During the four years High School Musical: The Series (we’ll abbreviate it as HSMTS), about two million people watched it every week on Disney+. Even now, when the series is out of production, hundreds of thousands of people every week stream it on their Disney+ Hotstar Bundle on Hulu, on Amazon Video, on Vudu, and on Roku.
Critics loved HSMTS, too. Kelly Lawler of USA Today called it a love letter to high school theater productions. Shannon Miller of The A. V. Club praised the entire cast’s musical ability, and /Film’s Ethan Anderton praised the series for its calmer, more thoughtful presentation of the characters in the 2006 film that inspired it.
But what is it that keeps te fans coming back?
We don’t really know, but here are some things we hear about HSMTS over and over again.
High School Musical: The Series Is a Show Families Can Watch Together
HSMTS doesn’t contain scenes of drug use, drinking, smoking, cannabis, or sex. There is a lot of romance, and the show is positive about LGBTQ identity (see our next point), but the show is mild enough that neither young people nor mature adults need to be embarrassed about watching it on the same sofa.
That doesn’t mean that all the characters are saints. There are elements of backstabbing, betrayal, and using people in the plotline of the show. But the show is primarily an escape into a fantasy world that young people would love for their schools to be.
HSMTS Affirms Queer Identities
There were a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-them LGBTQ characters in Disney productions before HSMTS, including Beauty and the Beast, Cruella, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. None of these characters was key to the story, and LGBTQ fans of Disney films felt left out.
Producer Tim Federle changed all that with the love song between Carlos (Frankie A. Rodriguez) and Seb (Joe Serafini). Unlike the gay characters on other shows for teens that are ostracized or marginalized, Carlos and Seb get a chance for their relationship to grow into a cute, loving couple. For many young viewers, this was the first time they had a chance to see actors portraying people like themselves. HSMTS was a series in which LGBTQ characters get to shine for viewers who come from a generation in which LGBTQ people get to shine.
The Music on HSMTS Is Still Unmatched on Streaming TV
The lasting popularity of the music on HSMTS is proven by Spotify statistics that show it is mostly downloaded by people who are not in high school anymore. Just how much the show’s music has been downloaded?
The character Nini, played by Olivia Rodrigo, found the courage to write her own songs. In real life, she wrote “All I Want” for the show. The one song has 570 million downloads. Rodrigo’s success with her song on HSMTS led to her worldwide adulation for her other original works.
