Ever watch Grease or Grease 2 and think hmm I wish I had an origin story of the formation for cool girl gang the Pink Ladies? Well you’re in luck! The new show Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (created by Annabel Oakes) takes fans back to 1954, four years before the original movie is set to witness Rydell High history being made with Danny and Sandy.
If you’re expecting to see the freshman version of the ladies we already know then you’re out of luck. The main cast is a whole new roster of characters (though there is a fun cameo of young Frenchie and Rizzo!) who bond over being outcasts within the halls of the high school. The show centers around four main female leads: Jane (Marisa Davila), Olivia (Cheyenne Isabel Wells), Nancy (Tricia Fukuhara), and Cynthia (Ari Notartomaso). Each one of the girls has their own reasons for getting together, and somewhat accidentally, forming a girl gang.
The first episode sees Jane slut-shamed by most of the students at Rydell High for a false rumour perpetrated by the popular kids. When she decides to run against her popular ex-boyfriend for student class president, Jane finds her campaign backed by the other three ladies. Olivia is fed up with being over-sexualized for simply existing after ending an affair she had with a teacher where she is painted as the bad guy.
Nancy and Cynthia are two characters who have been shunned from their friends; the former doesn’t find boys to be as fun as her old friends think, and the latter is booted from hanging out with the T-Birds due to her gender. Jane’s campaign exclaims that she will make “Rydell fun for everyone” and the three other ladies back her in this, quickly joining her cause in a time when she needs them most.
The show offers a complex look into gender, class, race, and much more. I understand many were against the idea of the Pink Ladies origin story, but personally, I’m a fan of how the show handles it. The Pink Ladies origin as an act of sisterhood and defiance works perfectly as their introduction. Through the shared plight of teenage girlhood, these four strangers become fast friends. As their relationship deepens, their common struggle lets them accept and embrace their various differences and dynamics. At no point is anything (so far) a deal breaker for them.
Could things be improved in places? Of course. The show is still finding its footing at times. Too often the plot is driven by outgroups who swing wildly from love to hate of the girl gang. Episode-contained conflicts that worked well in a time before streaming can feel immediately repetitive once binged. The student body could, as a whole, slowly come around to the Pink Ladies in an organic season-wide arc, but the viewer instead needs to see the gang’s peers yo-yo every episode. Despite this, the storytelling remains one of the show’s strengths.
Eva Davey is a UFV student majoring in English Literature and minoring in Media Communications. She is a fan of poetry, oat milk lattes, and the final girl trope. Currently, her worst enemy is the Good Reads app.
