In this op-ed, writer Rehana Nurmahi discusses how High School Musical: The Musical: The Series portrays teen relationships and how the show's final season brings its legacy full circle.
Since its premiere in 2019, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series has delivered a teen show with buckets of heart, show-stopping musical numbers, and captured lightning in a bottle with a cast that includes Grammy-winning pop stars and Tony Award nominees.
As its final season hits Disney+, graduation looms for our Wildcats. While HSMTMTS delves into various aspects of teen life, its relationships, platonic and romantic, have always been the beating heart of the show. It was frustrating at times to watch the main characters zig-zagging between love interests, but the constant inclusion of love triangles has often been credited to showrunner Tim Federle’s love of classic teen shows like Dawson’s Creek. Even today, other teen dramas such as Never Have I Ever and The Summer I Turned Pretty hinge on the inclusion of a choice in suitors. While the trope is often used to create drama, the core romances on HSMTMTS also demonstrate the breadth and depth of the relationships that shape our teen years and the young adults we eventually become. Whether you ship Rini, Portwell, EJini, or Rina, (or more than one), each of these core dynamics are vital in showing what it looks like to grow and change in relationships.
Throughout the show’s first two seasons, Ricky (played by Joshua Bassett) and Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) demonstrated the intensity of first love. These characters had known each other essentially forever, and their intimate knowledge of each other — even when they weren’t on the same page — was clear. Their gradual drifting exhibited the hard truth that sometimes, growing up means naturally growing apart. The love the pair had for each other became nostalgic, as they represent each other’s childhoods and the kids they used to be. At the end of season 3, Ricky opens a birthday card from Nini to see that she has gifted him with the lottery ticket needed to complete his 18-year-old bucket list. This moment highlights the bittersweet tenderness of people who may not be in our lives anymore, but still know us better than anyone else. It's a moment that rings true for many who no longer speak to their high school friends or exes.
Contrarily, E.J. (Matt Cornett) functioned both for Nini and Gina (Sofia Wylie) as the person who shows up when life is hard and reminds you how to smile. Ricky couldn’t tell Nini he loved her, but E.J, was able to both say it and show it (even though giving someone food poisoning to get his girlfriend a lead role was a bit… much). With Gina, E.J. again proved that he will go the extra mile for the people he loves: who doesn’t want to be rescued when stranded at an airport? E.J. didn’t always get things right, but he always tried. The conversation between E.J. and Gina in the series finale also shows that sometimes it takes being in a new relationship to acknowledge and apologize for past mistakes. While some have seen E.J.’s relationships with Nini and Gina as rebounds, the show still treated them with compassion, showing how powerfully healing the right person at the right time — even just for a short time — can be.
Ricky and Gina have the most complex relationship arc throughout the series. Initially, their flirty friendship demonstrated the joys of finding a meaningful connection with someone who makes you feel seen and understood. By season 2, Gina’s storyline reflects another staple of teen life: unrequited crushes. As hard as it is to watch Gina go through this, Sofia Wylie perfectly captures that feeling of wanting that person you just can’t have. The process of healing and reconciling that followed, shows two people who get to have a second chance.
As we enter season 4, the pair are “disgustingly in love,” even if they initially keep their relationship a secret. Their duet, “Maybe This Time,” sees the couple reminiscing on key moments in their relationship that they could have done differently, and you can see the joy in the fact they now have that chance; their actions in the following episodes follow that line of thought, culminating in the finale song “Love You Forever.” In season 2, Gina tells Ricky that there are some things she told him that she hasn't told anyone else, to which he replies, “I think we do that for each other.” This sense of being each other’s confidante, and just each other’s person, is clear once they are dating; there is a casual intimacy between them, seen in their small physical touches, the way they flow together in “Can I Have This Dance,” and how healthily they are able to communicate with each other. Some revelations late in season 4 show us that this pair have been entwined from the very beginning of Gina’s time at East High.
Romances like Seb and Carlos (Joe Serafini and Frankie Rodriguez), showed the joy of queer love between teenagers. In the same vein of shows like Heartstopper, HSMTMTS also isn't afraid to show the harder parts of love, too, even though Seb and Carlos are more settled in their queer identities than Nick Nelson. Big Red (Larry Saperstein) and Ashlyn (Julia Lester) start as a seemingly heteronormative couple, but each tread their own journey of self-actualization to discover their sexualities. There are certainly some missteps on the way, but the show is able to end with both of them confident in who they are and who they love, with Ashlyn entering a relationship with Maddox.
However, the show recognizes that while romance can seem like it dominates teen life, it isn’t everything. The platonic relationships in the series are also given great care; from the lifelong friendships between Ricky and Big Red and Nini and Kourtney (Dara Reneé), to the newly formed sisterhood between Kourtney, Gina, and Ashlyn, these friendships, and the collective bond these theater kids have, are absolutely the thing that got them through each day. From the theater kids joining Carlos on the dance floor at homecoming when they thought Seb stood him up in season 1, to the girls rallying around Kourtney to sing affirmations over her when her anxiety flares up in season 3, they really are all in this together.
The show also puts a spotlight on nuanced relationships between the teens and the adult figures in their lives. We see the difficulty of living up to parental expectations through E.J.’s relationship with his dad; Ricky’s relationships with his parents after their split are, realistically, quite rocky, yet still loving. It's clear to see how much he loved them, even when they let him down. Mr. Mazzara (Mark St Cyr) and Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) both have various levels of closeness with the East High students, but for each of them, they are figureheads of comfort, wisdom, and inspiration — we all had, or at least, wanted, one teacher like them.
High School Musical: The Musical the Series was fantastical and larger than life, but the true-to-life relationships between the ensemble of characters are what grounded the show throughout its run. Many feel a deep attachment to these characters, and a lot of that has to do with how they helped real teenagers feel seen, and how their relationships mirror those with our own friends and family. Whether you have a sisterhood that has survived the many transitions of adolescence like Kourtney and Nini, sought advice from a Miss Jenn, or are still waiting for your second chance with that one former spark like Rina, HSMTMTS shows the joy of all forms of young love.
