*Spoiler Alert* This article contains spoilers of Season two of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

Many people love and remember the original High School Musical, so Disney decided to bring it back, but with an exciting twist.

The first season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series was released in the winter of 2019. This show was reminiscent of the original High School Musical, which gathered a lot of viewers. The first episode of Season two came out May 14, 2021, on Disney+, and a new episode comes out every Friday. As of right now, there are five episodes released with a new episode coming June 18th.

The first five episodes that are released jump right into the cast as they act Beauty and the Beast for their second-semester musical. The episodes that follow are all about what the cast experiences while rehearsing for this musical, with the various events around them.

The first episode is about a new year’s party, where the cast learns that they are doing Beauty and the Beast instead of High School Musical two for the second-semester musical. We learn that Nini(Olivia Rodrigo) got accepted into a boarding school in Denver, but she does not tell her boyfriend Ricky(Joshua Bassett) until the next episode.

Overall, this chapter in the story was pretty boring at the beginning when it was just a continuation of the plot from the first season. The last half of the episode was more interesting to watch because it told the audience a lot more about the relationships between the cast.

The second episode, “Typecasting”, was a whole other story. This episode is jam-packed with new revelations, and it creates a lot of tension between the cast. This was a lot more fun to watch than the first one because it had a lot less fluff and more developments to the plot. This episode also had a lot of suspense which kept me on the edge of my seat.

The third episode, “Valentine’s Day” started with some comedy. Ricky visited Denver to surprise Nini, but Nini came back to Ricky’s house to surprise him for Valentine’s Day. This was stereotypical and seemed like every other show with episodes about Valentine’s Day. There were also failed big surprises, and one of the cast members made up a lie about having a present for his boyfriend, even though he did not. This episode was a bit boring and like every other show, so I lost some interest while watching this episode.

The fourth episode, “The Storm”, was also a bit repetitive because the cast was stuck at school since the roads shut down because of snow. Rehearsal had run late, and a snowstorm started, which meant that no one could come to pick the students up because of the snow blocking the roads. This is a pretty reoccurring theme in other shows, and I was a little sad to see it in this show, where the first season was amazing. I was losing interest as I watched these episodes and I had to force myself to watch the last episode because I felt like I was watching every other show, rather than something unique.

The fifth episode, “Quinceañero”, was very heartwarming. The cast threw a surprise birthday party for one of the members of the play, Carlos (Carlos Rodriguez). Again, with the surprise birthday party, this has been on different shows and seems repetitive. However, it still was a very sweet episode with a lot of romance between the couples in the cast. The romance wasn’t too excessive and it was just the right amount to add some depth to the episode.

Overall, I felt like this season started great and unique in the second episode, but then deteriorated into being like every other show in the episodes after that. Even if the show is a bit repetitive, people who like the original High School Musical and music-oriented shows should definitely add this show to their watch list.

6/10