Think Pink: My thoughts on Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

Courtesy of IMDb

At first, I was hesitant to watch Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. The trailer wasn't grabbing my attention enough. However, a friend had posted about it being good, so I decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did! While I've always been a Grease (and Grease 2) fan, this show blows both movies out of the water. It's so progressive and it touches upon real issues, even while being set in the 1950s. It's like a cross between Glee, Degrassi, and season seven of Riverdale. And it's a musical too. A 10-episode musical, to be exact! Each episode has a few song and dance numbers. Most of them are fast-paced, but there are a few ballads too. 

Courtesy of Variety

I hadn't seen any of the actresses on this show before, but after looking on IMDb, some of them had small roles in other shows I've seen. The one familiar face is Jackie Hoffman, who is also currently on Only Murders in the Building. She plays Principal McGee, who is actually an assistant principal during this time period, which is a prequel to Grease. She is perfect for the role and has some great moments. I actually saw her perform a long time ago at Second City Northwest, along with Nia Vardalos of Greek Wedding fame.

Along with being progressive, I love that there's a lot of diversity and that an LGBTQ+ storyline is included.

Take a look at the trailer and then give this show a try! It's so worthwhile. After you're done, do not go any further, as there will be SPOILERS for everyone who has seen all ten episodes.

SPOILERS below.

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Overall, I really enjoyed this series. There are a few things that I wish had been done differently, but I will write about that soon enough.

Thoughts on the four main characters:

Jane: She sometimes came off as a goody-two-shoes, but I like how empowered she became when she connected with the three other girls and formed the Pink Ladies. I also appreciated some of her badass moves in response to how Buddy's group was treating her. She was annoying with the love triangle and I wish she had just picked someone. 

Fun side note: I learned that the actress who plays her, Marisa Davila, was on an episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend a while back. Here's a song where she is featured.

Cynthia: I liked Cynthia overall. She kind of reminded me of Adam from Degrassi, but mostly in appearance. I love that she got an LGBTQ+ storyline on the show and I wish she had handled it better instead of having to make a grand gesture later on. Like maybe she could have actually talked to Lydia about how she was feeling earlier on. However, I know in that time period, it was scary to confront such feelings.

Olivia: While she has the best singing voice in the group, her tetchiness got to be too much. She was too standoffish with her friends. I also didn't like the whole plot involving her relationship with Mr. Daniels. She was already screwed over by him and she kept going back to him anyway. I'm glad her friends got her to come to her senses at the end. While I felt bad for her about things not working on with Gil, she had her chance and blew it to be with Mr. Daniels instead. 

Nancy: She is my favorite from this group as she is fun and quirky and tells it like it is. I felt like she could have been utilized better. Her storylines were basically about her fashion skills or her back-and-forth interest in Potato. I feel like she could be working with more challenges than she currently is. Having said that, I loved her reaction to Cynthia's confession. And I love how she cares about keeping the Pink Ladies together.

Thoughts on some of the other characters:

Hazel: I like her a lot. She's smart, talented, and has a good head on her shoulders. I'm glad she got invited to join the Pink Ladies. She'll be a great addition to the group.

Buddy: I'm glad he grew a spine even though it took him a while. He should have spoken up about the election results as soon as he found out. I'm glad he at least confessed to starting the fight with Richie. I like his friendship with Hazel, even though it sounds like he has feelings for her now, which could complicate things for her and Wally. 

Susan: I really had hopes that she would change after the episode where she sang about how she didn't really like the life she has. (It reminded me of Alyssa's song in The Prom.) She was even trying to be nice to the Pink Ladies and may have succeeded in that if her mom hadn't been so horribly awful. Then she just went back to being a mean girl again. 

Richie: I thought he was an enticing love interest for Jane until he let his jealousy and assumptions get in the way of that. I love how he showed his vulnerable side to his friends and I also hate that he got expelled after the fight. I heard that the actor left the show though. 

Lydia: At first she seemed intimidating, but then I liked how she helped Cynthia and I am glad she explained to Cynthia why she didn't trust her later on. It also explains why she was so guarded in the first place. 

Fun side note: I recently saw someone in my neighborhood who looks very similar to her, but I didn't pick up on that similarity until watching this show. Maybe it's because of the hairstyle. Niamh Wilson played a somewhat similar character in Degrassi but had a different look.

Assistant Principal McGee: At first, I didn't like how she was so hard on the Pink Ladies. Like she singled them out and gave them all this extra work for just being themselves. However, I liked that she picked up on the shenanigans going on at the school and that she eventually saw their side of things. I love when she caught them taking a part from the principal's car and acted like she had vision problems so that they would get away with it. I also love how she told off the principal in the last episode. And it was fun that she got her own song in one of the episodes.

I also loved young Frenchie and Rizzo. The girl who played Frenchie did her voice so well! And Rizzo was just full of attitude. Dot was fun for comic relief, but it was hard to take her seriously overall. She looked like a young Jan and also reminded me of Dolores from Grease 2. I think it's just the pigtails.

Onto the music. There were a lot of songs I really enjoyed, and some that just didn't do it for me. The imperfect rhyming got really annoying and some songs just didn't carry the feel from the time period. I liked the cover of "Grease is the Word" as well.

Favorite songs:

"Face to Face": Had a 90's girl band feel to it. 

"Please Please Please": I loved the tune, the vocal combo, and the artistry.

"Land Don't Look So Bad": I liked Hazel and Wally having a song together and it had a great sound.

"Girls Can't Drive": We get to see a different side of Susan. This is the one that reminded me of "Alyssa Greene".

"Merely Players": The LGBTQ+ aspect, obviously. But also, it was really well done.

"Take the Wheel": This one was just a lot of fun and I liked Jane's confidence.

Least favorite songs:

"In the Club": Unnecessary and boring.

"Girl Gang": It was trying to be like "The Telephone Hour" from Bye Bye Birdie, but it failed. Just really annoying.

"Carelessly": It felt pretty cheesy and I didn't like how they dragged out the word "care" in the chorus.

"Hit Me Again": Richie is challenging his friends to fist fight with him. 

"Pulling Strings": It has a Coldplay feel to it and it's mostly Buddy talking about why he's too much of a coward to speak up about what his father did.

"The Hand Jive": The mneumonic device for the hand moves is what seals the deal for this one being on my least favorites list.

Also, did the year fly by the same way it does in the movie? It felt like it was just Halloween and the fall ball, and then they're having this spring carnival? Did I miss something?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this show. I really hope there will be a second season!

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