'Hellcats,'
cheerleaders out of step
CW dramedy could be a satire of cheerleader movies
By Tom Conroy
Sep 8, 2010
Satirists run a risk when they create an intelligent character who is meant to serve as the audience’s point of view in the milieu that’s being mocked. Having the audience members identify with the smart character may suggest to them that they’re too smart to be wasting their time watching at all.
That’s the problem with the CW’s new series “Hellcats,” a comedy-drama that at some points seems to be satirizing big-time cheerleading and at other points to be satirizing cheerleading movies in particular and teen movies and TV in general.
At no point, however, does the show succeed at being either comic or dramatic. Outside of some glossy shots of healthy young people in revealing attire, there’s nothing to see here.
In the premiere, airing tonight at 9 p.m., Marti (Aly Michalka), a pre-law student at a fictional university in Memphis, learns that she has lost her scholarship. After hearing that all the members of the school’s top-ranked competitive cheerleading squad, the Hellcats, get funded, she decides to try out.
Marti would be replacing an injured squad member, Alice (Heather Hemmens), who, naturally, becomes Marti’s enemy. The other characters line up in their positions just as efficiently. Savannah (Ashley Tisdale of the “High School Musical” movies) is the goody-two-shoes team captain. Wanda (Gail O’Grady of “NYPD Blue”) is Marti’s embarrassing single mother. Vanessa (Sharon Leal) is the cheerleaders' coach, who is immediately won over by Marti’s unconventional moves.
Although Marti doesn’t sport the usual smart-girl disguise of glasses and a sensible hairdo — she favors leather jackets and dark nail polish — she thinks she’s above cheerleading. Despite Michalka’s conventional-hottie looks, she manages to deliver Marti’s intellectual aperçus convincingly.
After Savannah objects to Marti’s characterization of cheerleaders as “groupies,” Marti says, “Groupies jump up and down in skimpy outfits screaming adulation for male fantasy figures. Beyond that, we’re just splitting hairs.” This sets off a shouting match that ends with the two girls panting and gazing into each other’s eyes.
Viewers won’t know if the show is parodying or exploiting the catfight fantasy. Chances are the writers, director and actresses don’t know either.
Within minutes, however, Savannah and Marti are best buds and roommates in the university’s cheerleaders-only dorm.
Since Alice is the meanest mean girl in the squad, Marti inevitably starts a flirtation with Alice’s ex-boyfriend, a male cheerleader named Lewis (Robbie Jones). The possible romance heats up when Marti is caught without a towel in the cheerleaders’ vast coed bathroom.
Clearly, the show isn’t going for documentary realism, but viewers will likely roll their eyes throughout. At one point, the coach, after learning that the squad might lose its funding if it doesn’t rank nationally, tells the girls to improvise. (“If we’re going to improvise,” says Savannah, “shouldn’t we make some kind of plan?”) Nonetheless, the resulting routine is clearly choreographed.
The silliness would be excusable if “Hellcats” ever built up any over-the-top energy. But the performance sequences are pedestrian, and the premiere’s cliff-hanger ending will leave most viewers shrugging their shoulders.
Audience members who get excited at the thought of seeing bared abs and pleated skirts might say, “Bring it on,” but those of us who are inclined to grade TV shows are more likely to say, “Gimme a C minus!”
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