Hellcats Preview: Putting A Little Glee Into Cheerleading

Last year Fox unleashed a show in America that ended up taking it by storm and like all pop cultural phenomena, imitators are not far behind. Glee was (and will continue to be) an enormous sensation and it appears that The CW hopes to tap into and repeat that success with their new series, Hellcats. I recently got the chance to check out a sneak peak of the pilot and I’m sorry to report that based on what I saw I don’t think they should be clearing any space on the shelves for awards because Hellcats ain’t Glee. In fact, it’s not even close.

Hellcats takes us into the competitive world of college cheerleading at a small university in Memphis, Tennessee. At the outset we meet Marti Perkins (Alyson Michalka of the pop group Aly & AJ), a feisty law student who likes to ride around on her bike and make fun of cheerleaders with her incredibly hot friend, Dan (Matt Barr) who is clearly in love with her but should probably just settle for me. I’m just saying.

Marti makes it abundantly clear right away that she is a bit of a boisterous rebel but her bravado takes a bit of a hit when she realizes that her trainwreck mom (Gail O’Grady of NYPD Blue fame) who works at the university pub hasn’t been paying the bills and a loophole is costing her the scholarship that she depends on to stay in school. It was at this point, about six minutes into the show, that I completely mapped out the plot and found myself 100% correct as it played out. You’ve also probably assumed from what little I’ve told you that Marti must now find a way to stay in school and thus learns that you can earn a scholarship for being on the cheerleading team, The Hellcats, and what a coincidence – there is an opening on the team and tryouts are tomorrow!!

So in true everything you’ve ever seen before ever fashion, Marti practices for tryouts by dancing on her couch at home, acts like a rebel at tryouts by doing her own thing, impresses almost everyone and is chosen to join the squad! And before you can say “cliche,” she packs up her bags and moves into Cheertown where she must share a room with Savannah (Ashley Tisdale) whom she initially hates but turns out to be super sweet if not a little anal retentive and disturbingly positive.

This would not be a cheerleading show though, without a good old-fashioned bitch and it comes in the form of Alice played by Heather Hemmens. Alice has her pom poms twisted because she was injured in a recent practice and is being replaced temporarily by Marti who is already turning heads with her skills. Things are even worse for Alice when she learns that her male cheerleader partner/love interest, Lewis (Robbie Jones) has the hots for Marti. In just the pilot we see hints at Alice meddling to ruin Marti’s success so I imagine if the series survives they will have a rivalry to end all rivalries.

The pilot episode hints at a lot of potential storylines including Marti’s strained relationship with her mom, the team losing funding if they don’t make it to regionals (cough, Glee, cough!), and Dan getting jealous of Marti’s relationships on the team though someone should tell him that I’ll gladly comfort him when that hussy breaks his heart. In all, I’m not sure I saw enough potential for originality to make this show worth watching for an extended period of time. Sure, the dance routines are fun and the show is jam-packed with pop music (sometimes curiously unsuitable for the scene in question) but it needs to find its own rhythm if it hopes to distinguish itself from Fox’s juggernaut series that obviously inspired many aspects of this show’s creation. Hellcats isn’t a bad show by any means, but it just isn’t memorable either so I don’t foresee it sticking around long. Then again, it’s for The CW. For all I know it could be on for the next five years or more. Just don’t ask me to watch. Well…maybe I’ll watch the Dan scenes…maybe.

I will definitely watch the Dan scenes.

Please, please, please, Hellcats, don’t get cancelled!

I think I just hit rock bottom. Check out the show (and Dan) for yourself and let me know what you think!

Hellcats premieres tonight, September 8, at 9/8c on The CW.

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Photographs courtesy of The CW, Jack Rowland, Sergei Bachlakov, and Andrew Eccles.