REVIEW: ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Season 2, Episode 2 – “Typecasting”

Season 2 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series continues with its second episode, “Typecasting.” In last week’s episode, the Wildcats all gather at Ashlyn’s (Julia Lester) for a New Years Eve party. Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) struggles with telling Ricky (Joshua Bassett) that she is moving to Denver and ultimately blurts it out at the party. Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) announces that the cast will be competing for a prestigious art award after an awkward run-in with her former boyfriend. Rather than having High School Musical 2 as the spring musical, Miss Jenn announces that the next musical they’ll be performing is Beauty and the Beast.

In “Typecasting,” Nini is struggling to adjust to a brand new environment that doesn’t allow as much creative freedom as she’s used to. Back at East High, the Wildcats prepare for the two-part audition process. Gina (Sofia Wylie) brings out her competitive side, which leads her to have a bit of conflict with Ashlyn. New girl Lily (Olivia Rose Keegan) decides to audition for the lead, which motivates Gina to make a bigger impact on her own. Big Red (Larry Saperstein), Carlos (Frankie A. Rodriguez), and Kourtney (Dara Renee) take a break from working behind-the-scenes and decide to audition for the play as well.

With “Typecasting” focusing primarily on auditions, it’s not surprising that the episode would be full of musical numbers. Whether it was the big group number or the individual performances, there was never a disappointing moment. Stand-out performances from Ashlyn, Gina, Kourtney, and Lily will serve as a reminder to fans of the star power in this show. The big performance, which was a song from Beauty and the Beast, showed the chemistry that the cast has together while singing. If these performances are a sign of what’s to come, fans should be excited about future performances from this cast.

The B-plot of “Typecasting” followed Nini as she struggled to adjust to the environment at her new school. Having her creative ideas limited to follow a school-approved curriculum will surely be quite the struggle for someone like Nini. She’s so passionate about her acting and singing, but being limited at a school that’s supposed to be about acting and singing was surely not what she was expecting. However, the possibilities in terms of where this story could be taken are very predictable. By the end of the season, she will either have moved back to East High or found a way to deal with her new school. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles her storyline this season.

Speaking of predictability, Lily showing up for the audition in “Typecasting” wasn’t as surprising as the episode progressed. From the moment she appeared, she’s automatically placed in an antagonistic role. However, she showed her true colors by the end of the episode and it wasn’t that surprising. Without going into spoilers, Lily looks to be having a much bigger role that will have negative affects on the Wildcats’ production of Beauty and the Beast. It just would have been better had the show teased her true intentions rather than revealed them in the second episode of the season. It sets up the dynamic where the audience knows something that the characters don’t, which can often take any real suspense or tension from the plot.

Ultimately, “Typecasting” was a strong continuation to HSMTMTS Season 2 due to the musical performances and the potential storylines for Nini and Lily. Unfortunately, the storylines for both of these characters are quite predictable, which could do more harm than good in terms of the show as a whole. However, fans should remain optimistic about the possibilities of where the show could take these storylines and the musical performances. HSMTMTS Season 2 has had two strong opening episodes, which shouldn’t be that surprising because of how popular the first season was. Plus, fans of Olivia Rodrigo who have been streaming her debut album, “SOUR” all day can get an extra dose of her excellence in today’s episode.

HSMTMTS Season 2 is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes airing Fridays.