Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies review: A blast from the past through a modern lens
Paramount Plus' 1950s-set series is filled with progressive Gen-Z values and songs that sound like Ariana Grande singles
TV Reviews Pink
Every period piece reflects the era that created it as much as the era when it takes place. Witness Baby and Johnny grooving to ’80s soft rock in the 1960s-set Dirty Dancing, Leonardo DiCaprio sporting a floppy Tiger Beat heartthrob ’do circa 1912 in Titanic, or Abbi Jacobson tossing out millennial slang in Prime Video’s A League of Their Own.
If you love a movie or TV show, it’s easy to forgive these anachronisms; in fact, they can sometimes be the entire point. When Randal Kleiser’s original Grease movie debuted, it was a sensation specifically because it looked back on the 1950s through a late-’70s lens, from the disco-inflected title song to Olivia Newton-John’s teased-to-heaven hairstyle.
Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies, which premieres April 6 on Paramount+, continues this proud anachronistic tradition; in 2023, that means progressive Gen-Z values and songs that sound like they could be Ariana Grande or Kesha singles (that’s likely because its lyricist-composer, Justin Tranter, has penned Top 40 hits for both these artists). Created by Annabel Oakes (Awkward, Minx), the series wears its liberal politics on its sleeve, treading the line between nostalgia for the aesthetics of postwar America and criticism of its regressive politics. The show takes a refreshingly light approach to thorny topics like racism and slut-shaming while largely doing them justice. And though its messaging can be didactic at times, Pink Ladies never feels like a chore. In fact, it’s a wall-to-wall blast.
Oakes’ show is a prequel to Grease set in 1954, four years before Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson made out under the dock. Though the T-Birds are already strutting and preening down the halls of Rydell High, their girl-gang counterpart has yet to be born. Enter Jane Facciano (Marisa Davila), a not-quite-nerd, not-quite-popular girl whose family recently moved from New York City to ultra-suburban Rydell. (If the Facciano surname sounds familiar, note that she’s got a little sister named Frenchy.)
Jane starts the school year secretly dating dreamy quarterback Buddy (Jason Schmidt); but after he passively lets the whole school believe rumors about her (gasp!) putting out, Jane drops him—then finds herself sans clique. And in a town where every teen is defined by the jackets they wear—be they letter or leather—that’s bad news.
She’s our protagonist, but Pink Ladies is a true ensemble show. That primarily includes three other outcasts: Olivia (Cheyenne Isabel Wells), who’s smarting from an affair with her English teacher; Cynthia (Ari Notartomaso), a tomboy who dreams of joining up with the T-Birds; and Nancy (Tricia Fukuhara), an aspiring fashion designer and a proud weirdo.
When Jane decides to run against Buddy for class president, the foursome comes together to back her cause and solidify their friendship by donning those iconic jackets. Meanwhile, Olivia’s brother Richie (Johnathan Nieves), the hunky leader of the T-Birds, starts to get the hots for Jane. (The half-baked love triangle between these two and Buddy is the show’s weakest subplot; in this Grease, the romances aren’t nearly as compelling as the friendships.)
What’s notable about the Pink Ladies, aside from the fact that they’re all pretty darn charming, is that not one of them is the kind of girl you’d generally find at the center of a 1950s tale (read: white and/or straight). Jane is half Puerto Rican, Olivia is Mexican American, Cynthia is queer, and Nancy is Japanese American. Their biggest struggles derive from not only the misogyny they come up against as women, but the discrimination they face thanks to their cultural identities. (The rest of the student population also includes plenty of Black, AAPI, and Latinx folks.)
The third episode tackles the discrimination within Rydell. It centers on Hazel (Shanel Bailey), a shy Black girl who’s new in town, as well as Jane as she grapples with her identity as a Latina who can pass as white while her mother and sister can’t. The show doesn’t pull its punches in an insidiously catchy soft-shoe number called “In The Club,” in which the rich white founders of the local country club climb out of an oil painting to serenade Jane about white supremacy.
That said, Pink Ladies is uneven when it comes to dealing with the realities of the universe it’s created. The show glosses over how, exactly, the students of color are able to mix so readily with the white kids, or how a gay Black man came to be hired as Rydell High’s drama teacher. The series isn’t quite Bridgerton levels of lazy about its worldbuilding; but if you’re going to make a show whose plot hinges on dismantling the racism, sexism, and homophobia bubbling just beneath the surface of midcentury suburbia, you’ve gotta fully commit.
Speaking of surfaces, Pink Ladies looks and sounds gorgeous, from the bright, detailed costuming to the lovingly kitschy production design. Plus, it pulls off a trick that precious few musical TV series manage: Nearly every number is a bop. After ushering us into the world via a dynamic full-cast performance of Barry Gibb’s iconic title song at the drive-in, the show starts to seed in Tranter’s original compositions—lyrically clever earworms that run the gamut from swoony torch songs and contemporary pop-inflected tracks to ’50s rock jams that nod to the Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s work from the original Grease.
And thanks to kinetic choreography from RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Jamal Sims and dynamic camerawork from the series’ directing team, each number feels like a mini music video. Highlights include a “Greased Lightning”-style cut sung by Cynthia (with the T-Birds as her backup dancers); an emotional banger from Jane in the school hallway that looks like a Billie Eilish video; a joyous group number from the Pink Ladies that sees the walls of a teen bedroom float up into the clouds; and a solo from Hazel in which her dance partner is a cluster of stars.
Of course, the most kudos goes to the multitalented cast; the four main players bounce off each other (and their haters) with ease. Davila makes Jane—a protagonist who risks sinking into Mary Sue territory—a full-bodied presence, and she’s unafraid to delve into the thornier aspects of her character. As Nancy, Fukuhara undercuts the sweetness of Pink Ladies with wry, tart humor.
Notartomaso and Williams may be the most impressive, however, considering the series marks both of their screen debuts. Nonbinary actor Notartomaso has the hardest needle to thread as Cynthia, a class clown whose jokes belie a deep insecurity about sexuality and gender—and they make their character’s struggle feel all too real. And then there’s Williams, who seems destined for stardom; her singing and dancing are Broadway-caliber, and she’s got the kind of charisma you can’t teach.
We’d be remiss not to mention the series’ elder stateswoman, character acting legend Jackie Hoffman. She plays the strict but put-upon Assistant Principal McGee, whom the writers afford much more humanity than most fictional vice principals get. Plus, she’s played by Jackie friggin’ Hoffman.
Compared with most of today’s high-school series, the stakes in Pink Ladies are low. But we’ve got more than enough shows about teens dealing with murder, drug addiction, plane crashes, dark magic, werewolves, and/or the Upside Down to go around. And though it’s frustrating that nearly every series these days is based on existing IP, Rise Of The Pink Ladies is proof that it’s possible to dig up a hoary old piece of media and make it do the hand jive.
Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies premieres April 6 on Paramount+.
95 Comments
Really, though, you can’t say “more than enough shows about teens dealing with murder, drug addiction, plane crashes, dark magic, werewolves, and/or the Upside Down to go around” because that’s just five seasons of Riverdale.
What about Grey’s Anatomy? Oh, wait, they’re just emotional teenagers.
Yeah, the distinction between adult actors playing emotional and angsty teenagers and actors playing adults who are emotional and angsty like teenagers is a very important distinction.
It’s worth noting that the adult actors on Riverdale went from playing emotional and angsty teens, to emotional and angsty adults, and then back to being teens.
How many seasons before this gets canceled? 1 or 2?
Waek me wen Grease: The Epoch of Eugene Felsnic.
nothing screams 2023 more than ‘the songs sound like kesha singles’. i think you meant 2013.
progressive Gen-Z values and songs that sound like they could be Ariana Grande or Kesha singlesI take it this is intended as a selling point?
I guess for the Gen Z crowd, it might be.
These songs bop. They’re bangers; they slap hard.
Does that mean they’re “good”?
They’re dope. Sick!
Groovy…I guess.
How do you do, fellow kids?
Nice username!
I’m 35 and I’ve heard these terms before, therefore I can reasonably conclude that they’re already hopelessly out of date with the young people.
By the time I got to “bro,” it had gone from a term of affection to an insult.
Stockard Channing featured guest role with hot raps, coming up.
In 1954 I don’t even think you had the 1st generation of rock ‘n roll happening yet.
Actually, 1954 was the year that Bill Haley and his Comets had the hit “Rock Around the Clock”, which is often considered the first “rock and roll song” although many rhythm and blues songs by Black artists had a similar sound even in the late 1940s.
I remember when rock was young.
What’s wrong with that?
It sounds like it was written and cast by an algorithm. I can’t think of anything less appealing. Really showing those fans of the original, huh? That’ll teach ‘em to care about stuff!
Absolutely. Hopefully the singers will be enunciating more clearly than Grande generally does.
You are not hip to the musics of today.
Is this a weekly release, or bingeable? If the former, when does the final episode drop so I can binge it. I’m not paying for a rolling subscription for P+, a one month and done payment is enough.
“Set 4 years before Grease was a thing, these four women and all other diverse characters were quickly rounded up and either killed or pariah’d after they graduated.”
Just FYI, many Japanese Americans moved to Pennsylvania after WWII. They represented a small percentage of the total population, but they were there. https://www.pacificcitizen.org/a-philadelphia-story/But, um, why are they in Pennsylvania? Are you sure they are in PA? The original (much more gritty and raunchy) musical was set in Chicago, and then the movie was set in Los Angeles. What’s the reason for the change of location?
This is set in the same universe as Saved By The Bell, which moved the school from Indiana to California between seasons.
Yeah, did I miss something? The review casually mentions “If you want to get historically accurate about it, does it stretch credulity that a 1950s Pennsylvania suburb would be this diverse?” No explanation of why this is set in Pennsylvania? Were the Pink Ladies a girl gang with regional chapters?BTW, the Pennsylvania suburb I grew up in the 70s and 80s wasn’t even that diverse, much less the 50s.
Well, there’s diverse and there’s diverse. There were 4 Asian kids in my large high school outside of Washington, DC, when I attended in the early 80s, so that does not make it all that diverse, but they were there. (I happen to be married to one of them now, and I was pretty good friends with the rest of them.) My Japanese-American PhD mentor, who is now in his sixties, grew up in Laramie, WY. So my point is that while there probably weren’t all that many Asian kids in the 50s in wherever this thing is set, it would not be unheard of for there to be one or a few.
I still want to know, though, where the remark about Pennsylvania came from. Is this show actually set in Pennsylvania, and if it supposedly has continuity to the films (a Grease Cinematic Universe, or GCU?), what is the connection to PA?My high school had transfer students from Europe (one was head-hunted for his basketball skills, and some refugees from the Yugoslav wars), if that counted as diversity. The only Asian kid in the entire class was actually my neighbor, and he’s now a professor of cardiology.
This show would make even more sense being set in LA than the movie if it wants this kind of diversity to have any sort of basis in reality. Suburban Philly??
The area of PA I live in now is just starting to get non white people.
That line is no longer in the review.
I’m still not sure how to feel about diverse casting like this. I love seeing diversity on screen, but it’s a tough balance for me to figure out where it feels and doesn’t feel real enough, which I know is somewhat silly when discussing a Grease prequel. It doesn’t sound like this show is raceblind; they’re tackling racial discrimination. But will it feel inappropriately innocent or simplistic? I’m sure I just need to be educated, but it feels like a stretch for me to buy into the idea that a very diverse group of girls predating the Civil Rights Movement is ruling the school somewhere in Pennsylvania, and then once in a while someone notices and makes a fuss out of them being not white.People with diverse backgrounds back in the ‘50s in Pennsylvania dealt with their own real challenges, but what I’m gleaning from this is that it looks like the show would reflect more what today’s high schoolers are seeing/experiencing than it would what the characters would have seen, and I’m trying to figure out if that feels right and if that does away with some of the real blemishes on America in the ‘50s.I guess I’ll see for myself once I actually see the show.
I feel like if you can accept them bursting into song you can probably accept them being diversely cast.
There were Asian people living in lots of different parts of the country long before the civil rights movement, and many of them were highly assimilated. Since in many cases they may have been the only Asian family around, their kids were mostly likely friends with white kids. This is not to say there were no problems, but the lack of large numbers of Asian people does not mean there were none.My Japanese MIL initially immigrated to Philadelphia before moving to the suburbs outside of DC. My Japanese-American husband grew up with all white friends (and married me, a white woman). He wrestled and played football for our nearly 100% white school. It would have been very easy to miss his presence as anything other than an all-American kid. So anyway, a very small number of members of a certain group does not mean none at all. 🙂
That’s very fair. I suppose it’s typical for entertainment to highlight what’s (considered) out of the ordinary, and this feels like this fits right in.
My Atlanta suburban high school had a number of Japanese and Korean kids (mostly U.S.-born, but not all) and they pretty much slotted right in. Granted this was long after this show is set. Meanwhile my grandmother, of the WWII generation, once told me when I was a kid that you can’t trust the Japanese. Which I guess isn’t surprising considering the whole Pearl Harbor thing, but was still kind of a surprise coming from this sweet old lady.
lol what? it’s a fantasy
“…it feels like a stretch for me to buy into the idea that a very diverse group of girls predating the Civil Rights Movement is ruling the school somewhere…”Excellent point.
I sort of feel like creating a show that is set in the 50s, glossing over the fact that society in the 1950s was very segregated, and that friendship groups in 1950s high schools would never have been as racially diverse as this show suggests is problematic. It ignores the hardship, struggles and indignities that minority groups experienced and the overwhelming attitude of entitlement and superiority that white people had at the time. Pretending that racial segregation didn’t affect every social aspect of life in the 50s feels a bit too close to the laws being passed in places like Florida, where students aren’t being taught this country’s true history in order to keep white children from feeling bad about it. I understand that the showrunners are trying to be socially conscious, but lying about the past to reflect current attitudes doesn’t feel like progress. It feels like a lie.
From Chicago to LA? I didn’t know that. I would have like to have seen the movie set in Chicago.
Wait? Rydell is in Pennsylvania?
There’s a Rydal in PA, not sure about the Rydell. Maybe the Rydell the school is named for is some important dignitary. But do we come to Grease for realism?
So where was the beach Sandy and Danny made out under the dock?
Jersey Shore
Tell me less.
I guess it could be Jersey Shore. It always felt like California to me. Besides why would an Australian family more to PA?
Can’t jump the LA River while racing hot rods in Jersey.
Excellent point!
There’s water to have a beach by in PA:
In the original stage play it was in Illinois.
So under Navy Pier?
Oh wow. You said “Latinx” unironically.
I was going to leave a “you used ‘latinx’ and now the weirdos are going to complain” comment but then I was like, “Nah, too predictable” and yet here we are. Calma, mano.
It’s not weird to note that actual Hispanics loathe the term, and many find it actively insulting to their culture. Which is widely enough known that it probably doesn’t need to be commented upon, but still.
Everyone knows that Hispanics need to be educated on how to properly utilize – and modify – the Spanish language.
The only weirdos are those using the word “Latinx”.
Yeah, um, Latinos don’t use Latinx: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/many-latinos-say-latinx-offends-or-bothers-them-here-s-ncna1285916
I live in wonderfully diverse NYC, and I had to google “AAIP” because I never got the memo. And I have never met a single person who doesn’t loathe the terms “Latinx.”
I read a review (I think it was the Guardian) that remarked how filming in Vancouver was an unconvincing stand-in for “somewhere in California.” They seem to think the show is supposed to be set in California.So, I guess one of us will have to just watch the show to find out if this review or that review is correct. NOT IT!
It wasn’t always convincing turning Vancouver into Kansas for Smallville. The climate, apparently, was not always cooperative – and you could often tell. And, of course, Supernatural was filmed in British Columbia, Vancouver, which was often a stretch. I remember the episode where the Boys visit Sunny California but as they are strolling around on their way to a beach remark “Cold today. This feels like Canada,” lol. Some self-reflexive humor.
It is definitely set in California:
I already saw the Pink Lady rise:
Jeff has fallen.
“Plus, she’s played by Jackie friggin’ Hoffman.”Could the Zombie AV Club please, like, not use all kindsa slang and attitude talk in its reviews? Like, I know the Newswires are all, um, totally kewl and in yur face, lol, but, could there be one category of piece that isn’t all tryna be fetch all the time? Could the reviews maybe aspire to that fresh style the geezers call, like, dignity?
it’s an epidemic across all online (and probably print) writing. i fucking hate it.
Any self-respecting pop culture writer would know that fetch isn’t going to happen.
They’re on a fleek. Right?
Shpadoinkle!
I’m not really seeing that here. I see the word “gotta”. I detest the expressions “like” and especially “um” in any written media – especially comment sections (not your comment), so I agree about that. This piece seems seems very colorful and it’s nicely expressed and organized, imo.But, yeah, there’s too much of what you describe in today’s blogposts.
…I got a Barbie notice for this?
Pass.
Notartomaso and Williams may be the most impressive, however,
considering the series marks both of their screen debuts. Nonbinary
actor Notartomaso has the hardest needle to thread as Cynthia, a class
clown whose jokes belie a deep insecurity about sexuality and gender—and
they make their character’s struggle feel all too real. And then
there’s Williams, who seems destined for stardom; her singing and
dancing are Broadway-caliber, and she’s got the kind of charisma you
can’t teach.
Okay, who the hell is “Williams”? I’ve read through this article three times now, and I can’t identify which actress this is.
Popular, deceased playwright Tennessee Williams.
I mean he WAS known to be Broadway-calibre (to put it mildly) but not for his singing or dancing…
That is exactly what I came here to figure out. I assume they mean Wells who plays Oliva she is obviously the best singer and has no other IMDB credits.
I just came here to say the same thing. Her (his?) name only is mentioned in that one paragraph. And there’s no Williams in the IMDB cast page. And doesn’t seem to be a character with that name.
I just watched the trailer, and it was pretty darn charming. I see no indication that this thing is set in Pennsylvania. Best I can tell it’s supposed to be a prequel to the movie, which would put it in LA (which is also more consistent with the diversity of the characters).Jenna, does the press packet says it’s in PA? What the deal?
Is this a Heathers Season 2 thing? I thought it was supposed to take place during the French Revolution.
Dis m’en plus dis m’en plus
Which sounds way better than what Heathers season 1 tried to be.
There’s always whatever Gen-Zetarol-addled nightmare Paramount comes up with next. Maybe they’ll pick up Riverdale for a series of TV movies, Murder She Wrote style.
What a brave choice to take an existing IP, make the casting diverse and then make the whole show about bravely standing up to racism. Definitely not something that’s been done before.
LOL at you giving a shit about any of this. Dork.
“That said, Pink Ladies is uneven when it comes to dealing with the realities of the universe it’s created.” Thanks for including this caveat. It’s an important one. The Pink Lady squad does sound cool but, like others here have asked, “Pennsylvania. Really?” That said, I was a kid when this came out and I had to pretend like I loved it. I secretly hated it. Sorry. It irritated TF out of me to see ONJ’s character donning leather just to please a strutting, cooler-than-cool high school kid.
And one of the students is having an affair with an English teacher? That’s messed up and why does it always have to be the English Teacher? I hate that stereotype, take it personally and it just refuses to disappear. Teachers from all disciplines prey on students.
Especially English teachers, though. Probably.
Because no one ever wants to bang the Math teacher
I mean I think you’re half joking, but you have a point. An English teacher might seem to form a more personal connection with a student–you know getting them to express themselves, telling them how much their personal work spoke to them, or whatever. You wouldn’t really easily get that from a math, or science or history teacher, I guess? (Maybe a drama teacher but they’re all gay, and these stories only get done if it’s about a female student and a male teacher. Well except for probably mostly forgotten 2000s teen drama Life as we Know It which I remember got a tiny bit of attention for having a female teacher/male student romance. Actually didn’t Dawson’s Creek do that too? I’ve lost my train of thought… 😛 )
Yes, yes, I clearly remember all the identity politics in the original. This sounds like real blast!!!
Boo fucking hoo loser
Why are the Pink Ladies being reimagined as empowered former outcasts? Aren’t the Pink Ladies in the original kind of rich snobs, the pre-cursors to the Heathers or the Mean Girls?
I don’t remember them that way at all. They were supposed to be tough, a little dangerous — in opposition to the peppy, preppy cheerleaders, whom they openly tease.