"High School Musical: Get in the Picture" (2008) TV series

User Rating:

(awaiting 5 votes)

Director:

Tony Sacco

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

20 July 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Reality-TV

Plot Keywords:

Show Business | Audition | Non Fiction

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Briana Vega	...	Cast Member / ... (13 episodes, 2008)
Christie Brooke	...	Herself (5 episodes, 2008)
Christina Brown	...	Herself (5 episodes, 2008)
Stan Carrizosa	...	Himself (5 episodes, 2008)
Tierney Chamberlain	...	Herself (5 episodes, 2008)
Shayna Goldstein	...	Herself (5 episodes, 2008)
Bailey Purvis	...	Herself (5 episodes, 2008)
Ether Saure	...	Himself (5 episodes, 2008)
Isaiah Smith	...	Himself (5 episodes, 2008)
T.J. Wilkins	...	Himself (5 episodes, 2008)
James Wolpert	...	Himself (5 episodes, 2008)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex, Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA

Company:

The Jay & Tony Show

I love it!

I'm in love with this show. Am only two-thirds of the way through it--having caught up with the episodes I'd missed (the tryouts) online--but want to come right out and declare my affection before the romance fades. As it probably will be when it comes down to the final choice, since the odds are my favorite will be someone else and things will be over between us. But like all love affairs, this one is emotionally gratifying while the bloom is on.

Several websites report that this show has had a rough passage in the ratings. Probably it's too nice for these times: it's something like the Mouseketeers brought up to date for (somewhat) more grown-up viewers. I haven't been checking out the public reactions in blogs and forums because so much of what appears in them is adolescent slogging by post-adolescents and I don't care to have my enjoyment of the show kicked and trampled. And that enjoyment is very great. The kids' highs make me feel good, their lows make me want to jump in and straighten things out.

Of all the talent contests on TV, this one is by far my favorite. The judges aren't mean, the contestants' talent is real, and the sweetness of their voices and personalities make the performances--the trials by which they are _eliminated_--are stageworthy in themselves. The semifinals were performed before a crowd at Disney theme parks, and made a better show than what you usually see at such venues. The kids were paired up for a set of pretty duets--especially those by T. J. and Shayna, James and the girl with the name I can never remember that starts with T and who I always want to call Tegan because she reminds me of Tegan on Doctor Who, and Ether and a Hispanic girl who looked like she would go on to the finals but didn't. With the show-business hook of who will make it and who won't, and the inspiriting performances, the series itself becomes a lively, upbeat teen musical.

It is similarly positive on the reality-show side: little sturm und drang, lots of little epiphany-bytes, and kind treatment by the camera and the editing room. When the show is at its most perceptive, it's also at its most discreet. For instance, in the one big dramatic crisis to date (or the closest thing to a crisis that has arisen in this friendly context), when princessy girl learned that fat boy had complained about her wanting to be the center of attention. (Pot, meet kettle.) Later he apologized and she forgave him. But what the show never made reference to, which it had shown us earlier, was an earlier scene of him watching her--wistfully and wishfully--as she bestows all her attention to another boy. Next thing we know, he's talking about how it bothers him that she doesn't have the right attitude and isn't trying to get to know _everybody_, to learn from them: a strictly philosophical objection. None of the other kids saw the feeling behind it, or if they did were nice enough not to say--and so was the show. It's things like this that warm me to it.

The kids may not be as likable as they seem to the camera--I don't see how anybody could be--but they're likable enough to convince me they are. And they're generous toward each other, like kids who can afford to be; even the princessy girl is princessy in the nicest way imaginable. Most feel-good shows don't make me feel good; this one does, and largely because of the kids. One of them said of the fat boy that you had to be cold-hearted if he couldn't make you smile; in some degree the same is true of them all.

Also, there's less padding and repetition than is usual in reality shows. The judges' assessments of the students are reduced to sound bytes rather than tedious restatement and belaboring of the point. For my part, I wouldn't have minded hearing a little more of their opinions, because they seem to know what they're talking about.

In my starry-eyed devotion, only a couple of doubts niggle at the back of my mind. I was ready to forgive the one class assignment / musical number that flopped: an intended homage to old-time TV (that is, old-time by the kids' definition--70s and 80s) where you couldn't even figure out who the kids were dressed up as. But I don't understand why, in all the numbers, a lot of the shots look lip-synched, and some of the voices sound like they were run through a mixer. A few times, the judges have criticized one of the kids' singing, and I doubt that the reviews were faked. Like a teen with doubts about his girlfriend, I came up with an explanation to alleviate my doubts, and resolved to go with it, despite uncertainties. I'm choosing to believe that after the first performance, the performers restage it, or parts of it, so the camera can pick up shots it couldn't get the first time without blocking our view--and that the performers either postdub sections of the songs where the sound was bad, or the sound guys sweeten it later.

Then, there's the prize itself. Because the winner won't really Get in the Picture (High School Musical 3), but into a video that will be playing behind the credits of the picture. Like in one of those tiny little boxes that TV stations shrink credits to while they flash ads for their other shows? Will this video ever be seen by anybody? For myself, I'd rather Disney starred all these kids in a show of their own--a cheery, heartwarming musical drama about a dozen aspiring young singers: Fame Lite.

Wait a minute!--they just did.