Julie and the Phantoms
Oct. 10th, 2020 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrA light high-school musical tv show about a girl working through the death of her mother with the help of a band of teen boy ghosts. Produced by the guy who created Highschool Musical and Descendants for Disney, but on Netflix so he finally got to include canon gay!(*)
It's very much a silly children's show, and not my usual sort of thing, but it's so sweet and charming it won me over.
The characters are all loveable and the music is genuinely catchy and fun. The protagonist Julie is played by an actual (very talented) 16 year old, which made me way more patient with the Silly Teen Shenanigans, even if her (supposedly same aged) love interest's actor being 21 made me feel a little instinctive ooginess.
Julie is also a black Latina, which was nice to see! Apparently the show is based on an older show from Brazil.
My one real complaint (asides from 'this is is a silly musical made for children', which you can either roll with or not) is that there is a repeated pattern of characters ignoring other people's boundaries 'for their own good', and then it ends super well and the person is grateful. Often it makes emotional sense by children's musical logic but it still bugged me in aggregate.
It also ends on a sort of cliffhanger, but not the sort I find very stressful. There's clearly intended to be another season but I'd be happy enough with the story ending here.
Overall it's made with a love of music and how it brings people together, and is a lot of fun. I haven't watched Highschool Musical or Descendants but maybe I will now!
(*)With secondary characters. The central romance is m/f, and none of the romances get together this season, with the emphasis being on friendship and personal growth instead. But I like how what we saw played out.
It's very much a silly children's show, and not my usual sort of thing, but it's so sweet and charming it won me over.
The characters are all loveable and the music is genuinely catchy and fun. The protagonist Julie is played by an actual (very talented) 16 year old, which made me way more patient with the Silly Teen Shenanigans, even if her (supposedly same aged) love interest's actor being 21 made me feel a little instinctive ooginess.
Julie is also a black Latina, which was nice to see! Apparently the show is based on an older show from Brazil.
My one real complaint (asides from 'this is is a silly musical made for children', which you can either roll with or not) is that there is a repeated pattern of characters ignoring other people's boundaries 'for their own good', and then it ends super well and the person is grateful. Often it makes emotional sense by children's musical logic but it still bugged me in aggregate.
It also ends on a sort of cliffhanger, but not the sort I find very stressful. There's clearly intended to be another season but I'd be happy enough with the story ending here.
Overall it's made with a love of music and how it brings people together, and is a lot of fun. I haven't watched Highschool Musical or Descendants but maybe I will now!
(*)With secondary characters. The central romance is m/f, and none of the romances get together this season, with the emphasis being on friendship and personal growth instead. But I like how what we saw played out.
