Up Here Season 1 Review: Strong Chemistry Keeps Musical Rom-Com Afloat
If the sometimes painfully earnest emotion of musical theatre makes you cringe, then stop reading this review because Hulu’s musical rom-com series Up Here is not for you. If you’re ready to be charmed by a love story filled with songs, chemistry, and humor, then let’s discuss.
Up Here comes from a who’s who of musical theatre talent. It’s written by Steven Levenson (tick, tick.. BOOM!, Dear Evan Hansen) and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (The Carmichael Show) with songs from Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Frozen, WandaVision) and directed by Thomas Kail (Hamilton).
The story of two young people trying to find themselves and fight the expectations put on them is timeless if also a little cliche. Two strong leads make the show worth watching although it takes a few episodes for Up Here to find its footing.
Mae Whitman displays her comedic chops and singing ability as Lindsay, a repressed small-town girl who decides to break out and pursue her dreams of being a writer. Like many rom-com heroines before her, she realizes life and romance in the big city aren’t easy.
This kind of quirky, awkward leading lady role can easily go amiss when done poorly. Whitman knows when to turn up the character for laughs and when to tone it down to something more relatable.
Carlos Valdes plays Miguel, who trades in his artistic dreams in the hopes of achieving more lucrative success as a banker. Fans may know him best as the beloved supporting character Cisco Ramon on The Flash, but Up Here proves Valdes has all the charisma and talent needed to carry a show and not just make quips in the background.
On their own, Lindsay and Miguel’s stories are worthwhile but mundane. Together, they create a love story worth investing in that’s sold by the excellent chemistry between Whitman and Valdes.
What Lindsay and Miguel share, other than great singing voices, is a problem with the voices inside their heads. These voices are personified on screen by key characters from their pasts including Lindsay’s judgmental mother (Tony Award-winner Katie Finneran) and the guy Miguel’s almost-fiance cheated on him with (played by Scott Porter, having the time of his life playing an alpha male dirtbag).
Although sharing the same screenwriter as Tick, Tick, Boom…!, Up Here takes a more light-hearted approach with comedy and only occasionally dips its toes into serious topics such as the casual racism Miguel faces at work. This show isn’t trying to be the voice of a generation, just the voices, or voices inside the heads, of these characters.
The quirks of Miguel and Lindsay’s lives provide plenty of entertainment. Lindsay finds out her mother told her whole hometown she has Lyme disease-induced psychosis to try to save her reputation after she leaves her fiance.
Miguel’s finance bro colleagues constantly make things weird like when one tries to trick him into a sexual roleplay with a coworker’s fiance. A crossover with Ghosts‘ Trevor would not be out of place.
The story does become circuitous at times which is exacerbated by Hulu’s decision to release the entire 8 episode season at once. “Will they or won’t they?” only works so many times in the span of about 4 hours.
Aside from some Y2K jokes and a proliferation of frozen dinners, the 1999 setting doesn’t seem too integral to the story. Given current fashion trends it’s easy to go almost an entire episode without remembering it’s not the modern-day until a landline pops up.
For a musical, it does falter some with the songs. Ample wacky musical numbers take on a surrealist aspect (only one of which is fueled by magic mushrooms), but the heartfelt duets between Whitman and Valdes stand out the most. Every song is decently entertaining in the context of the scene, but none of them rise to the earworm level.
Part of the power of musicals is that the songs usually have the ability to take on a life of their own. After watching Up Here it’s unlikely you’ll be singing any of these tunes in the shower or listening to them over and over for weeks to come.
The show may excel more as a rom-com than a musical, but it gets a thumbs up for its effort. Up Here gives you a romance to root for even if it takes the protagonists a little while to figure out they’re rooting for it too.
What did you think of this season of Up Here? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Up Here is streaming now on Hulu.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.