Four seasons was a bit aggressive for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (HSMTMTS).
Season one made sense, but the following seasons diverted to weird paths, such as doing a documentary about Frozen. But, season four returns to the basis of the show: High School Musical. This time around, the iconic theater group is performing High School Musical 4. While this is going on, the original cast of High School Musical is coming together to create a new movie: High School Musical: The Reunion.
The plot focuses on the concurrent shows and the theater group’s involvement in it. Any problems that were caused by the reunion were solved far too quickly and left me feeling apathetic if a wrench was thrown in the characters’ plans; I knew it would simply be solved in the same episode or the next one.
I did like the fast pace of the show as it allowed me to finish the series in about three days (with frequent breaks), but it didn’t allow for any growth in the many new relationships and characters.
There were two new characters this season who had no time for growth, and I simply was annoyed at their existence. Mack and Dani are played by Matthew Sato and Kylie Cantrall respectively, and they served no purpose to the show whatsoever. Every problem that occurred due to their existence could have arisen on its own or without new characters. There were also plot holes made because of Dani, which I won’t dive into due to spoilers.
Some other annoying characters were returning but were ruined; Carlos, portrayed by Frankie Rodriguez, is one of those characters. In past seasons, he was a charismatic, loveable addition to the cast, but in this final season, he lost all of his traits and became overcome with his boyfriend troubles.
Carlos was not the only character to be lost to love interests. Ashlyn—played by Julia Lester—was overcome with her crush on Maddox (Saylor Bell Curda). Ashlyn was so obsessed with Maddox that the whole relationship felt forced and awkward.
Another relationship I am thoroughly upset the writers ruined was Miss Jen (Kate Reinders) and Benjamin (Mark St. Cyr). I had been rooting for them since the first season, and when we finally saw them end up together, it was given no effort or thought. I love the characters separately, they are both charismatic and entertaining to watch, and when you put them together, they are full of banter and command your attention. But when their relationship (barely) comes to fruition, it’s all lost.
I could go on and on about all of the couples I hated this season, but instead, I will conclude by talking about relationships with a broad statement: there is far too much of a focus on dating and crushes in this show, and it is unnecessary.
The other big focus of this season was the fact that many of the students were graduating and getting ready to move on to college, a point of life I am currently at and am able to relate to. If it wasn’t for this focus on college and graduation, I would have turned the fourth season off after the second episode. It calmed me to see the characters floundering under the pressure of applications and choosing where to spend the next four years of their lives. This made the characters feel more real; other than this, they felt fake and disconnected from reality.
While I loved parts of the show—some of the characters and the college aspect—most of it was frustratingly overdramatic and unnecessary. Season four brought it back to the original idea of the show, but I am truly thankful it is over; it had been dragged out for far too long.
