Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies
Jul. 7th, 2023 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustThis might be the best show you will never see.
I want to make an eloquent and impassioned post about why it's so good and why I love it so much. But I don't know if I can convey that adequately with mere words. I plan to make a post about my favourite songs, because in musicals - yes, it's a musical - songs are how you express your feelings when you can't get them out any other way.
I'm sad and angry that Paramount Plus pulled the show from their streaming service, with only a few days of notice, and barely a month after the season finale aired.
They did it for a tax write-off.
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is a TV series prequel set four years before the original Grease movie. It's about the origin of the infamous "girl gang" known as the Pink Ladies, founded by four misfits who decide to stand up for themselves, for each other, and for everyone else at the school who is an outcast or an outsider.
My own memories of the events of Grease are very fuzzy. (My memories of the songs are evergreen.) Did I really want to revisit that time and place? Didn't the 1950s in America kind of suck for a lot of people?
Yes. Yes they did. But those people were there anyway, even if the traditional narratives overlook them. And they have a story too.
The first episode sets up one of the main arcs of the season: the election for student council president.
Buddy (the incumbent): "If you vote for me, I promise that things will go back to like before, so we can all just have fun again."
Jane (the challenger): "I just wanna say that I don't think Rydell was so fun for everyone before. It wasn't for me. And I know it hasn't been for a lot of kids who don't fit in for whatever reason, 'cause we're considered strange or the wrong type. The truth is that most people in this auditorium aren't popular. Some don't even want to be. We just wanna be ourselves but we haven't even gotten the chance to do that yet or to have fun. 'Cause we're too busy just trying to survive high school. Maybe you've accepted that. Maybe you're used to things being that way at Rydell. As the new girl, I'll tell you, it's crap."
That's essentially the thesis of the show. The status quo sucks. But it doesn't have to stay that way.
It feels very contemporary and very timeless.
I was so invested in the characters from the very first episode. The writing, acting, and singing are fantastic. The choreography is movie level. There are 30 songs over the course of 10 episodes. They cover an impressive range of genres and styles. All of them are original, except for the title song.
I want to tell everyone I know about how awesome this show is. It sucks that right now no one can see it. (This is why people pirate stuff!) It's the kind of show I can imagine growing its audience through word of mouth. Paramount Plus says they're shopping it around to other networks. We'll see what comes of that.
Anyway, the full opening number is on YouTube:
(If I had a nickel for every time a show I love got disappeared from streaming, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but I feel like there'll be more nickels coming my way in the future.)
I want to make an eloquent and impassioned post about why it's so good and why I love it so much. But I don't know if I can convey that adequately with mere words. I plan to make a post about my favourite songs, because in musicals - yes, it's a musical - songs are how you express your feelings when you can't get them out any other way.
I'm sad and angry that Paramount Plus pulled the show from their streaming service, with only a few days of notice, and barely a month after the season finale aired.
They did it for a tax write-off.
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is a TV series prequel set four years before the original Grease movie. It's about the origin of the infamous "girl gang" known as the Pink Ladies, founded by four misfits who decide to stand up for themselves, for each other, and for everyone else at the school who is an outcast or an outsider.
My own memories of the events of Grease are very fuzzy. (My memories of the songs are evergreen.) Did I really want to revisit that time and place? Didn't the 1950s in America kind of suck for a lot of people?
Yes. Yes they did. But those people were there anyway, even if the traditional narratives overlook them. And they have a story too.
The first episode sets up one of the main arcs of the season: the election for student council president.
Buddy (the incumbent): "If you vote for me, I promise that things will go back to like before, so we can all just have fun again."
Jane (the challenger): "I just wanna say that I don't think Rydell was so fun for everyone before. It wasn't for me. And I know it hasn't been for a lot of kids who don't fit in for whatever reason, 'cause we're considered strange or the wrong type. The truth is that most people in this auditorium aren't popular. Some don't even want to be. We just wanna be ourselves but we haven't even gotten the chance to do that yet or to have fun. 'Cause we're too busy just trying to survive high school. Maybe you've accepted that. Maybe you're used to things being that way at Rydell. As the new girl, I'll tell you, it's crap."
That's essentially the thesis of the show. The status quo sucks. But it doesn't have to stay that way.
It feels very contemporary and very timeless.
I was so invested in the characters from the very first episode. The writing, acting, and singing are fantastic. The choreography is movie level. There are 30 songs over the course of 10 episodes. They cover an impressive range of genres and styles. All of them are original, except for the title song.
I want to tell everyone I know about how awesome this show is. It sucks that right now no one can see it. (This is why people pirate stuff!) It's the kind of show I can imagine growing its audience through word of mouth. Paramount Plus says they're shopping it around to other networks. We'll see what comes of that.
Anyway, the full opening number is on YouTube:
(If I had a nickel for every time a show I love got disappeared from streaming, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but I feel like there'll be more nickels coming my way in the future.)
