Aly Michalka, Robbie Jones, Ashley Tisdale, Courtesy The CW
The new Fall TV Season starts today (sort of). The CW is premiering their two new programs this week, and a couple of their season premieres, while the rest of the networks are primarily debuting their stuff the week of September 20. Which is why you’ll find me curled up under my desk, weeping copiously by the end of it.
HELLCATS
Friendly Rating: All ages will probably like it.
Safety Rating: Some minor sex joking and possibly more, so all ages probably shouldn’t see it.
Quality Rating: Can’t figure out why, entirely, but I kinda liked it.
Series premieres on The CW at 9 p.m. tonight.
While some of my colleagues have expressed concerns about wanting to poke their eyes out with sticks and fears about having their brains go dead, my feelings are actually rather mixed about this show.
Marti Perkins (Aly Michalka) has big dreams – like becoming a justice on the Supreme Court big – and has a nice scholarship at the fictional Lancer University in Memphis, Tennessee, thanks to the fact that her mom, Wanda (Gail O’Grady) works there. Only Wanda didn’t tell Marti that her scholarship has been cut because of cut-backs on perqs to university employees, and there’s a big ol’ Past Due on Marti’s school fees, never mind that the Union says the university can’t do that.
So when Marti finds out that the school’s cheerleading squad gets scholarships and there just happens to be an opening, in an act of desperation, she tries out and gets in.
There is some sexual joking going on, in particular about a certain person’s – ahem – anatomy, and some veiled nudity (although it’s technically the result of a rather mean prank and doesn’t entirely get sexual). I don’t doubt there’s going to be some other sexual behavior going on, but there wasn’t any in the pilot, for what that’s worth.
The weird thing is that I’ve actually seen the pilot twice. No, I’m not quite that masochistic. The first time I wasn’t able to hear the show very well (long story), and that was actually just a presentation reel. So when I saw it the second time, I was surprised that I actually, uh, kinda liked it. I mean, I hate cheerleading. Well, maybe not hate it. I just have no interest in it, even though I recognize that cheerleaders are athletes who work at least as hard as the bozos they’re cheering for. It’s just that until I see men cheering for women’s sports as often as I see women cheering for football, I’m not interested.
I won’t say Hellcats is going to end up on my DVR any time soon. But it wasn’t horrible. It was kinda on the stupid side at times – particularly the too peppy to be real Savannah (yes, that Ashely Tisdale, as in High School Musical – she dyed her hair). But then, it hit me. Savannah is comic relief. Not all that comic, but once you get the joke, she’s not quite so grating.
So while the show is ultimately inane and about cheerleaders and the Glee comparisons are fully justified, in spite of the fact that cheerleading elite are hardly geeks, I kinda liked the show. I don’t get it.
