Ready? O-Kay!

So last night I watched the premiere of Hellcats on the CW and my take on it can best be described in a cheer:

C-H-E-E-S-E-Y, this show is pretty cheesey, guys
Cheesey, yes, it’s cheesey!

And I love it.

It’s one part “Bring It On”, one part “Flashdance”, one part teen soap and one part music video which adds up to a great big “Hell Yeah!” in my book. I mean, imagine if the kids on the original 90210 had been snobby but gorgeous cheerleaders and Andrea Zuckerman had been forced to join the squad in order to pursue her educational dreams and the rage she felt at this injustice was choreographed a la Kevin Bacon’s anger dance in “Footloose” until she decided to teach the other cheerleaders how to street dance, they became the best squad ever and at the same time all learned to accept people who are different from them. Oh, you’re also going to have to imagine Zuckerman was hot and underage. Now, can you give me an A-W-E-S-O-M-E on that?

Sure, there are some drawbacks, like how they use a cheerleader tumbling to transition from scene to scene. Annoying. And how once Marti (the townie/college student who loses her scholarship and is forced to join the squad to pay for college) shows up, suddenly everyone not only knows how to dance but everyone actually knows the same dance that Marti is freestyling. She’s not doing the electric slide, she’s just making up moves and not even Wade Robson would be able to pick them up that quick.

Marti’s rival, Alice, the cheerleader she’s replacing because of an injury, is a typical teen drama mean girl who is having just enough of a hard time personally for you to maybe forgive her behavior. Ashley Tisdale is all saccharine sweet as cheer captain, Savannah. Her acting isn’t bad, it’s just that her character could not be more annoying. But Alyson Michalka is perfect as Marti. I’m totally waiting for the episode where it’s revealed she works in a steel mill between classes and practice. Love her.

I’m not sold on the adult story lines yet – Marti’s alcoholic mother? So tired. And Jackie Taylor already did drunk parent better than anyone else ever could so we might as well just give that one up. The cheer coach caught in a love triangle between her hot team doctor boyfriend and the returning football coach she has a mysterious past with? It might get interesting but I need another week or two to decide. And really, who cares because no one watches this kind of television for the grown up story lines.

The best part of the show – for me at least – is that it marks the resurrection of One Tree Hill’s tragic basketball star, Quentin Fields (when they killed Quentin, I stopped watching cause it was just too much sad), and Peyton Sawyer’s stalker, the guy who was pretending to be her brother and terrorized her in the best titled episode ever, “Prom Night at Hater High”. Quentin is now a Hellcat Cheerleader with eyes for Marti and the stalker is now Marti’s townie best bud who may hook up with Tisdale. Whatever happens it good to see those guys working, and, you know, breathing, again.

The next two weeks more new shows (and the return of some old ones) will be rolling out so although I’m giving Hellcats a big old thumbs up right now, they’re gonna have to get in there and fight for my viewing time. But, come on, they’re cheerleaders – who better to compete?