High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Review: “Into the Unknown”

HSMTMTS is on its second episode of season three and it’s definitely dipping its toes into the unknown.

The episode starts with E.J. (Matt Cornett) and Gina (Sofia Wylie) discussing what will happen now that E.J. is the director of this summer’s play Frozen. They make another meta-reference to the show and Disney+ but ultimately the scene is reassuring E.J. and Gina shippers that all is well. Except as Taylor Swift once said, “I think I’ve seen this film before and I didn’t like the ending.”

There were elements to this episode that I really enjoyed, and I’m not sure if that’s because I went in with a much more open mind than before or if it was enjoyable. Nini’s (Olivia Rodrigo) side plot of discovering who her biological dad is was interesting and probably gave us the best original song of the season. It brings the show back to its roots where original songs were used to push the story forward rather than become a music video.

With that being said, I think Gina’s song gave audiences something they maybe weren’t sure about before, validity that she is leading lady material. Sofia Wylie can sing, dance, and act, and I loved her story in season one but I’m excited to see her as the main character for this one.

Another character I’m excited to see shine is Ricky (Joshua Bassett). It looks like he’ll put more effort into being a part of the musical this season and maybe even help guide someone that used to be like him.

The most enticing part of this season is Maddox (Saylor Bell) and Jet (Adrian Lyles). Their characters have a mystery to them and, from Jet’s performance of ‘For the First Time in Forever’, we see that they have talent.

I’m excited for the show to focus more on the reasons why musical theater brings people together.

Muska Olumi is a columnist for the Boardwalk Times