Are Young Adult Made-For-TV Musicals Still Effective? –

High School Musical was released in 2006 when I was about sixteen years old, so I was definitely in the key demographic the movie musical was targeting. It was made for TV, premiered on Disney channel, and went on to achieve unrivaled success, so much so that other musicals were created in the same vein to reap the same benefits. Camp Rock came after High School Musical, and Nickelodeon jumped onto the bandwagon as well with Spectacular in 2009.

All these films employ a similar formula: the young men are good looking and popular, and the young women are beautiful, innocent, and have this sense of perfection tied to them. There are deviations of course, since Nolan Gerard Funk’s Nikko is more rebel rockstar than Zac Efron’s popular jock archetype, and Demi Lovato’s Mitchie Torres does lie about her background in order to impress, but ultimately all these TV musicals aimed to emulate High School Musical as closely as possible.

Recently, Netflix released a young adult musical called A Week Away, which ties concepts from all three aforementioned TV musicals. Our protagonist Will Hawkins has quite the stint of bad behaviour, which includes vandalism and stealing a cop car (thus the classic rebel boy), and now, the only choices that remain is either juvie or church camp (à la Camp Rock). Yes, you heard me right – church camp. A Week Away is a faith-based musical. The way this manifests is in the music, which are pop hymns that laud and celebrate God.

Will reluctantly chooses church camp, though he has a getaway plan just in case things go sideways. Much like how Troy Bolton had Chad (Corbin Bleu), Will has fellow partner-in-crime George (Jahbril Cook), and the pair become inseparable. Will also finds himself attracted to Avery (Bailee Madison), who is the daughter of the camp organiser, and feels conflicted in pursuing the romantic feelings he has for her because she’s so perfect. He even tells her this to her face.

While she doesn’t like being described as such since she is far from perfection, the movie however does present her in that light. Much like Vanessa Hudgens’ Gabriella, who is beautiful, incredibly smart and musically talented, Avery is very much the same. Where are the flaws? These young women are put on pedestals for these young men to adore. It is the male protagonists who are flawed: Troy lies to his team and plays down his affection for Gabriella, while Will lies about his past because he doesn’t want her to know about his wrongdoings. It sets unrealistic expectations for young girls, who feel that this is an ideal they need to strive towards, while the men get to have their struggle and conflict.

Kenny Ortega, who directed all the High School Musical movies, swaps this dynamic around in his latest set of TV musicals titled Descendants. Now, the female protagonist Mal is the flawed one, while her love interest the prince is goodness personified – I mean, there is even a scene where they teach him to be bad. Yes this is on Disney and has to cater to children, but considering the progression in Disney’s animated storytelling, it’s a tad strange that their TV content still operates on such simplistic means of characterisation.

High School Musical was relatable in the sense that it preached similar themes of movies that came before, like The Breakfast Club, where you don’t have to be just one thing. Troy can be a jock and participate in musical theatre, and he doesn’t have to fall in love with someone on the same popularity scale. Though I have to say, in what world would Vanessa Hudgens not be popular? She may present as a geek, but there is absolutely no way that Troy would be the only one interested.

A Week Away’s focus is on community and belonging, something that many young people contend with. Ever since his parents passed away, Will has been angry at God, for taking them and leaving him behind, casting him adrift with nowhere to anchor himself. So yes, we can see why church camp would appeal, yet at the same time, Will does nothing to sabotage this. For someone with a record of bad behaviour, he is surprisingly accommodating and goes along with everything.

There isn’t a sense of real stakes, since his only mistake was to mask the reality of his past, which of course someone like Avery would understand and forgive. So at the end, when George and his mom invite him to come stay with them, and become his new foster family, it’s not something so wildly out of the box. He was so well behaved at camp, and even helped bring his camp tribe to victory.

So while the main message of the film isn’t exactly the same as High School Musical, they are similar enough, and considering that High School Musical was fifteen years ago, A Week Away does nothing in the way of reflecting the issues faced by young people today. It is sanitized and safe, and never gives these young people the required depth. Even the so-called antagonist doesn’t make any big moves, his biggest crime being his vanity and pride. Considering the TV shows we have now, like Euphoria and Sex Education, or even teen movies like To All the Boys I’ve Loved before, A Week Away feels dated an unoriginal.

The songs are catchy though, and people of the Christian faith will certainly enjoy singing along since it’s on Netflix and has subtitles. While the High School Musical formula is easy to emulate and aping it would thus make the film easy to market (many comments on the trailer on YouTube referred to this film as a faith-based High School Musical), we should start looking forward and root ourselves in the present, so that we can tell more authentic stories, and not just one that fits a formula.

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