GREASE: RISE OF THE PINK LADIES musical prequel series on Paramount+- Page 2

[DaveyG]

Posted: 4/6/23 at 2:09pm

What I can't stand about it is the music producing. The riffing, the autotune, the modern backing tracks all reek like the worst of Glee. 

[Nycat63]

Posted: 4/6/23 at 5:50pm

After one episode I’m super underwhelmed but will continue watching just to see Jackie Hoffman yell at kids.  

[Voter]

Posted: 4/6/23 at 6:31pm

Nycat63 said: "After one episode I’m super underwhelmed but will continue watching just to see Jackie Hoffman yell at kids."

Anything with Jackie Hoffman turns me off now after Fairycakes and her nasty Twitter 

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/6/23 at 9:36pm

TG BWW got rid of the bubblegum pink motif and that ghastly background for this stinker.

[taragel2]

Posted: 4/7/23 at 1:18am

verywellthensigh said: ""It's asking what if the 50s were somewhat more diverse/enlightened and it started with these girls?"

But the fifties weren't diverse and enlightened. At what point does the inclusion-obsessed New Moralism become historical whitewashing?"

So there were no blacks or latinos in the 50s? There was no one fighting sexism, classism, and racism? 

It's not whitewashing anything or saying everyone was included/tolerated-- quite the opposite. It's focusing on representation, and is about outsiders who don't fit in (because of race/sexuality/gender/class) banding together and finding their voices. The T-birds are mostly latino in this version. The lead Pink lady is biracial (black mom/Italian dad), and the others are latino, asian, and queer. Many of the women are castigated for being sexually active -- whether they are or are just assumed to be.

The girls have sex and drink and do a lot of light theft and breaking/entering in the first two episodes. They get revenge (or try to) and break rules. They are survivors because they're empowered by each other. It's an origin story. (And honestly only Rizzo and maybe Stephanie would probably cut you from the original movies. All the others were definitely softer/ditzier.) 

I liked it a lot and thought the musical numbers were pretty fun, especially the choreography for the bigger ones. It's not really musical theater singing, much poppier for sure. But I've never seen a TV musical that doesn't have a lot of production and autotune to the numbers. 

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 4/7/23 at 9:46am

"It's not whitewashing anything or saying everyone was included/tolerated-- quite the opposite. It's focusing on representation, and is about outsiders who don't fit in (because of race/sexuality/gender/class) banding together and finding their voices. The T-birds are mostly latino in this version. The lead Pink lady is biracial (black mom/Italian dad), and the others are latino, asian, and queer. Many of the women are castigated for being sexually active -- whether they are or are just assumed to be."

That sounds like a LOT of focus-grouped box ticking.  And, no, the fifties weren't inclusive.  Racial groups kept to their own.  That this story involves everybody becoming more inclusive on 2023 standards because of the Pink Ladies reeks of White feminist wish-fulfillment. 

[taragel2]

Posted: 4/7/23 at 10:09am

"Racial groups kept to their own" 

So, yes, the T-birds being mostly latino makes sense then. And the girls come together because they all get in trouble and they're all pissed off about the boundaries/rules laid on them, not because they're already friends who pal around. 

I mean, YMMV, of course, but your "focus-grouped box ticking" is someone else's "hey, cool, that's someone like me as the star of this show." Would an all-white cast like the two movies be a better play here in 2023? What would be the point of that? 

And can it really be a white feminist wish fulfillment if none of the leads are Cis White feminists? I mean it seems pretty intersectional to me. No one's family, culture or language is erased so far. 
 

Updated On: 4/7/23 at 10:09 AM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/7/23 at 10:27am

I'm just going to add this to the discourse.

By and large, adding minorities to stories where they had previously been excluded is not "historical whitewashing". It's the REVERSAL of historical whitewashing. Black people, Hispanic people, Asian people, LGBT people, have always been around, visible, and vocal at all times and in all places. That they've until relatively recently been mostly excluded from stories is the result of the media (both the entertainment industry and the news), both passively and deliberately, thinking the median audience member is a straight white guy who isn't interested in those kinds of stories (largely because the median media figure is a straight white guy who isn't interested in those kinds of stories).

When harping on "historical accuracy", it's important to remember that what we see as "history" is a version of history written by people, and people have biases that inform how they depict it, consciously or otherwise.

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 4/7/23 at 11:11am

I couldn't even finish the first episode of this, sadly. Went in with high hopes but just had to turn it off maybe halfway through.

Questionable directing and acting choices. Weirdly stilted scenes (are you going for camp or realism or what? Make up your mind). And the music production is abysmal. The lead girl started singing a song and I couldn't make out a single word. Some of that could be because she really needed to use a few consonants and cut back on the pop riffing. But beyond the diction issues, the sound mix is such that things blend together too much.

I'd be fine exploring where they could go with POC and queer characters in this story/setting, but...the storytelling actually has to be good. A journey I won't be going on.

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 4/7/23 at 11:19am

"By and large, adding minorities to stories where they had previously been excluded is not "historical whitewashing". It's the REVERSAL of historical whitewashing. Black people, Hispanic people, Asian people, LGBT people, have always been around, visible, and vocal at all times and in all places."

This is a very online take.  Look, I know it's ridiculous to go into the realism of a Grease product (Fun fact:  Grease actually began as a raunchy, foul-mouthed, and very personal vision of growing up in blue collar Chicago.  Imagine!) but if you truly believe there was a time where a young Black boy could make crotch-heavy dance moves behind a non-Black girl and not get beat up (or worse) in SUBURBAN PENNSYLVANIA for God's sake, yes, you are softening the ugly realities of mid-century America for the sake of doctrinaire ideas of inclusion.  

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 5/11/23 at 11:30am

Is anyone else enjoying Danny Burstein's appearances on the show? He's on this week's episode, in addition to two others, I believe.