Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is sweet and campy, but simply has too much to hate: a review

dirty: Let’s start with the obvious – these people had big skirts to fill. fat It is one of the most successful musicals of all time. The 1978 classic had the right people at the right time, along with irresistibly catchy songs, unforgettable set pieces, and one of the most iconic turn-around sequences of all time. Do you have the message that it’s okay to change yourself for a guy, because high school love definitely lasts forever—necessarily a perfect age? no target fat It has remained a cultural staple to this day.

The new Paramount+ original series, Grease: The Rise of the Pink Ladies, is a prequel to Rydell High school set four years before the events depicted in the movie. Things kick off when four outcasts — Jane (Marisa Davila), Olivia (Cheyenne Wells), Nancy (Tricia Fukuhara) and Cynthia (Ari Notartomasu) — cross the chaotic paths of destiny that high school life has to offer and find themselves forming the rebellious girl gang prone to causing trouble. The basic plot of the critically-acclaimed episodes revolves around Jane running for student council in exchange for her cute, all-American, Make Rydell Great Again ex, Buddy (Jason Schmidt).

I’ve got (a bit of) a groove, I’ve got (some) sense: The rise of the pink ladies It is for people who love musicals to their bones – think of someone who watched 2007 Hairspray adaptation and said, “I loved it, but I wish they hadn’t cut out ‘Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now.'” Minutes into the pilot, the cast launches into a slightly modernized version of “Grease (Is the Word),” originally sung by Frankie Valli for the opening credits of fat – The songs from that point on are repetitive, large, highly choreographed, and colourful.

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With the number of songs packed into each episode (this writer averaged three per hour), they can’t all be winners, and some are complete flops. The best moments are the ones that spotlight the Four Ladies in Pink – these young actors are undeniably talented, and give this material their all and then some. Marisa Davila shines in particular during her perfect song “I Want,” and fellow newcomer Cheyenne Wells takes on the role of bookish but damaged Olivia.

To that end, all four central characters are incredibly talented young performers, with Tricia Fukuhara turning in some wonderfully angry line readings, as Nancy and Ari Notartomasu heist scene after scene as lovable Cynthia. The show wisely keeps the focus on their story rather than trying to shoehorn winks into the original, except for the detail that Jane’s younger sister, known here as Fran, grows up to become the character we know as Frenchy. (This, and the introduction of her best friend Betty Rizzo, could be forgiven, simply on the basis of how young actress Madison Lagaris appears in a Didi-Con impression.)

Luck be a lady (pink): With that being said, the tone of the show is where things get particularly tricky. It seems like maybe this story would have worked out better if it wasn’t associated with such a beloved and iconic IP, because pink ladies It lacks the edge of the original. Provides social justice and empowerment in the context of The CW Network, prof Riverdale-Identify the T-Birds and their female gang counterparts. The series is straightforward in its themes — totalitarianism, double standards between men and women, racism — but it touches them in decidedly 21st-century ways, and the characters speak and act as if they’re decades away from the 1950s. They think they are in, to the point of distraction.

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Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+)