It's Glee meets Bring It On in a college soap opera that doesn't break any new TV ground, but does what it sets out to do in reasonably entertaining fashion.
Marti (Aly Michalka) is working hard to put herself through law school at Lancer University when she suddenly loses her scholarship. She's wading through the bizarre scholarship options -- nope, not a Klingon speaker -- when she learns that members of Lancer's cheerleading squad get full scholarships. Fortunately, Marti just happens to have been a top-notch gymnast in high-school (and has a wonderfully dramatic story about why she gave it up), so despite her contempt for the sport, she tries out for the Hellcats, lands a spot, and moves into the cheerleaders' dorm.
Her roommate is Savannah (Ashley Tisdale), the squad captain, and her principal enemy is Alice (Heather Hemmens), whose injury has given Marti her spot on the team in the first place. There's a potential romantic interest in Lewis (Robbie Jones, who I insist must be given at least one shirtless scene in each episode), who just happens to be Alice's ex. And of course, Marti has a best friend who secretly longs to be more but never says anything about it.
There's also a potential love triangle among the adults -- the cheerleading coach (Sharon Leal), her boyfriend/team doctor (D.B. Woodside), and Lancer's new football coach (Jeff Hephner) -- and Marti's white-trash mom (Gail Grady, hamming up the southern accent far more than anyone else in the cast), of whom Marti is secretly ashamed.
You can count on at least one or two cheerleading/dance routines every episode, and they're fun to watch. I'm pretty sure that you can also expect the soap opera elements of the show to be ramped up to full speed very quickly (Alice proves just how bitchy she's willing to be to ruin Marti by the end of the first episode). None of the actors here are in any danger of finding themselves on the Emmy lists next year, though the veteran adults are efficient and professional, and Grady has the potential to provide entertaining comic relief as she embarrasses Marti in various ways.
And even if Michalka and Tisdale aren't the finest of actresses, their roles don't really require Lady Macbeth-level subtlety, and they bring great energy and likability to the screen. I don't think this is likely to be a show that I watch regularly, but then I'm not a 16-year-old girl, so I'm not exactly in the target audience. For those who are, Hellcats is a perfectly adequate piece of entertainment, well crafted and a solid fit with the CW brand. It is, as they say, the sort of thing that people who like this sort of thing will like very much indeed.
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