After a long break visiting Iris Nijholt’s homeland, I’m back with a wrap-up of season three of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. I had the rare privilege of being able to binge the season after episode three, so I will dictate my review around the whole season rather than each episode.
The thing that worked this season was the nostalgia. Disney+ knows that audiences are craving familiarity and the reason they latched on to this series is because of its fallback on the High School Musical franchise. By leaning into old Disney Channel songs, centering episodes around ‘The Color War’, and creating a new love triangle they accomplished the feeling that was missing in season two.
HSMTMTS showrunner Tim Federle seems to know where he wants the story to go now. In season two, a lot of things were up in the air, like Olivia Rodrigo staying on the show and what plot was supposed to take up most of the show’s runtime. All of this felt settled in season three which is why we saw new characters and Nini’s presence, after episode two, was barely missed. Sofia Wylie does an amazing job as the new lead and so do all the rest of the actors.
There were parts of the characters that were able to be fleshed out more like Ashlyn discovering she’s bisexual, Kourtney’s anxiety, and even Carlos’ struggle with his body image. Aside from the main cast, the new characters were probably the next best part of the season. Maddox and Jet stole the show in multiple scenes for me. They created a new presence on camera that was left behind with the loss of other side characters like Miss Jenn, Big Red, and Seb.
The biggest aspect of this season’s story was probably Gina and Ricky’s will-they-won’t-they relationship. In a lot of ways, it worked for me. Gina’s breakup with E.J. was what I wanted from Ricky and Nini’s breakup. The pain, the angst, and the emotions were there, I understood why it had to end whereas Ricky and Nini’s breakup felt forced by the writers and maybe that’s because the audience knew the behind-the-scenes situation but I guess I’ll never know.
Although there are a lot of good parts of this season compared to last season, there was still a lot missing. Corbin Bleu’s character did not make sense to the overall story especially since he had such little interaction with the other cast members. It made it a little unbelievable when he has a change of heart at the very end of the finale.
Although I loved Kourtney and Carlos’ storyline they didn’t go deep enough to really incite any emotion. I loved the use of old Disney Channel songs but I’m not sure the original songs worked so much this season. Finally, the main, and probably biggest point, is that the show became a little too meta.
We’re supposed to believe that this is still a mockumentary while an “actual documentary” is going on. I would only remember that the show started off as a mockumentary when Ricky would look at the camera after something strange happened. It was jarring to remember that the characters on the show are still supposed to be on this supposed documentary because of their actual reenactment of HSM in the place where it was set. In season two we still see members of the cast look at the camera and have separate interviews but in season three I think they forgot about it entirely. We are put into this Disney+ documentary for Frozen whilst another documentary is supposed to be going on. They were so wrapped around making meta references to the show that they forgot about the actual show.
Putting all that aside, the ending of the season felt exactly like season one’s ending and it actually has me excited about the future, especially with the recent casting announcement of the original HSM cast coming on for season four. Although I will miss season one’s energy forever, I am intrigued about the new beginnings.
Muska Olumi is a columnist for the Boardwalk Times
