm not a script writer  they are what do i know but one o

f the characters says this troy would have arrived on time now  don't tell me that's a meta joke i would take that i would happily take that if that line had  been said by someone who didn't claim to know the movie so well this kid claims to be a high  school musical historian i mean maybe that is the joke the fact that he claims to know so much  about the movies but he doesn't actually know i don't know but i mean wouldn't the line have  made a bit more sense and would have been really funny as

well if it had been said by someone  who didn't know the movies that well and also what even is a high school musical historian  is that an actual job can you please give it to me i would be perfect for it 2000's disney  channel is to my generation our initiation in pop culture the dvd of high school musical one  with choreography taught by charles kaplow was honestly my obsession and i spent way too many  hours trying to learn the choreography in my computer room because that is what we had in

2007  they were dark times part four the impact as far as online reviews the scale seems to tilt in favor  of the show it's got a 75 approval rate on rotten tomatoes and a 7.5 out of 10 score on imdb which  is honestly so impressive it has received some negative feedback on youtube and twitter from what  i've seen but mostly people seem to really like the show and i can see why for those of us young  millennials the show will represent a strong sense of nostalgia which already attracts a great

deal  of people but i think it's the clever way in which the camera work is executed and some of the adult  jokes that really make it bring home as i said i do have some issues with the format of the show  but i think it's something that i'm probably going to get used to as the season progresses the most  important thing to me is that i connected with some of the characters and that the story seems to  be going somewhere we don't know where yet but it seems to be going into theater culture so i'

m here  for it will i be obsessing over this show that's yet to be determined i'm gonna have an open mind  and give this show a try i think all the hate that this show originally got on twitter is completely  uncalled for it mainly got criticized for its name and probably by a bunch of people who never even  watched the first episode there is a disturbing demonization in our culture of all things that  could remotely be classified as girly if something seems girly is automatically labeled as rid

iculous  and stupid there are very few things that this society likes more than to destroy girly topics  and isn't it funny that we never see this level of shame being brought upon traditionally boyish  media like we're expected to believe that the fast and the furious is a cinematic masterpiece  but clueless it's just as silly chick flick they're both classics they're both important in  pop culture and none of them are the godfather my final thoughts high school musical the musical  the series

is a show as of now a fine show as of what i hope to see in the future hopefully a  good show it's carried mainly by the talent of its cast and by the clever directing and camera  work i do think that the format needs a lot of work but that may just be me we can all have our  opinions but most importantly what did you guys think of the show do you agree or disagree with me  let me know nicely in the comments below and tell me what your favorite character from the show  is my favorite so far is n

ene and since you're down there in the comments section don't forget  to give this video a big thumbs up if you liked it subscribe to my channel and click on that bell  icon so you'll be notified of all my future videos i hope you all enjoyed this new format from me  and i'll be making a similar video for julie and the phantom and obviously a full season review  for high school musical the musical the series once i'm done with that as well with not much  else to say i'll stop rambling and leave

you with some more reactions in the link that's  right there on your screen and i'll see you over there above all i hope everyone has a great  week and i'll see you next time happy singing