Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies has excellent storylines, beautiful scenes and choreography, new songs you can’t stop singing, and more!
I was not expecting Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies to be as great as it is, but it has definitely become one of my new favorite series; I look forward to watching it every week. Only a few episodes have been released so far, but it already feels like a winner to me!
Before you take my advice, you should know a few things. I’m more enthusiastic and upbeat about series reviews than my peers, and I love a good musical series! I loved the first season of Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist; I felt all the feelings during every episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and when I was younger, I knew every song from the Saturday morning show California Dreams. And those are only a few examples (Smash, Rise, Schmigadoon!… there are far too many to list). Even with that, I had huge (and possibly unfair) expectations for Rise of the Pink Ladies.
I enjoyed the original Grease (starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John), but it’s old, and a lot could be updated in today’s climate. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the original and appreciate that it was made at a different time. But, any spin-off or revamp would have to meet that challenge. And Rise of the Pink Ladies does just that. The show still brings all the nostalgia of Grease, but it does not shy away from the real, often hidden issues (race, cultural acceptance, gender equality, sexual orientation, etc.) that kids in the 1950s (and today!) faced. And those songs!
If you don’t watch Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies for any other reason, the songs are fantastic earworms! I can’t stop humming “Take the Wheel,” and I’m not mad about it. The series is now available on Paramount+; find out more about the show in these behind-the-scenes clips:
