A new Paramount+ series designed as a prequel to the classic film “Grease” debuted this week, and according to critics, it’s “woke” beyond repair.

Just how “woke” is “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies”? It features a song, “In The Club,” that’s about the alleged threat of white supremacy, according to the Daily Mail.

“[T]he [relevant] episode will include a musical number … in which rich white country club founders are animated out of an oil painting to sing about white supremacy,” the Daily Mail reported Thursday.

The lyrics to the song reportedly read as follows: “When you’re in the club, we’ve got each other’s backs. As long as you’re not Jewish, Asian, brown or black, single woman or gay, on the wrong side of they.”

See a trailer of the show below:

But it gets worse.

One of the show’s four main characters, Cynthia, is a “non-binary” tomboy. Another is Asian. A third is Puerto Rican. The fourth is Mexican. Remember, the show is supposed to depict the 1950s in the United States.

Not shockingly, the so-called “non-binary” character is played by a “non-binary” actress, Ari Notartomaso.

“Queerness, gender nonconformity and transness throughout time hasn’t always been exactly the same. All of us are a product of the culture that we live in, but it is really special to be able to tell that story of what it may have been like in the 1950s,” she said in an interview with UPI.

To be clear, the idea of so-called “non-binary” didn’t even exist back then in mainstream American culture.

The new reboot also tackles feminism and the so-called “patriarchy.”

At one point in the show, the Puerto Rican character Jane’s boyfriend spreads rumors that they slept together. The rumors led to him being praised and her being condemned.

“One of the Rydell girls fueling the rumor mill against Jane is Susan (Madison Thompson). Thompson said Susan is a product of the ‘50s patriarchy, but will reveal more complex motivations as the series goes on,” according to UPI.

“She has a lot to learn from the Pink Ladies and the change that they’re bringing to Rydell. But I think the Pink Ladies could learn a thing or two from her too,” Thompson said of her character.

Critics do not care for all these “woke” additions to the show. For example, look at how Twitter users responded when The New York Times tried promoting the show:

I’d rather watch my own autopsy

— Bergsauce fka klaus_kinski (@klaus_kinski) April 4, 2023

So basically they are trying to woke the 50s?

— Stefon Rogers (@stefonrogers) April 4, 2023

Rewriting history in the name of diversity is lame.

— Never thought I’d see the day. Haven’t actually (@Don_Keys_) April 4, 2023

First, whoever is the costume designer should be fired. Second, who in their right mind would want to watch this?

— Velcra (@Velcra1959) April 4, 2023

Hollywood:

Hey this movie was wildly successful! How about we create a spin-off removing everything that made it wildly successful?

— (@txsalth2o) April 4, 2023

How could a prequel to Grease set in the 1950s be “more diverse”? When this fails – and it will fall – maybe it’s the producers who need to be a little more “self-aware” about handling a franchise they didn’t create?

— Safe Spaces | Commentary+ (@real_safespaces) April 4, 2023

But perhaps the most amazing thing about “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” is that most of the media don’t seem to like it either, albeit for different reasons.

“‘Pink Ladies’ … is such a mighty morass of bad ideas that it’s hard to keep it all straight. And yet, in spite of each episode being overpacked with characters, bad musical numbers and prosaic dialogue, the series is entirely lacking in substance behind all the over-exaggerated style,” one brutal review from USA Today reads.

“A pointless prequel to the 1978 classic ‘Grease,’ it is the worst kind of offender in Hollywood’s obsession with franchising existing stories: too much and too little, all at once,” the review continues.

Even The Guardian, a far-left paper, has decried the show as “the TV prequel nobody asked for”:

Even the show’s chief orchestrator, TV writer and showrunner Annabel Oakes reportedly had issues with the show — though the issues clearly didn’t prevent her from ultimately moving forward with the gig.

“All I knew is the studio wanted to do some sort of reboot of Grease, and I was not on board. The email, I remember I was visiting friends in D.C. when I got the email. I said, ‘Grease? No! Grease is perfect.’ And I really meant it,” she told The Daily Beast.

“Like, I did not want any part of this. I was like, ‘What a sick, sad money-grab from a major studio exploiting their IP.’ I could not have been more [motivated to be] typing on Deadline, ‘Does Hollywood have no new ideas?’ I went 100 percent there,” she added.

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Vivek Saxena

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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