Article/Review by Craig Byrne
One of the first new scripted series of Fall 2010 rolls out tonight with the premiere of The CW’s new cheerleading drama Hellcats. The show has been of particular interest to a lot of the KSiteTV/KryptonSite audience as it is produced by none other than Clark Kent himself, Tom Welling.
The main character of Hellcats is Marti (Aly Michalka), a young woman who will be kicked out of her classes unless she finds a way to get a scholarship, and she soon discovers that a scholarship in cheerleading could be exactly what she can do to make it. Along the way, she encounters challenges, friends, in foes in characters like Type-A personality Savannah (High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale), bitchy rival Alice (Heather Hemmens), and male cheerleader Lewis (Robbie Jones).
I had seen the earlier draft of the pilot from a few months ago and I will confirm that some of the changes made were for the better. There’s some expansion to Sharon Leal’s Vanessa character, who serves as a coach and a mentor to the Lancer Hellcats cheer squad. Vanessa reminds me quite a bit of Debbie Allen’s character in FAME, a series that I’m surprised hasn’t been revived as of yet. From promotional photos it looks like Leal and some of the “older” characters will have bigger roles as things go along, including a role for Queer As Folk’s Gale Harold. I’m really looking forward to seeing all of them, because Vanessa’s dilemmas are among the more interesting of the group.
Upon first watch I also wasn’t sold on Aly Michalka’s voiceover narrations; I think a lot of us in viewer-land probably don’t realize it’s a lot more difficult than it seems. The second time around, it didn’t seem to bother me as much. I don’t know if I got used to it, or if they re-recorded. Either way I hope it’s not something they rely on too much in the future.
Being a new CW show, you can guarantee there’s licensed music involved. I liked the choices though after so many preview clips and promos have been released it seemed like I’d heard it all so many times before. I actually think there were a few scenes where background music of some sort could have been used more; perhaps the version I saw is not the final aired version, so I’ll see how things are on Wednesday night.
I’m probably not The CW’s target viewer for Hellcats but I enjoyed it enough that I’ll definitely check out the second episode, in that it succeeds at least in the aspect that it is enjoyable, and I’ll take “enjoyable” over “critically acclaimed and boring” any day. I think it still has a ways to go before it’d be a cult hit on the level of GLEE or a critical hit like Life Unexpected has been, but premiering on a night when most shows are still in repeats, there are much worse things you can watch on a Wednesday night at 9PM. Give it a shot, and if see if you like it.
If you do watch Hellcats, I invite all of you to visit our Hellcats sub-forum at KryptonSite, where you can discuss all aspects of the show but more specifically, we have a Countdown/LIVE Discussion thread for your posting pleasure. If you like it, talk about it. If you hate it, you’re allowed to have that opinion too. And if you’re looking for more reasons to give it a try, check out this gallery of cast images and read all of our previous Hellcats coverage here at KSiteTV!
