High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Review — Season 2 Premiere

Includes Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1

After quite the year for Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, they’re back playing the beloved roles that started it all.

The season two premiere of ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ captures the essence of what made the first season so great. A lot of people started comparing the show to Glee when season one was released, and I would have to agree. I will say that I went into the episode a little cautious about the chemistry I would see between all of the characters considering all the real-life drama that has been happening, but I had no reason to worry (so far).

The episode begins with a narrated recap by Olivia Rodrigo of everything that happened in season one. We’re caught up to speed and dive right into a musical number. This episode has only two original songs, whereas the rest are dedicated to the songs in ‘High School Musical 2’, considering all the characters think that’s their next musical.

Spoiler Alert (but not really since it was in the trailer) the musical is ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and not a continuation of the trilogy but I do like the fact that the writers decided to let the characters still sing the songs from the second movie in a quick medley. The discovery of the spring musical is the underlying problem in this episode that connects all the characters together alongside their own problems.

Nini and Ricky still have great chemistry, even though it is a bit awkward when you know the rumors surrounding the actors, and the whole cast still feels like they bounce off each other really well. I like that we’re seeing a bit more of the relationships that were developing in the first season alongside the main couple. We see a sprinkle of Carlos and Seb and we follow along with Big Red’s and Ashlyn’s difficulty defining their relationship. Overall, I think the chemistry between the characters is still intact and done really well.

Questions for the next episode:

• What’s going on between Ricky and Gina?
• Is EJ going to get his own storyline as he prepares to leave for college while all his friends stay? (That would be nice)
• Is the track between Ricky and Nini leading up to another breakup?

Muska Olumi is a columnist for the Boardwalk Times