Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is a 2023 musical series and prequel to the classic musical Grease, telling the story of how the Pink Ladies were founded. It follows four girls, Jane, Olivia, Nancy and Cynthia, as they try to have fun, rebel against restrictive conventions and find their place at Rydell High.
Paramount+ ran the series from April to June of 2023, before announcing it was cancelled after one season. They also removed the show from the service that same month. However, Paramount later sold digital copies and DVDs as official alternatives.
This series contains the tropes:
- Alpha Bitch: Susan St. Clair in spades. She is given more depth than usual, however, being shown forced into the role by her mother, cracking under the pressure and slipping in and out of it, even trying to cooperate with the Pink Ladies at one point.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Assistant Principal McGee to Principal Nicholson.
- Big Sister Worship: Fran to Jane towards the end of the series.
- Call-Forward: Has numerous to the original film, notably with a toothpaste ad, mooning, and Fran and Betty (better known as Frenchie and Rizzo) wanting to be Pink Ladies.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: A variation in that the Frankie Valli original gets redone diagetically in the first episode.
- The '50s: Begins in the fall of 1954, four years before the original film.
- Fake Shemp: One of the major actors left the show partway through, with his remaining scenes handled using a body double, with the actor’s face photoshopped on top.
- Greaser Delinquents: Wouldn't be a Grease prequel without the T-Birds.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: A big reason why the Pink Ladies are founded. Only Cynthia is shown to actually have friends, but even she feels alienated from them, due to her gender.
- Laxative Prank: Done by the Ladies to some of the school jocks as payback for them spiking the punch with alcohol.
- Love Dodecahedron: Jane is torn between Richie, and Buddy, who is into also interested in Hazel, who likes him back, but is dating Buddy's friend, Wally. Meanwhile, Buddy's ex, Susan, still wants him back. Meanwhile Olivia is torn between Gil and Mr. Daniels, while the latter is enganged to another woman. On top of that various characters have fleeting attractions to each other, or flirted with each other, including Susan and Richie.
- Mooning: Fitting, for a Grease prequel. Done twice in the pilot. Almost happens again in the season 1 finale.
- Moral Guardians: The PTA when trying to veto having rock and roll at the school dance.
- No Smoking: While almost everyone in the original film smoked like chimneys, this notably has only two instances of smoking, and both are of marijuana.
- Politically Correct History: Played With in that there's not a lot made of Hazel being a black woman playing Juliet in the school play (it is shown to be some kind of commotion for the kiss, but it's not elaborated on); but, Nancy's time in a Japanese internment camp in World War II is mentioned. Hazel and Wally are both seen as somewhat outcasts still though. When they start dating Hazel also points out how people around them are not-so-subtly saying that they should be together since they are both black.
- Red Scare: Given this is the height of McCarthyism, being accused of being a communist is not taken as a light statement. To the point that even the color pink is used against the girls to insinuate communist simpathies.
- Slut-Shaming: A common theme. Jane and Olivia are hit especially hard by this. Later on, Susan finds it backfiring agains her.
- Sneaking Out at Night: Done to such a degree they may as well just go in each other's front doors given how oblivious their parents are.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Olivia and Mr. Daniels had a fling the year before, and while she wants to continue it initially, he's engaged to another.
- Teen Rebellion: What the adults of the series seem to fear.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Notably features younger versions of Assistant Principal McGee, Frenchie, and Rizzo from the original movie.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Richie spends most of his time trying to make his dad happy.
