If you ever wondered what happens to the kids in all those teen dramas like "High School Musical," the CW's perky new "Hellcats" has the answer.
They graduate, go to college and have the same dramas all over again.
Gimme a D! Gimme an E! Gimme a J! Gimme an A! Gimme a V! Gimme a U!
Veteran tween and teen fave Aly Michalka stars as Marti Perkins, who's cruising along as a hip, cool and likable prelaw student at Lancer University in Memphis until she loses her scholarship and her fragile financial world collapses.
Suddenly, Marti has only one option. She must earn a spot on Lancer's highly competitive cheerleading squad, the Hellcats, who somehow apparently hold this giant school's only remaining scholarship.
If you're buying this premise, you're exactly the viewer "Hellcats" is looking for. Despite a slight hint of "Legally Blonde," its real inspiration is those dozens of teen flicks about the plucky outcast who triumphs over the extreme cruelty of school in general and one exceedingly nasty villain in particular.
The fact "Hellcats" is set in college, rather than high school, opens things up a tiny bit. For starters, it makes the music and dance numbers look less like "Glee" with pom-poms.
It also lets the writers use more syllables and make the romances a little more grownup.
It's the same canvas, though, with the same set of well-tested plot devices.
This means keeping the primary focus on the drama between women, which is why "Hellcats" plunges right into the impact of Marti's cheerleader tryout on two other groups: her friends, who can't believe it, and the cheerleaders, who believe it even less.
The latter group includes Savannah Moore (Ashley Tisdale), one of the judges who will pick the new cheerleader. Like the others, Savannah assumes Marti cares no more about cheerleading than she cares about monster truck races and thus will quickly eliminate herself.
So imagine their surprise when it turns out that Marti used to be a gymnast, so she has the agility and the moves to become a legitimate Hellcat contender.
This still doesn't sell Alice Verdura (Heather Hemmens), whose injury created the opening on the squad, or some of the other serious cheerleaders.
Thus begins the initial chick drama, though "Hellcats" has boy characters as well, and Gail O'Grady does a nice job as Marti's unreliable mother, Wanda.
In the larger picture, "Hellcats" has the deceptively tricky mission of taking what has been a 90-minute idea in most other incarnations and stretching it into an ongoing series.
But it serves up plenty of eye candy to enhance the ride, so hey, gimme an M for Marti!
They graduate, go to college and have the same dramas all over again.
Gimme a D! Gimme an E! Gimme a J! Gimme an A! Gimme a V! Gimme a U!
Veteran tween and teen fave Aly Michalka stars as Marti Perkins, who's cruising along as a hip, cool and likable prelaw student at Lancer University in Memphis until she loses her scholarship and her fragile financial world collapses.
Suddenly, Marti has only one option. She must earn a spot on Lancer's highly competitive cheerleading squad, the Hellcats, who somehow apparently hold this giant school's only remaining scholarship.
If you're buying this premise, you're exactly the viewer "Hellcats" is looking for. Despite a slight hint of "Legally Blonde," its real inspiration is those dozens of teen flicks about the plucky outcast who triumphs over the extreme cruelty of school in general and one exceedingly nasty villain in particular.
The fact "Hellcats" is set in college, rather than high school, opens things up a tiny bit. For starters, it makes the music and dance numbers look less like "Glee" with pom-poms.
It also lets the writers use more syllables and make the romances a little more grownup.
It's the same canvas, though, with the same set of well-tested plot devices.
This means keeping the primary focus on the drama between women, which is why "Hellcats" plunges right into the impact of Marti's cheerleader tryout on two other groups: her friends, who can't believe it, and the cheerleaders, who believe it even less.
The latter group includes Savannah Moore (Ashley Tisdale), one of the judges who will pick the new cheerleader. Like the others, Savannah assumes Marti cares no more about cheerleading than she cares about monster truck races and thus will quickly eliminate herself.
So imagine their surprise when it turns out that Marti used to be a gymnast, so she has the agility and the moves to become a legitimate Hellcat contender.
This still doesn't sell Alice Verdura (Heather Hemmens), whose injury created the opening on the squad, or some of the other serious cheerleaders.
Thus begins the initial chick drama, though "Hellcats" has boy characters as well, and Gail O'Grady does a nice job as Marti's unreliable mother, Wanda.
In the larger picture, "Hellcats" has the deceptively tricky mission of taking what has been a 90-minute idea in most other incarnations and stretching it into an ongoing series.
But it serves up plenty of eye candy to enhance the ride, so hey, gimme an M for Marti!
