that one girl who reviews

Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series premiered it’s final season on August 9 with eight 30-minute episodes that gave a heartfelt goodbye to the cast and East High.

While the show has gone through some drastic changes such as losing its leading lady, Olivia Rodrigo, in season three, the actors have stepped up to the plate, making the show better than before.

The season follows the high schoolers as they return to school for junior and senior year, with the drama department preparing to put on “High School Musical 3” as the fall play. However, their plan is quickly derailed when it’s also revealed that Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Lucas Gabreel and Kaycee Stroh, the original cast of High School Musical, would be returning to film High School Musical 4: The Reunion at East High.

Tim Federle immensely improved the writing, allowing the show to be an accurate interpretation of high schoolers going through what they think is the biggest, most important moments of their lives.

A standout this season was Sofia Wylie who plays Gina Porter, giving a gut-wrenching performance of a girl who knows all too well what it’s like to constantly have to say goodbye to the ones she loves. Julia Lester, who plays Ashlyn Caswell, perfected the high school awkwardness of first crushes and coming out, absolutely nailing the unique Gen-Z humor and comedic timing.

Unfortunately, the same praises cannot be said for the male cast members whose performances fell flat in comparison to their female costars. While Joshua Bassett shined in his songs, I cannot say he did the same in his scenes.

The music was also improved this season with “Maybe This Time” by Wylie and Bassett truly shining in the first episode. Their undeniable chemistry and dynamic partnering almost makes up for the stale acting done by Bassett.

Compared to the previous seasons, season four is bold and really pushes the boundary for what is or isn’t allowed on Disney shows. With swearing and subtle sex jokes, the show keeps its childlike innocence while also inviting the maturing nature of teenagers in the wild.

While seasons one through three hinged primarily on the drama surrounding the Bassett-Rodrigo alleged relationship, season four stands on its own and succeeds at being uniquely true to the HSM franchise.

However, it is a bit disheartening that it took the show until its final season to finally find its voice and produce a piece of television actually worth watching.

Perhaps the main issue is the show’s refusal to allow characters to just be single for a change.

Every season relied on a relationship to keep the plot running. Shows should not rely on their romantic prospects but rather the actual inner-workings of their characters, which is why season four worked so well.

Although Gina and Ricky were the main couple of the season, we were able to delve into the individual struggles each character was facing as a high school senior and rising movie star. Federle expertly navigated the topics while keeping the characters grounded in their very normal lives as high school students.

While I know the kids are the main focus of the show, it was unfortunate that the original HSM cast members didn’t get more of a chance to shine. The most acting we see from the cast is through Coleman’s heart to heart with Dara Reneé’s “Kourtney” as she struggles to choose what college she wants to attend. Other than that, the actors who were claimed to be taking over a large part of East High for filming were virtually non-existent.

Maybe it’s nostalgia or perhaps it’s the need for some acting with substance, but the season could have benefitted from some additional scenes with the more seasoned actors who made the franchise what it is today.

While it’s sad to see the show come to an end just as it was starting to get good, Federle leaves his characters with the most appropriate endings and perhaps, leaves room in the future if it ever decides to comeback for one more ride.