In the current economic climate, many have been forced to take extreme measures to solve their financial woes. Take Marti for instance. She had to go to extremes to stay in school on The CW’s new show Hellcats.
Hellcats followed students at Lancer University that had everyone feeling the financial pressure. Rebel Marti Perkins (Aly Michalka) dreamed of being a lawyer, except her flighty single mother Wanda (Gail O’Grady) neglected to tell her that her scholarship was revoked. Marti tried to get help, but to no avail. Her only option was to become a school cheerleader, better known as a Hellcat, who had scholarships for members. The inexperienced Marti only had her street smarts and gymnastics skills to survive on the squad. All she had to was win the approval of the squad’s coach Vanessa (Sharon Leal), squad captain Savannah (Ashley Tisdale), and her injured predecessor Alice (Heather Hemmens) looking to see Marti fail. Quite a tall order for Marti because she made her dislike for cheerleaders quite well known. Luckily, she had a few allies in teammate Lewis (Robbie Jones), her longtime friend Dan (Matt Barr), and her new roommate Savannah. It rests on Marti’s new girl shoulders to save the squad from the threat of extinction. Will she deliver the goods or doomed to live with her mother forever?
Sadly, Hellcats’ premise had been done before on the big and small screens before with sometimes better finesse and stronger leads. Michalka gave Marti enough attitude to make her believable, but her acting inexperience became apparent in the heavier scenes where she simply came off as snarky all the time. After three High School Musical films, Tisdale had cornered the market on being Ms. School Spirit/Mean Girl perfectly. She gave Savannah just enough venom and pep to keep Marti in line. Hemmens, on the other hand, gave Alice enough bitterness to take down everyone who crossed her. Instead of focusing on her injury, Alice externalized her anger onto Marti by making her to blame for an injury that she had no control over. The show’s biggest casualties were Leal and O’Grady who were sidelined for the show’s younger cast members by making them focused on their lost youth inside of their current activities. Hopefully, the show will give them a chance to have storylines of their own.
Hellcats premiered on September 8th and airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
TV Score: 3 out of 5 stars
Score Chart
1 Star (Mediocre)
2 Stars (Averagely Entertaining)
3 Stars (Decent Enough to Pass Muster)
4 Stars (Near Perfect)
5 Stars (Gold Standard)
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