#nini got her driver’s license

[bisexualfemalemess]

*HSMTMTS SEASON 4 SPOILERS*

Question; Is it already appropriate to stop putting a spoiler warning on my posts? lmao

Anyway, Let’s talk about 4x05 specifically, Ricky’s line “Last summer, I was terrified, when I realized i had real feelings for gina.”

Because maybe this will put the pw/rini fans down and help them accept that rina is and was supposed to be endgame no matter what happened with liv and josh. Also, I’ve literally never seen anyone talk about this and maybe i’m just exaggerating lmao.

I think Ricky could have just as easily said something along the lines of “when i realized i had feelings/ when i realized i developed real feelings for gina” but he didn’t. Because he knew he liked Gina from the moment she kissed his cheek in that orange bug after homecoming, we’ve seen them flirt and we’ve seen him shoot a shot several episodes after that and I don’t know about you but i don’t give a spin hug to my friends. He stopped pursuing Nini as soon as gina came into the picture and that’s a fact, they didn’t bring the rickyxnini couple storyline back until after Gina moved, he didn’t actively pursue nini until Gina told him to stop calling and even then he kept texting her and we see him distracted throughout the next episode, the almost kiss didn’t happen until after Gina had replied and told him they were leaving early, only once he knew gina was completely out of the picture, did he go back to nini. He said it himself, he reverted back to his old self because he didn’t have gina in his life anymore and when gina told him she wouldn’t quit on them if she wasn’t moving away he genuinely looked upset about it as well. In episode 1 of season 2 at Ashlyn’s new years even party, that boy did a Triple Take when gina went to get a root-beer, the feelings were still there, they were just buried because he didn’t think he would see Gina again when he made his confession to Nini so he held on to what he used to know and who he used to be, because we all know that ricky bowen is not good with change. Now, in episode three of the season, the iconic valentines episode, The way he looks at her, the way his voice softens while talking to her, his line “I think you’ll get yours too.” After gina told him that every girl likes a sweet gesture, THE NEXT SCENE BEING THE CHOCOLATES, the fact that ricky got messages from nini and gina only seconds apart but he only looked onto his face once gina’s message came on, all of these things hint towards ricky’s feelings, even in 2x04 when Nini came to surprise the group in the bomb shelter, Ricky and Gina looked like they just got caught cheating even though all they did was talk and laugh. Last point, Episode five and six, He was in awe of gina when she was dancing (gina porter effect) and only went to gina for advice on nini because she had helped him the previous two times when he hadn’t even actually asked for advice in 2x04 and 2x03, The boy probably thought she was trying to get over him. In the next episode even though she had already tried to break off contact with him, he still asked to partner up with her and smiled at her when she looked at him while saying she doesn’t know what her heart desires. Even during Ashlyn’s retention of home we see ricky look at gina when he comes back in. RICHARD BOWEN HAS ALWAYS HAD FEELINGS FOR GINA PORTER, THE SEASON 3 PLOT LINE WAS NOT RANDOM OR CAME OUT OF NOWHERE. Ricky just finally realized what he could’ve had if gina didn’t move away once he lost it. RINA WAS ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN AND BE ENDGAME. THEY DIDNT COME OUT OF NOWHERE OR ONLY HAPPENED BECAUSE OLIVIA LEFT. Because, fact-check Season 2 was filmed before the drivers-license drama, they did not break them up because things between liv and josh got tense. Your ship was not supposed to be endgame.

(In tomorrows post i will rant about the people who say that rina copied rini and portwells scenes And that gina is the new nini because literally where?)

[goldengashes]

Hi, just wanted to ask will you be watching season 4 and what were your thoughts on both portwell and r*na's development? What about all of them as characters? I personally was rooting for r*na in season 1. But after watching most of season 2, I prefer portwell and probably won't watch season 3 after the mess they made. I'd have been okay with r*na if the narrative made sense but sorry to say Gina has been a "maybe" to Ricky. She picked the guy she wanted since S1, but she seems to forget he's not really deserving of her attention at all after he's blown her off and asked her for relationship advice knowing she liked him. Like come on do better girl.

hey, thanks for the ask! hope you're well, anon.

i'll answer this as briefly and structured as i possibly can but i highly doubt it lmao. possible rant ahead (?)

okay so s4... i can't say that i won't tune in because essentially, i'm a huge sofia wylie fan. i've loved her since andi mack and everything she's ever put out with disney, i've watched (plus sge). and aside from that, the s4 plot (the whole og hsm movie reunion thing/wildcats being extras on the movie) is being hyped up a lot and i'm intrigued to see how that plays out. outside of the triangle, i love kourtney, carlos, ash, jet and maddox as characters. i'd probably just scroll thru hsmtmts twitter posts/tumblr tags to see the scenes/discourse/takes and use it to determine whether i'd watch or not. i've abandoned more shows (esp ongoing ones) than i have finished so... we'll see.

if you want me to be honest, gina is the reason i shipped portwell. in s1, the only person from the core four i truly rooted for was gina. i couldn't care less about ricky, nini and ej characters and plotlines (plus their weird 'love triangle'). i wouldn't call myself a rina in s1, but i was rooting for gina's character to be more vulnerable and possibly finding romance. she's this tough girl who's never really fit in because she had to move so much and i truly sympathized with her. in that homecoming scene with ricky, i actually did feel chemistry between them. now looking back, it's probably just sofia and joshua's acting that made that scene more that it actually was. but by the end of s1, it's clear rini was that season's endgame. i mean, the main plot of s1 was ricky being in the play to get nini back. i also believe they were going to be endgame if olivia hadn't left. and before anyone says s2 was filmed before driver's license and sour blew up, i know! but just think about it: with 'all i want' doing well and blowing up on tiktok the previous year and olivia working with a producer at interscope records (not under disney) for her new album since 2020, i think she was planning to move on to music before the script was written. hence ricky and nini's plotline for a 'final' breakup.

moving on to s2... in s2, i didn't like how in 2a gina's whole storyline was crying/pining over ricky who doesn't really reach out to her after the one exercise where gina rejects him. up to 205, i understood ricky might've been conflicted and confused about gina's feelings for him, he had his relatioship with nini and his family drama to worry about. but since that whole 'plane crash' scene pretty much checks out as a confession, it just didn't make sense for ricky to act the way he did in 205. after the whole "if you and i were dating..." thing he pulled, i could not ship rina at all. all the doors i had open for them, i shut. he was so out of line and so disrespectful. he only cared about nini in that scene (while also stepping over nini's boundaries about being in the play). and c'mon, this boy at least knows gina and him are at this weird stage where they aren't purely friends and there's feelings involved. so why would he say that? now, when i saw ej and gina's scene in the same episode, they got me immediately. and it all sort of aligned with their history and personalities—overconfident, 'anti-hero', ex-scheming partners. now that i think about it, i didn't like rina before i loved portwell. and portwell? well, i think they're neat. midgame ship this, plot device that, i don't really mind. i'm thankful for their development in 2b because it was a breath of fresh air for someone who loves and roots for gina. and ej grew on me, too. in s1 he was this straight up himbo disney villain for but in s2 he was given more dimension in his character, had relatable struggles and we were shown a more vulnerable and attentive side to him. my top reason for shipping pw is the fact they started becoming better people together and they got each other because of that. the whole 'new ej' and 'gina 2.0' thing was probably a happy accident, hence why tim didn't really dig further into that. but on the other hand, they're different in a lot of ways. gina wants to settle down in one place and ej doesn't know what he wants—we even find that he wants to break free from the mold his dad wants him to be. i wish that would be something they help each other out with—he is her constant and comfort and she's the person who grounds and challenges him. instead, it becomes a point where they fail (looking at you, s3!). and whether you are a rina/pw anti, there's no denying ej treated gina like a queen in s2. portwell in 205-210 will always have me by the neck. and even though 211 and 212 makes me recoil, i personally don't blame ej for tapping out from their date with the whole 'brother' thing. just like gina, he's scared of putting himself out there to get hurt.

now, s3. i like to joke about the fact that it didn't exist but honestly? minus the triangle, it was pretty entertaining and funny. i liked maddox's character a lot in particular, she reminds me of me. i loved that kourtney has a character arc. i love ej more after watching s3, he's become one of my fav characters. now, i don't know if i'll get booed for this by the pws but i wish pw would have not been a couple while gina is still in hs. not because of the whole age gap thing (which is ridiculous), but i genuinely think they'd suit that bff-to-lovers slow burn. thank god i have tsbu because the way tsbu!pw plays out is exactly how i imagined it would be. but alas, we see portwell deteriorate in s3. and ofc it was painful to witness but less so because they felt off to me. they weren't really the s2 pw i knew and loved. trust me i don't say this bc they broke up, i say it's the lack of banter and moments of vulnerability (which they should have more of bc they're a couple here!). also the ej caswell i know would've broken the rules and took gina as a date, honestly. like, he literally gave a girl food poisoning so he can star in a show with nini. now, i do believe that gina and ej being in different phases of their lives was a good reason for their breakup, she's got 2 years of hs left and his world is getting bigger than just hs. i mean, like i said before, i wished they'd have that two-year, slow-burn best friends-to-lovers arc. my biggest problem with ej and gina's story was the execution. there were hundreds of ways to write them being right person/wrong time and they'd still mean a lot to each other etc. i'd actually be okay with them ending. but with the whole 'i can't be a maybe anymore' and 'can it really be over, if it never got the chance to start?' rubs me the wrong way. it's like tim really wanted everyone to see that ej is at fault here (despite whatever tim's saying in interviews) when he's doing all of this so his girlfriend and his friends would 1) have a great summer in this place that's really important to him and 2) have this great opportunity to be on disney+, which is a huge deal. specifically, for gina, he wanted to make a good show bc we all know how much finally being casted as a lead is important to her. ej could've just walked away, given up and let this thing fall into shambles, but he didn't. it didn't just cost him time with gina, it costed him his whole summer. it was all weird writing for me. and as for rina? firstly, i find it odd that the rinas were rooting for gina emotionally cheating on ej. even sofia said that gina's not that type of girl and she genuinely wanted her and ej to work. personally, i didn't find ricky pining for gina cute at all. ik a lot of people see it as a parallel for season 2a when gina secretly pines over ricky while he's still with nini. but the context here is different now, isn't it? gina never received a confession (or any sort of sign ricky wanted to be around her) before she got with ej. in fact, ricky was busy with lily and was close enough with her to spend summer with her and her parents in florida?? like i don't know, it just feels like ricky's feelings stemmed out of nowhere which made it seem shallow and not the epic love tim is pushing it to be. again, sofia and josh are great actors, the wdykal scene had so much chemistry but it was just that. the context/history of rina is extremely shallow to me. they needed val to say 'yup, he's genuinely heartsick' instead of just letting josh's acting show it. another thing i should mention is the instances where ricky was so passive-aggressive about ej and gina. the part where jet ran off and they needed a hans to sing liaod with anna (gina), he was going to volunteer to step in because he had feelings for her and was visibly pissed off when cordon told ej to sub for jet. and there's ricky slapping ej, which was an ick moment bc it made him seem entitled rather than badass.

lastly, that one shot of him finding out nini was at camp? "nini's here?" yeah? that one scene had more emotional fuel than ricky spending the whole two weeks max crushing on gina. it sort of set back the whole rina development, i have to say it.

speaking of nini, her sendoff wasn't as satisfying as i expected it to be. in s3, i'd prefer it if she moved to california because she got a record deal or something? since s3 was already so meta, that would've been much better than her moving out to cali because her moms wanted to. back to s1, i feel like she was your stereotypical shy, main character with the usual 'gaining confidence' arc and that arc was sort of boring and overdone for me. but in s2 i really enjoyed her branching out to songwriting and stepping side to help out others. plus, i think people skip over how awful ricky was to her as well. first, he takes a break and feels entitled to get her back and second, he genuinely started suffocating the poor girl in s2. well, at least he realized it, though. again, when people say rini was toxic, it's really just ricky. nini did nothing wrong in s1-2. i don't think the rose song was even about ricky, he just made it into something it wasn't supposed to be. i sincerely hope ricky loses this behaviour in s4.

anyway! end of rant. these are just my thoughts. if anyone agrees or disagrees, it's up to them. i genuinely hope gina is happy next season, bc before i was a pw stan i was a gina stan (even though she was a little ooc in s3). if it means rina being happy, i won't be so mad. at the end of the day, this is just a silly disney show and it’s all for entertainment. i do love portwell but i rather tim never touch them again, honestly. canon pw is already ruined for me, though i wouldn't mind a proper portwell closure scene in s4.

that was a lot more words than i expected lmaoo, but if anyone read all of that, cool! if not, that's cool, too. it was very cathartic.

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x12 Review

Second Chances was a lacklustre finale for an uneven season. Let’s dig in!

Earlier this week I re-watched S1 in preparation for the S2 finale and the contrast between the two seasons is jarring. In almost every way S2 has been worse and after seeing this finale I’m less optimistic that Tim will be able to fix the long list of things that have gone wrong. Tim has said in some of his interviews today that pretty much all of S2 was written before the pandemic and that they didn’t have to do as much re-writing as people might think due to the stringent safety measures Disney put in place. Of course, that removes an excuse for the bad writing we’ve seen so much of this season as according to Tim what we saw of S2 is largely what he envisioned minus big crowds and background dancers.

 Across his many interviews today, the one consistent point is that Tim does not have any real plans for future seasons; things like Ricky’s endgame he hasn’t decided on and he can’t even guarantee the summer season the finale sets up due to the weather in Salt Lake. I do think a S3 is an almost certainty given the show’s popularity but I’ll take Tim at his word that he truly doesn’t know if they’ll be renewed since it seems to be a new Disney tradition to wait until seasons are done airing before making a renewal decision (the same thing happened for the popular and well received Mighty Ducks: Game Changers which got a silent renewal only after all of S1 aired). That being said as poor of a season finale as Second Chances is it is also a terrible potential series finale. In large part it goes back to his lack of planning, he wants to keep all options open but in doing so Tim is crippling the show’s ability to deliver any pay offs or tie up loose ends.  

The one mostly well done plot line this season was Portwell which got a happy ending tonight as they canoned. The only good thing about the big brother angst was that it was so insane that it had to be addressed and sure enough it was and Gina got her first kiss with a guy she really liked. If Tim is to be believed the reason we didn’t get an on screen Portwell kiss was not because of their age difference or covid concerns but because he felt that everyone’s first kiss was different so he wanted it off screen so viewers could fill in the blanks themselves. Tim’s line of reasoning is profoundly stupid. Imagine if they had Jamie show up and he and Gina talked off screen and Tim tried to claim that because everyone has a different relationship with their own siblings that he wanted the audience to fill in the blanks as to how their conversation went!

Still we saw great character development on Gina and EJ’s part as both really grew from the people they were in S1. As Tim noted, EJ bringing Gina back in 1x10 was kind of the set up for this story line. The only thing missing was a brief Portwell scene sometime in eps 2x01-2x04 to set them up. The consistent development they got from 2x05-2x12 is unlike any other ship on the show; only Rini exceeds their development. 

Unfortunately I don’t think that will last in S3 because Tim will always favour Ricky over EJ and if he wants to do Rina he’ll dispose of Portwell before doing so. I was surprised that they never bothered to have Ricky and Gina have a conversation about Gina’s S1 confession. It was a huge mistake to have Gina pine over Ricky for half the season and it was no surprise that Gina’s story line got instantly better once she stopped interacting with Ricky. Tim has made clear in interviews that he’s still interested in the possibility of Rina which makes his poor writing of them even more bizarre. What conclusions are the audience supposed to draw from the Rina story line this season? That Ricky never cared that much about Gina? That it’s totally fine for the show if they don’t interact for 6 eps in a row? That Gina has moved on? I’ve said before that a wiser man than Tim would recognize that doing both Portwell and Rina will do tremendous damage to the show and he should pick one and not do the other. Of course he’s not that smart but it is wild how he’s accidentally written their story line to make for a perfect end to Rina. 

Second Chances was great and is the only part of the finale that would have been well suited to being part of a potential series finale. 

The Rini closure was a sad inverse of their S1 opening night confession. They’ve fallen so far from being the it couple of the series and I fear Tim doesn’t actually know what to do with them now. He really needs to decide if he’s tearing down that treehouse for real. 

The less said about the Valentine’s chocolates the better but at least Gina and Nini are cool again and Nini can explore her budding music career with Jamie’s help. Tim repeatedly said in interviews that the scripts about Nini’s music career were all written before Driver’s License came out and I think he understands that the audience is just going to see the show as copying from Olivia’s life. 

The wildcats just deciding to drop out of the Menkies was a lame cop out. Tim has said he always meant for that to happen though they were originally going to compete at the Menkies then drop out (presumably that’s where we would have heard Lily singing Home). Somebody should have mentioned the $50 000 prize money which the East High theatre department could surely use after Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzara burned it down (remember that story line that had no consequences?). And that NYU scholarship could have been life changing for one of them and yet no one even brought  it up once this season. 

I did like the twist that it was EJ and his dad who got Mazzara into Caltech. He’d be a fool not to take it but I’m glad he confessed to Miss Jenn. She’s had a really rough season and I hope she redeems herself in S3.

Howie was acting so weird tonight and last ep that I have a hard time believing he was really so awed by Kourtney’s talent rather than feeling guilty for helping to steal the harness. The harness is another useless plot device; there are no consequences for Lily stealing it, she’s not caught, East High pulls off another version of the transformation off screen, and then East High withdraws from the Menkies anyways. Doubtless the harness will eventually come up to serve Rily angst. 

At least Lily was straightforward, I’ll give her that. She has such an odd way of speaking, almost child like. As awful as it is there is potential for a forbidden/secret romance story line with Rily. It really does not speak well to Ricky’s character that he’s so easily fallen for Lily’s act when he has no reason to trust her and she never apologized for making fun of Big Red during the auditions or making Ashlyn feel insecure during the dance off. 

The one way in which S2 was drastically better to S1 was in regards to the Seblos story line. Clearly Joe being bumped up to regular made a big difference. We got the first same-sex kiss between two boys and the first love song sung by one boy to another in Disney history and that is a legacy to be proud of. Of course, there was still some Disney censorship such as Carlos and Seblos being unable to use the word gay in the same ep that focused on Carlos singing In a Heartbeat to Seb. 

S1 of HSMTMTS had a clear direction, the wildcats would have to try and come together to stage High School Musical and Ricky and Nini would have to decide if they still had a future together while Gina and EJ had to work on being better versions of themselves. It was simple sure but it worked very well. There was a lot of heart but also a lot of humor and the show never took itself too seriously. What has S2 had? Beauty and the Beast was hardly the main focus of the cast or the writers and the central couple that S1 was built around is now broken up either for a long time or for good. There was a lot less of the meta moments that jokes that made S1 such a hit, for far too many eps this season the show took itself way too seriously. Hell even the lighting this season was darker than in S1. 

Olivia Rodrigo’s team had complained in a recent article that Olivia wouldn’t be able to potentially tour until fall 2022 due to her contractual commitments which is a sign that they think a S3 is very likely though I wonder how late S3 filming would have to start to keep her occupied until late 2022. There’s no confirmation of this but I thought it might be worth keeping an eye on; a post on r/hsmtmts by someone who claims to have a source working on production says that the plan is for S3 to be a summer theatre camp possibly with Camp Rock renditions and the plan for S4 is to jump 6 months ahead to the final semester of senior year and end with Ricky, Nini, Big Red, and Kourtney graduating from East High. They also say that part of the delay in the S3 announcement is a conflict between Tim and Disney executives. Tim wants to move production to LA and film on sets as it’s easier and cheaper while the Disney execs still want some on location shooting in Salt Lake. Again this is all unconfirmed but if it pans out it will represent a major shift in the series. 

Regardless if Tim wants the show to remain successful he needs start planning out what he wants to happen. He should not assume he’s getting more than 4 seasons. If the series gets a S3 but then is suddenly cancelled then how would he want all the main story lines to wrap up? And if they make it to S4 where does he see it ending? The graduation of the current juniors is a logical series ending point but if Tim wants to do something different he needs to start thinking of that now. I can’t say I’m excited anymore for S3 but I do really hope that Tim and his writers can turn things around and that will only happen if they recognize what they did wrong and learn from their mistakes. 

Until next season Wildcats

[redlyncentral]

High school musical, the musical, the convention, the book, my reaction.

- LMFAO ASH CALLING EJ OLD

- EJ TAKES ARCHERY LESSONS??? CASWELL COUSINS NEVER SLEEP IT'S CONFIRMED.

- "Remember what miss Jenn always says?"

"trust the process?"

"Nope, 'is that the last apple?'"

- NOT EJ CALLING NINI THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE

- "I give her my most feminist-fierce look"

- Gina listens to k-pop? I love that! Bet she's a huge blackpink fan like her actress.

- I can't believe they said Gina and ash who are both confirmed sophomores are in different school years???

- Ricky should have a dog. That's an observation I made. Like a big fluffy brown one.

- ej taking his own car to Wyoming because he doesn't want to get stuck with singing theatre kids. icon

- "not only women changed the world" big red would NEVER say that.

- "aren't we all animals?" oh ricky bowen, great beast foreshadowing btw

- Carlos is such a leo.

- so many things we first saw or heard of in s2 were established here like Salt lake slices, Ricky spending the vacation at his dad's etc.

- SANDY SOUNDS LIKE A DOUCHE ALREADY. LOVE WHEN BOOKS HAVE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.

- "it takes my mind off ashlyn" oh he IN LOVE in love!!! Good for him!!!

- "I still can't believe we [kissed]" BELIEVE IT UR GONNA DATE IN LIKE TWO WEEKS???

- "I really like ashlyn" he went from that to "[me liking Ashlyn is the] understatement of the year". GOOD FOR HIM!!!

- "girls are mysteries" DUDE!!! SHE KISSED YOU!!! SHE VERY MUCH LIKES YOU!!!

- "What if she changed her mind [about the kiss] LISTEN. I'M ABOUT TO FIND A WAY TO ENTER THIS FICTIONAL BOOK AND TELL U ABOUT HOW S2 IS GONNA GO.

- BIG RED TRYING TO TEXT ASH. HE HAS MY WHOLE HEART.

- SIX ATTEMPTS? BABY JUST BE YOURSELF SHE LOVES U ALREADY

- NOT BIG RED NOT GOING TO THE CONVENTION!!! MRS REDONOVICH I CAN FILL IN FOR HIM!!!

- Miss Jenn had her driver's license since 2000 and she's 35 in 2020. I'll calculate that later.

- "Kourtney and I have a lunch date" POTTS FAMILY RIGHTS!!!

- "big red said-" yup kourtney and big red pizzaria besties so true.

- I'm genuinely excited seeing some friendships again okay

- sebbie ilysm. pls be my friend.

- EJ TAKES ARCHERY CLASSES, WAS A BOY SCOUT AND IS SENIOR CLASS TREASURER??? WHAT DOESN'T HE DO??? (SLEEP.)

- ok nini and ej are on good terms now. It was never really talked about in the show after they broke up

- TWO OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS NOT GOING. *enter the 'not this' video"

- Ok so everyone know that ej bought Gina the plane ticket or just Nini? How does she know, exactly?

- Ashlyn got new crystals after giving hers away to Miss Jenn. It's good to know though it's not crucial.

- the way they don't work yet because they're not charged w energy. pls

- "I'm beginning to think they're just pretty rocks" maybe u bought fake ones???

- the way ashlyns like "oh it's snowing? maybe we should huddle for warmth" like twice in the series. She's such a hugger 💞

- weird text from big red, huh. Maybe you should text him again 👀

- ASH HE'S IN LOVE W U AND SCARED TO RUIN THINGS

- "this is life, not a rehearsal" CARLOS WOULD N E V E R SAY THAT.

- Miss Jenn being petty and not sharing her room is kind of a mood.

- seblos facetime 💗

- frozen reference? Interesting.

- Ricky writing a song named "confusion"... 👀

- RICARLOS FRIENDSHIP.

- ASHLYN TALKING ABOUT BIG RED YES.

- I get that big red was worried but he should've texted ash back.

- Gina. Tell ash to send that text. I'M BEGGING YOU.

- "you're telling him by texting that you're crazy about him". she's in love with him. Let her.

- OK SHE SAID THEY KISSED. Gina is 100% aware okay

- not CHASE. Gina. Have you MET big red???

- ofc ash suggests snow angels 😭 I love her

- kourt ily pls stop doubting urself u can be multitalented and proud of it

- big red stalking ash's socials because he feels bad for not going to the convention 😭

- omg no I don't want him to feel bad ash pls text him

- NOT A GAME! THESE ARE TWO IDIOTS IN LOVE. GINA.

- SHE'S TEXTING HIM!!! AHH.

- could you tell i love redlyn?

- gina pls just be urself and give ash your true thoughts

- SHE'S NOT TEXTING HIM. ASHLYN MOON CASWELL-

- Mr mazzara has been whipped for two seasons now wbk

- EJ ACCIDENTALLY GOING TO A MEDITATION CONVENTION 😭 ASH WOULD BE SO PROUD

- EJ IS FINALLY HERE IN PERSON.

- chapter twenty four. There's only five ash and big red chapters until chapter FORTY NINTH. help.

- Carlos missing Seb is adorable

- they're really into frozen I see

- everyone's treating EJ like he's so old 😭

- "almost all of [the theater kids] seem to be having some kind of personal crisis, emotional turmoil or explosion of self-doubt"... Yeah, are you new?

- NOT BIG RED BEING ABLE TO GO TO THE CONVENTION TOO LATE. EXCUSE ME MRS REDONOVICH.

- BIG RED YOU DUMBASS YOU HAVE A CAR.

- NOT BIG RED USING EMOJIS-

- "Hasn't he got a million cousins?" KNEW IT. I FUCKING CALLED IT IN MY PASSOVER FIC. I'M SO HAPPY

- Ashlyn also has a big family? Oh, their wedding is gonna be MASSIVE

- EJ PICKING UP HIS FUTURE COUSIN IN LAW 😭😭😭 platonic redj has my heart.

- "I guess hey is word of the week" ash is such a caswell 😭

- not ash being cold about him coming there like she's happy but duddukfd

- I get why she's annoyed but. UGH. Not redlyn angst. My heart can't handle this.

- kourt you are very much an advanced singer pls

- ash and gina taking a bad workshop is so funny pls

- kourt 😭

- NOT RICKY IN THE BET ON IT WORKSHOP.

- diane... Interesting.

- awe kourtney getting the validation she deserves!!! Good for her!!!

- "wildcat it up".

- NOT AVOID ASHLYN. BIG RED.

- okay he can't ignore her. Good.

- Ashlyn why are you acting brand new Ricky told u this 😭

- why is gina ignoring big red.

- big red not knowing what epiphany means 😭

- not big red regretting this already. Hi dummies pls communicate it hurts to read

- thank god they learned from this for 2x08

- Ricky pls ask big red about Ashlyn.

- awe Lucas and Nini met!!!

- I wanna hug Carlos, like, poor thing. He didn't get to participate in the workshops or spend time with his boyfriend.

- "I can't even pretend to understand [what's going on with big red and Ashlyn]" Ricky. Ur a bad friend. Sorry not sorry.

- caswen... 👀

- Ricky being Gabriella. So true

- "we're drama kids. Our imaginations are out of control"

- STAY FOR THE SING-A-LONG. HAVE FUN U DUMMIES.

- THEY WROTE A SONG FOR KOURT!!! 🥺 WHAT SHE DESERVES

- MY KIDS ARE FINALLY COMMUNICATING!!! FINALLY. UGH.

- they love each other I'm really glad this was resolved

- Natalie getting offended by being accused of being her emotional support rodents to the convention as she should be. I have ones too. It's no joking matter.

- SEB!!!

- ahh seblos reunited!!!

- ej having unexpected friendship w Seb and red. My rights tbh

- Carlos and EJ hug??? I need it now

- okay finished it!!! It was. A cute read.

[kourtney-greene]

Ranking the characters by how well they drive

1. Seb. Has been driving since before it was legal for him to drive. Sometimes it looks like he's not paying attention but he is!!

2. Howie. It's his job. He drove through a snow storm to deliver pizza to his crush!

3. Big Red. Got his license as soon as he could because he really really wanted to be a delivery driver when he was younger

4. Ashlyn. It used to freak her out but she had too many clubs and her parents couldn't pick her up so she learned fast

5. Ej. He can do it but he mostly learned so he could get a cool car. He's ok at it but he prefers it when Ashlyn drives

6.Ricky. What do you need a car for when you have a skateboard?

7. Nini. Has her permit and is decent but she never practices and she didn't bother getting her license. Always goes way under the speed limit

8. Gina. She's never been in any place long enough to finish drivers ed so she knows the basics from watching her mom but she's never tried :(. When she does try, she has a heavy foot

9. Carlos. Really excited to try but he's really bad at it. He always gets distracted, and he forgets to signal

10. Kourtney. Good at many things but driving freaks her out really bad. Plus she likes being in the passenger seat

Inspired by team-wonderstudy 's post abt ej and kourt teaching seb and Carlos to drive

[redmayniac-roleplayer]

Don't mind me but I just wanted to share a little shower thought, or, we need to talk about Nini and Lily, or even, late April fools Day.

The trailer for the new season of HSMTMTS just came out and it gave me some ideas. By the way, it didn't give me any idea, cause I had some ideas already and it just made me to go Uhnnnnn like 🤔🤔🤔

I've been thinking. Things have been happened that can't be just coincidence. We have a lot of things that can't be explained unless they're all there for a purpose. We have the same scene of both Olivia and Joshua bending back out of the car in Driver's License and Lie, Lie, Lie's videos respectively, to tell just one of them. And these are QUITE SPECIFIC to be said it's just coincidence. Don't you even try telling me that.

The other day I made fun about the fact of how much Joshua's photoshoot for his new song Feel Something was relatable to the whole Driver's License drama, and I got asked what I mean with that post. One shouldn't need to explain a joke, but here it is: It was a joke about the fact that Olivia had just only got her driver's license to be able to run him over, that is, that's what people believe she would like to do after what he supposedly did to her. That's what everyone believes, but I'm making fun, besides other reasons, because I don't. Yeah, telling you about this meme, but not only. There are some other things in store.

But man, really... Why are all of these songs related in some way, but most specially, the aesthetics, the heart of the whole thing, why are they all correlated? i could be here talking about the "coincidences" for a long time, but I won't, you all probably know the videos and music and the whole story way better than me. But I'll just say... why is everyone all of a sudden making things that you can relate between? Joshua lying on the street like that was the last drop for me to think: that's so obvious that it's impossible not to think that there's a plan behind all of that.

Then, the new HSMTMTS trailer came out.

In this trailer we can see a new character to the series (played by Olivia Rose Keegan), whose name is Lily, and she is a blond girl, and is flirting with Ricky while his relationship with Nini is supposedly going through a break, through what we can assume from the trailer.

And yeah, as soon as I saw her and knew her name it came instantly to my mind the lyrics from Deja Vu by Olivia Rodrigo: "Do you call her, almost say my name, cause let's be honest, we kinda do sound the same". By the time Olivia released this song people were like... But, uh, Olivia doesn't sound like Sabrina, what's happening?? It must be about Sabrina!

April fools Day. Everyone would think it was about Sabrina. But it was April fools Day.

Yeah, everyone was just thinking Deja Vu was still about that infamous "love triangle" involving the two girls and Joshua... But now I tell you all: Olivia doesn't sound like Sabrina, but Lily DOES SOUND like Nini.

We all know plots and cast choices are made with a large precedence of time, so we can assume that this character, Lily, was already planned by the time Olivia released Driver's License. And, let's all remember that the original lyrics to Olivia's song were "brunette girl" instead of "blond girl". Everyone keeps wandering what caused the change, but yeah, Disney's marketing logistics could be the one who motivated the change, instead of a real life event, just like it's believed to be, that is, Olivia getting to know that Joshua had left her to date Sabrina Carpenter.

Both Olivia and Josh composed original songs for HSMTMTS, just like All I Want or The Perfect Gift, respectively. And now, taking Olivia's song out of context, that is, out of HSMTMTS, wouldn't you all believe it was based on real life events? So, why the rest of their songs couldn't be also taking part of the marketing scheme for the series? We haven't know what kind of contract they've signed. Everything is possible. Business world is wild.

Just like always, I know absolutely nothing besides making fun of people I like the most and build up theories about things. So I don't affirm anything. But, think for a while about all of that love triangle drama being about Nini-Ricky-Lily instead of Olivia-Josh-Sabrina.

Maybe Disney been just fooled us all and one day we're all going to laugh about it. Maybe everyday is Fools Day.

Just maybe.

I just would like to throw the idea at you, guys. See if it makes any sense. If it does not, it's also ok. But maybe, just maybe, all the drama that have been created and all the hate you guys been sending on Josh and Sabrina and all of that was just the offspring of an illusion. And just like always, there's someone making a lot of money and fooling everyone around, and it's just the owner of a big enterprise company. Nothing new under the sun.

Just maybe.

Possibilities are always infinite.

Everything that's certain is: let people worry about their own lives. Our business is having fun. Cause we're not receiving any profit. Our part in the process is the fun. That's what I meant.

Anyway, I'm open to talk about any of these at any time :)

[pluviophile-bookworm]

As a member of the HSMTMTS fandom, I need to say something

I used to be a fan of Olivia Rodrigo. I really liked her and her work... before she got big.

I saw Grace Stirs Up Success, and I absolutely fell in love with her acting. I wasn't much into Bizaardvark, but I liked her on the show. I really did. When I found out she would be part of this new HSM project, I was super excited to watch her in it. During season 1, I really liked Nini (which now, as I rewatch the season, I really don't know why I did).

And then All I Want got big. All of a sudden, it was everywhere, so whenever it would come up when I was listening to music, I would skip it because I just couldn't enjoy it anymore. I feel bad about feeling that way. But I was just genuinely sick and tired of being surrounded by it everywhere.

Then Driver's License came out. I was excited to have a new Olivia song to listen to, something to maybe lower the All I Want hype so that said song would be bearable to me again. And then I gave the new single a listen. I just... didn't vibe with it. So I took my time. I moved on to other stuff, feeling disappointed in myself for being unable to enjoy Olivia's work anymore. After a while, I tried listening to the single again. In the meantime, it had become the massive hit we all know it is. I didn't get the hype, but I really wanted to. I desperately wished I was able to see the appeal. So when I listened to the song again, I tried really hard to like it. But beyond the admiration I had for her objectively amazing voice and the fact that she wrote the song herself - I could never - I just couldn't feel a thing. I couldn't relate to either of the major aspects of what the song was about - driving and romantic heartbreak - because I am deathly afraid of driving and I don't do romance, either. I tried really hard to like the song anyway, but something just refused to click. So I gave up, although I still feel bad.

Now, I genuinely don't remember which came first - Sour or the love triangle drama. All I know is that I just can't stand celebrity drama for the life of me. And also that I was put in a very weird position by the narrative of said drama. All of a sudden Olivia, a super talented person I had liked and was really trying to still like, was being pitted against Sabrina, whom I've been a massive fan of since she and I were both 14, and whose music I had never had any trouble liking or relating to. In the middle of it all was Josh, whom I had grown to love in his role as Ricky, and whose music I genuinely enjoyed (and still do).

I guess this was after Sour came out, but at the time when the drama blew up, I was yet to actually make myself acquainted with the album's contents. So I tried once again. This time, I actually liked Driver's License. I can't tell you what the difference was between then and the previous time I had tried listening to it, but I had finally managed to like it. And I instantly vibed with Good 4 U. So I thought, there, I just needed time to get used to everything. I was relieved and made my way through the rest of the album.

As we all know perfectly well by now, the overarching theme of the album is heartbreak. I had a hard time relating to that. Please don't come for me for what I'm about to say - it was a temporary reaction based, I guess, on bitterness over the fact that I couldn't make myself like the album - but for a while the entire thing sounded like a moody teenager, someone much younger than me (when in reality we're less than 4 years apart), whining about losing her boyfriend who might or might not have been Josh. I would roll my eyes and be like, get over it. There are worse things in life than breaking up with some boy. Then I'd beat myself up for sounding like a bitter old lady. I would play the album over and over, trying to find something to relate to, feeling like I was missing some key ingredient. It was like the time before I figured out I was aroace over again. Except this time I genuinely wanted to be able to experience whatever most people seemed to be experiencing with Sour.

I cannot stress enough how hard I tried. I still do. I've kind of wrapped my head around 90% of the album. Funnily enough, the one song where I can relate to the lyrics to some extent is Brutal. But I just can't stand the beat of it. It gives me sensory overload. Yet I still try.

And then there was Hope Ur Ok. Gosh, that one unlocked things in me that I had bottled up for ages. I was not able to listen to it more than once because of how badly it triggered me. Oh the irony - the only two songs I managed to relate to, I can't listen to because they make me feel bad in one way or another.

I have a lot of admiration for Olivia's talent and I'm happy for her success, but I just can't enjoy her work anymore. And I feel so bad about it. Hope you don't hate me for it.

[miraculous-cumberbitch]

okay so i don’t normally post abt HSMTMTS but i need to talk abt this new ep

(spoilers below the line)

so first off, am i the only one who sees the success of the rose song as a node to drivers license? i mean i know the show was prob written before then but it just feels like it. same w nini starting a music insta. it feels like she’s moving on from ricky, especially since her music insta name is nina. now since i’m not fully invested in the fandom i haven’t seen any metas on rinis dynamic, but if anyone does find any that explains exactly why nini would want to move on that would be cool.

moving on-

GINA AND EJ ARE SO ADORABLE OH MY GOD. they’re insanely perfect for each other and i am just WAITING for a kiss between the two. they both seem so happy together and i could definitely see them in a relationship together.

red and ashlyn.

okay so red and ashlyn together is by far the most insecure relationship in the show, and i do not like this. both of them are insecure about something either involving the other or themselves. and both of them are extremely insecure about their relationship. it just doesn’t sit right with me . like in the beginning they were cute but i feel like now because of how insecure both of them are it’s not AS cute.

courtney and howie are neutral for me. they’re very happy with each other and i am so glad about that. now obv w the beast plot twist i’m excited to see how courtney reacts.

that’s all i got for today, lmk if you guys have anything you’d like to share!

[rodrigoupdates]

Meet the newest rising star, Olivia Rodrigo!

Olivia Isabel Rodrigo was born on February 20th, 2003 to her German-Irish mother and Filipino father in Temecula, California.

She began singing and taking lessons at a very young age and participated in musicals at her school.

Olivia’s voice coach told her she was very emotive while singing so she suggested Olivia start acting! She had an appearance in an Old Navy commercial before landing the lead role in American Girl’s “Grace Stirs Up Success” (2015).

In January 2016, Olivia officially moved to Los Angeles to begin filming for Disney Channel’s “Bizaardvark”. She starred as Paige Olvera on the show for 3 seasons (2016-2019).

In late 2019, Olivia landed another lead role, this time as ‘Nini Salazar-Roberts’ on Disney+’s “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”. Season One started airing on Disney’s new streaming service in November 2019 while Season Two is currently in prouduction.

She had the opportunity to write two songs for Season One of the show: “Just For a Moment” with her co-star and “All I Want”. She wrote the latter by herself in three days and it is certified Gold in the US and Platinum in Canada!

In January 2021, signed to Interscope and Geffen Records, Olivia Rodrigo officially launched her solo singing career independent of Disney with her debut single “drivers license”.

The song became a sensation breaking records left and right, garnering attention from some of the music industry’s biggest names (Taylor Swift, 2/3 of the Jonas Brothers, Niall Horan, and Halsey just to name a few), and launching Olivia into the spotlight.

A few of the records she now holds:

•Biggest Single Day Streams by a Female Artist in US Spotify History

•Highest Single Day Stream Peaks in US Spotify History

•Broke her own record about 3 times (I lost count) of the biggest single day streams for a non-holiday song in global Spotify history.

•Fastest song to reach both 100 million and 200 million streams on Spotify.

“drivers license” shot straight up to #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and became only the third song to to debut at #1 on their Global 200 and Global Excluding US charts! The song also got over 15 #1’s on worldwide official singles charts.

Olivia Rodrigo has more music coming soon and so many exciting things coming her way! Follow along here for updates on everything she is doing!

[metanoia-adventures]

Get to know me

I was tagged by my wonderful friend @soft-nini-bear! thanks darling!

THE LAST

Drink: Water Phone call: Not counting ones I’ve declined, it was with my mom. Text message: With Clara Song you listened to:  Sweet Lies by EXO

Time you cried: Like, Seriously cried? Umm, 2 weeks ago, I think? I’m due for another serious cry session soon though, with the way things are going.

HAVE YOU EVER

Dated someone twice: No. Kissed someone and regretted it: No. Been cheated on: No. Lost someone special: Um, I’ve lost relatives because they died, but that’s about it. Been depressed: hahaha you know it. It hasn’t been too bad lately but, yeah, I’ve got it. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Nope.

3 FAVOURITE COLORS

Blue, Green, and Purple

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU

Made new friends: Yes, just a couple on here, but my life is better now that they’re in it 💕💕 Fallen out of love:  No. Haven’t experienced being in love for that to happen. Laughed until you cried: Yes Found out someone was talking about you: No, I don’t think so. Met someone who changed you: Yep! For the better:) Found out who your friends are: Yes. The amount of people I call friends dropped to only 6 people. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Ha! Nope! How many Facebook friends do you know in real life: 6. I hardly use Facebook. Do you have any pets: We have 2 dogs, 2 horses, and a bird. Do you want to change your name: Yeah, sometimes. I have mixed feelings about my name. What did you do for your last birthday: Nothing. We had to go look at places to board our horses. What were you doing at midnight last night: reading BTS reactions. Name something you can’t wait for: To move out. When was the last time you saw your mom: 10 minutes ago. What are you listening to right now: An EXO playlist on Spotify. The song that’s playing right now is EXO-K’s version of Mama. Have you ever talked to a person named tom: I’m pretty sure I have. Something that is getting on your nerves: My dad. Most visited website: youtube, and this wonderful place;) Hair colour: blonde Long or short hair: I’ve mainly had long hair, but I’m getting my hair cut short as soon as my undercut grows out more. Do you have a crush on someone: Just a bunch of unattainable idols. What do you like about yourself: Dunno. There’s things I like about myself i guess. I’m not sure what they are right now. Blood type: Your guess is as good as mine. Nickname: Heidskein, little peach. Relationship status: Forever alone. Zodiac: Cancer Pronouns: she/her Favourite tv show: Shadowhunters, Stranger Things, and, as chessy as it may be, Andante. Tattoos: None, but I’ve considered getting one. Right or left handed: Right Surgery: I haven’t had any. Sport: Skiing/Snowboarding, MMA, and I’ve done Ballet, Soccer, Swimming, and I rode horses for 14 years. Pair of shoes: I’m not wearing any if that’s what you’re asking. Eating: Nothing right now. Drinking: Water. I’m about to: sleep. I haven’t woken up fully yet. Waiting for: Life to give me a fucking break. Want: To get my drivers license and move down south. Get married: Someday. Career: Fuck if I know. I just need money.

WHICH IS BETTER

Hugs or kisses: Hugs because I haven’t experienced the kissing aspect of life yet. Lips or eyes: Both are nice, But I love eyes. Shorter or taller: Taller. Older or younger: Is this for dating? I’ll go with taller. The thought of dating someone younger than me right now weirds me out. Nice arms or nice stomach: I don’t care. Hook up or relationship: Relationship Troublemaker or hesitant: I don’t know. Kissed a stranger: No. Drank hard liquor: No. Lost glasses/contact lenses: Ihaven’t lost my glasses yet. Turned someone down: Nope. Sex on the first date: No. Broken someone’s heart: No? I hope not. Had your heart broken: Yes. Being arrested: No. Fallen for a friend: no. Cried when someone died: Yeah.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN

Yourself: You’re funny. Miracles: Depends. Love at first sight: Maybe. Santa Claus: No. Kiss on the first date: Sure.

I’m going to tag @ourlordandsaviourohsehun @valenjagi and @enbywankenobi

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x01 Review

New Year’s Eve was a great way to return to HSMTMTS especially after such a long gap. Let’s dig in!

Vladimir Lenin once said that, ‘’ there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen". It’s been almost a year and half since S1 ended but this past week has seen revelation after revelation as the fandom has resurrected itself and promotion for S2 kicked into high gear: Joshua Bassett came out, Frankie and Joe confirmed that they are a real life couple, Larry seemingly confirmed that S2 will only have 11 eps rather than the 12 initially ordered, and perhaps most importantly Olivia revealed that she and the main cast are under contract for 4 seasons and made clear that she’s leaving the show as soon as her contract is up.

I really enjoyed this premiere, it felt like picking up right back where we left off. I’m guessing that S2 was originally supposed to premiere around Christmas or New Year’s but the holiday decorations and real Utah snow add a charming aesthetic to the ep. Tim Federle deserves credit for giving HSMTMTS more of an ensemble feel which is no easy feat with a cast as large as this show has. It likely won’t last due to covid restrictions  but at least for tonight we got to see all the characters hanging out together acting like a real group of friends.

The dialogue tonight really reminded me of Glee and I think I mean that as a compliment. Miss Jenn in particular seems to be doing her best April Rhodes impression minus the alcoholism. 

The rini scenes tonight were lovely. Perfect gift was a great song and I loved the rini duet during the music in me as the world faded around them leaving just the two of them. The Harry Styles reference is funny in light of Josh’s coming out interview. Of course, it’s hard now to separate Nini and Ricky and Olivia and Josh. Their chemistry shines through as 2x01, 2x02, and possibly parts of 2x03 were filmed pre Jolivia breakup which seems to have happened around summer 2020. Whether they can keep that same chemistry later on in S2, not to mention future seasons, remains to be seen.

A major theme tonight was communication and clearly Rini need to work on theirs. Poor Ricky had to learn that Nini’s moving to Denver the night before she leaves town which has to remind of him of his mom effectively abandoning him. Ricky saying that he’s never gonna breakup with Nini ever again sure sounds like foreshadowing for a disaster though the odds that this time Nini initiates the breakup are pretty good. 

I’m glad that the show is continuing to delve in the Bowen’s divorce story with their house being sold and Ricky and his dad having to move into an apartment. Divorce is expensive and the division of assets typically leave people less well off. Mike Bowen needs to work on his communication skills but he’s rocking that beard; it takes him from depressed divorced dad to depressed divorced daddy.

Seblos was cute and in a nice change of pace Disney doesn’t seem to be cynically teasing them then cutting their scenes. It was refreshing to see them just being a couple and to hear Carlos casually refer to himself as gay. In that regard tonight’s ep didn’t seem like it was a Disney show at all and it’s major progress that there are now two main gay characters on HSMTMTS. We learn that Carlos is rich which seems likely to be a source of conflict with Seb who comes from a large farming family.

Bet on It was really fun and I liked that Ricky apparently couldn’t stop singing it. The medley of HSM 2 songs was fun but I’ll be real with you wildcats, I never thought HSM 2 or 3 were nearly as good as the first movie so I’m not sad that they’re doing something else this year.

Wild that Big Red’s mom also calls him Big Red. Salt Lake Slices seems poised to be a big part of S2 both as hangout spot and work location for some of the characters. Redlyn are sweet together but sometimes Big Red comes off as a closeted gay guy which isn’t ideal for a het pairing that is supposedly a big part of S2.

Nice to see Gina so excited to have sleepovers with Ashlyn. We know from 2x03 that Gina contends with being single on Valentine’s day and from her glances at Ricky tonight she’s clearly not over him. Tim’s playing with fire and I can only hope he knows what he’s doing. I liked the little detail of Kourtney having AOC on her vision board, it feels true to the character (hopefully AOC gets elected president one day if the USA doesn’t collapse into a fascist dictatorship or civil war before then). EJ’s beard has got to go but I like that he seems committed to being a better version of himself; very doubtful his plan to go straight to Duke like his forefathers doesn’t change by the end of the season. 

Derek Hough did a good job of playing Zach as a subtly condescending man who managed to swiftly undermine Miss Jenn’s confidence, we’ll see what he and North High bring to the table.

Looking Ahead:

Next week are auditions for Beauty and the Beast, we know Ashlyn gets the role of Belle and EJ has conveniently removed himself from the running for Beast which presumably clears the path for Ricky to take the lead. There’s been some controversy over the casting choices and I’ll save my comments about it for the 2x02 review.

We get to see Lily who looks like a meaner version of season 1 Gina, we’ll see how much depth she actually ends up getting. Howie is introduced in 2x03 and Antoine likely shows up later on. Jack likely shows up towards the end of the season.

Howie seems to have a connection with Kourtney though the character synopsis does say he gets close to a wildcat or two which certainly leaves room to slide him into Gina’s plot. We know Antoine is into Ashlyn so that’s another love triangle to look forward to. Jack was described as having wanderlust and most of the cast seems not to have filmed with him so I think it’s likely that he plays a role in convincing EJ to take a gap year rather than head straight to Duke. 

A translation leak on TikTok reveals that in 2x03 Gina is sad that she’s only gotten a Valentine’s Day gift from her mom. A brief clip from the promo shows up her on her porch at night holding a heart shaped box of chocolates. If that’s supposed to be from a secret or semi-secret admirer than it has to be from either EJ, Ricky, or Howie. If it’s a platonic gift then it could be from anyone, we’ll see what Tim has up his sleeves.

Nini moving back to SLC is a question of when not if. It’s going to be very difficult to bring her back in a way that’s justified and also doesn’t leave the time she spends in Denver looking like a total waste. Frankly, I’d rather the show just bite the bullet and bring her back with as little fuss as possible.

We’re possibly around a quarter way through HSMTMTS given that the mains have 4 season contracts and presuming that the show is not cancelled earlier. At the very least the show will be radically different after S4 if they try to continue it as Olivia has made very clear that she’s going to leave asap to pursue her burgeoning music career full time (notably she’s only done the bare minimum of promo for S2). 

Looming over the remaining seasons of HSMTMTS is what the professional relationship between Olivia and Josh looks like especially since in many ways the show is built around Ricky and Nini. Off screen relationships have often caused on screen problems and dating a co-worker is rarely a good idea since even clean breakups leave lingering resentments. Obviously the Jolivia breakup was not clean, Driver’s License, Deja Vu, and Good 4 U (which is a certified bop) were clearly written from a place of hurt and in some ways were written to hurt. It’s no surprise that Joshua has dropped his duet with Sabrina Carpenter from his EP; someone on his team at least is trying to stop the damage to his reputation. There’s a decent chance that Olivia’s songs becoming such hits has irreparably damaged Joshua Bassett’s reputation among the same pool of largely young women that he’s targeting his music towards thereby cutting off his music career at the knees. If nothing else this behind the scenes drama should keep things entertaining for a while.

Until next week Wildcats 

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x07 Review

The Field Trip was a campy ep that recaptured some of the charm of S1. Let’s dig in!

S2 has often struggled with taking itself too seriously but finally we got some good campy fun that reminded me of why S1 was so great. North High finally come into their own as villains. The Howie reveal was very well done, poor Kourtney inadvertently being the source of the leaks. I can’t tell if Antoine’s accent is bad on purpose or not but he was funny tonight when he dragged Big Red and I loved how forward he was with Ashlyn. It’s good that the trio of new characters finally feel like they’re part of a larger plot rather than being somewhat random additions to the cast.

Lily continues to act like she’s on Glee which is exactly the right energy for the role. The stick to the stuff you know line was great as was Seb’s bop to the top retort. North High clearly won the dance off though Gina being in a skirt limited her. Lily was doing it with bad intentions but she was absolutely right that the rose song was a dig at Ricky and didn’t fit the musical and that they’d be disqualified for performing it. Miss Jenn should have already known they’d be disqualified for adding it and Ricky should have already been able to tell that the song was about him. I think it’s more and more likely that Lily is the party crasher who Ricky re-evaluates in 2x12 and she could well be the unexpected face time call he gets in 2x10.  

It took 7 eps but we finally got an ep where Gina wasn’t upset over Ricky and thank god for that; the constant angst was sucking the life out of her plot. Of course, the reason she wasn’t going through it is because she was spending her time with EJ. I think this ep should put to rest any notion of Portwell just being platonic. Some people are still clinging to Matt’s interview where he refers to EJ and Gina as friends but he was clearly being misleading, even if nothing else happens it’s clear that Gina is not just a friend to EJ. I’ve seen people try and claim that Gina and EJ are like siblings with each other or that they’re practically related because Gina is roommates with EJ’s cousin as if there’s some sort of Westermarck effect by proxy but family members don’t pretend to be dating. 

The morning show was a lot of fun and the fake dating was cute. In contrast to the last time they fake dated back in 1x05 we can see how much happier and more comfortable they are with each other now. Notably they had EJ circle back to it well after it happened which led to Gina’s line about everything going back to normal which is a tell that everything has not gone back to normal for them. We can see EJ’s inherent goofiness shining through with the Risotto inside joke they now have. Much like Joshaya on GMW there are valid reasons to not go ahead with the ship, although Portwell doesn’t have the creepiness or borderline illegality of Joshaya, but the chemistry between the characters is real and can’t be ignored. 

Rini hurtles towards a breakup which could come as soon as next ep. Hard to tell if Ricky was in denial or just too stupid to understand the songs meaning. I'd prefer the former since a 17 year old would have to lack basic comprehension skills to not understand that the lyrics were a thinly veiled attack on him.

Nini trying to claim it was just a song at the end was disingenuous, she didn’t want Ricky to hear it for a reason. Her deciding to use her given name Nina for her music account is obviously meant to symbolize her independence from Ricky since he first gave her that nickname back in the first grade. However, it makes Ricky seem like some malign influence on her basically her entire life when it’s not like he forced her to go by Nini or prevented her from going back to Nina during the 10 odd years of their friendship/relationship together.

Miss Jenn and Zachie were fun but such a risk on his part to steal the mask, that’s trespassing and theft and a sure disqualification not to mention the very real risk of being criminally charged. The door is now closed on Jike and Jachie and the path for Jazarra is open.

Rouge Grand was funny but I hope this Redlyn angst isn’t dragged out too long. 

Mob song wasn’t good, the skrillex beat drop was not needed. Around You was good though. I just noticed that Tim abandoned, or was forced to by covid, his plan to have 3 songs per ep instead of 2 which is for the best I think. 

Looking Ahead:

Looks like next week will be a big one for Portwell and EJ in general. We get Gaston, career day with EJ’s dad, and then EJ hanging with Gina and helping her knit which is very domestic. I’d bet if you showed that clip of them knitting to someone who had never seen the show  they’d assume the character were dating. So it looks like Mr. Caswell has bought EJ’s way into Duke which is no longer EJ’s dream, if it ever was.

As I said last week, there’s a clear path forward for Portwell to get together in the season finale and next ep will probably take a big step towards making it happen. We have the chemistry, we’ve gotten moments between them, and we know EJ’s feelings, we just need Gina to recognize her budding feelings for EJ. I think Gina running into Jack at the airport in 2x09 will help her clear her head on what she wants and a part of that will be whether she still wants to try and be with Ricky or does she want to take a chance with EJ.

Obviously S3 will almost certainly leave Portwell in the dust in order to do Rina for a bit which will piss off a lot of fans but Tim’s screwed himself over here; there’s really no way that this series ends without a large chunk of the audience being bitterly disappointed over who’s endgame. Love triangles are a done to death trope but they typically involve some minor characters who can written off once the triangle is over, not main characters who have to be in every ep no matter what. 

More Redlyn angst next week as well as the wildcats being benched for a week due to trespassing at North High. 

A lot of people think that the show is having Nini get into songwriting because of Olivia’s success but the scripts would have been written before she released Driver’s License and shot to stardom. She’s also still contracted for two more seasons though she’d clearly leave before that if Disney would let her. 

The Rini treehouse scene could well be the breakup, gotta go my own way would fit well if that’s the case. This is another area where Tim needs to tread carefully. He can’t have Rini hate each other or avoid each other for the remaining 20 odd eps of the series but also can’t fully close the door on them since he’ll almost certainly have Rini be endgame as they graduate from East High at the end of S4. 

At this point it seems pretty unrealistic that East High would win the Menkies but this is a tv show so who knows. There’s one big song left that would work for some of the couples they, Something There, which could work for Portwell, Howell, or Rina so we’ll see if we get it.

2x07 marks the last of the clips we saw in the original S2 trailer so we’re largely flying blind now.

Until next week wildcats. 

[multimetaverse]

do you think hsmtmts will get 7 seasons like tim federle wants?

It’s unlikely imo but it could happen. If it does last that long though it certainly won’t be with the same cast. I’ve seen conflicting interviews where Tim Federle says he wants and has planned for either 6 or 7 seasons. Disney channel shows typically have their main casts contracted for 4 seasons; we don’t know if it’s more or less for Disney + shows or HSMTMTS in particular but it’s probably in that range. It’s very hard for me to see Olivia staying once her contract is up. With the runaway success of Driver’s License and Deja Vu and her upcoming album she’s a legit music star now. In a couple years she probably won’t need the show to open any doors in the acting or music business. Sofia Wylie has also been doing well for herself with various roles both for Disney and Netflix and I could also see her wanting to move on to bigger things once her contract is up. Joshua Bassett will also likely try and take his career to the next level and eventually there comes a point where spending 6 months out of the year filming HSMTMTS will hinder that.

Given that many of the characters are juniors in S1 and S2 a logical ending point for the show would be their High School graduation. Especially since Ricky and Nini are graduating in their next school year and the show is built around them to a large extent. Two seasons focusing on their fall/spring semesters during junior year and two seasons focusing on their fall/spring semesters during senior year could work. If Tim wants more seasons he’s either gonna have to include a summer break or two or try and continue past when a lot of the kids will have graduated. Even the youngest cast members would be in their twenties by the time a potential 7th season was filmed and the older ones would be pushing 30 and not passable at all as High School students.

Not many shows make it to 7 seasons and very few are able to stay good for 7 seasons. Game of Thrones imploded in S8 and Glee started off with 2 excellent seasons only to collapse in S3-S5 until miraculously pulling off a pretty good S6. Recent Disney channel shows like Girl Meets World and Andi Mack started declining in the latter half of their second seasons and were train wrecks by the end of their third seasons. For GMW and AM the longer those shows went on the worse the writing got and the writers seemed incapable of avoiding even the most obvious mistakes or of fixing the messes they made. Whether through exhaustion or poor planning or incompetence, both Michael Jacobs and Terri Minsky really fucked up their shows and I hope that Tim Federle doesn’t follow in their footsteps or at least doesn’t get the chance to. If we look at total episode numbers, 7 seasons of HSMTMTS would be 70 odd eps. GMW got 72 eps and AM 57 and both shows would have been much better served with only having 40 odd eps. A four season HSMTMTS with 40 eps is much more likely to be well written, coherent, and fondly remembered than a HSMTMTS dragged out for 70 eps. 

Thanks in part to the covid-19 pandemic, Disney + reached their 2024 subscriber targets in 2020 and now has over 100 million subscribers. Disney has hundreds of new series and movies planned for the next several years and every new show means that original Disney + series like HSMTMTS become a bit less important to the success of Disney +. We’ll see what happens but I’m skeptical that we’ll see HSMTMTS go on for 7 seasons and I really don’t think that it would be a good idea for the show to go on that long.