High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season 3 hasn’t been great, and it’s now ruining one of its best main characters. It’s never surprising when a character’s storyline goes through changes as new seasons of a show progress. While it may be expected, it can be disappointing when a character begins to act too differently from when they were first introduced. This is now happening to one of the best characters and it not only affects the current season’s storyline, but it could set up something worse for HSMTMTS season 4.
From the beginning, HSMTMTS has seen its ups and downs when it comes to storytelling. The first season dealt with the usual problems teenagers deal with. Season 2 added a lot more drama to the fold. This season has added the most shake-ups yet, with many characters either not returning or being demoted to recurring like Olivia Rodrigo’s Nini. With the main setting taking place at a summer camp this time around, it has started to feel more like Camp Rock than High School Musical. Throughout the series, some character storylines have been botched, but Ricky Bowen’s character arc has arguably suffered the worst.
When Ricky Bowen (Joshua Bassett) was introduced in the first season, he was a very likable character dealing with a number of relatable issues. Two seasons later, and he’s become more of a laughingstock than a person that audiences can root for. High School Musical show’s season 4 cast will see major changes, and this could shake up many more character arcs. Thus far, Ricky Bowen has had one of the strongest arcs of the whole series, and it’s partially because he dealt with difficult, relatable problems, from a heart-wrenching breakup to his parents getting divorced. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season 3 has made Ricky downright unlikable, however. By the time he arrives at camp, he’s seemingly there to be awkward and indirectly cause problems with characters like EJ and Gina. Characters should grow and evolve, even backslide, but if they change too much, too quickly, they become unrecognizable. Unfortunately, Ricky is falling down that path very quickly this season.
How Ricky’s Storyline Could Change in Season 4
With just a few episodes left of High School Musical season 3, Ricky Bowen’s storyline is still somewhat unclear. In season 3, episode 5 “The Real Campers of Shallow Lake,” Ricky admits to Carlos that he has developed a crush on his former rival EJ’s girlfriend Gina. While they have been rather close throughout the series, Ricky’s best future High School Musical story may have been set up not only for this season, but also for the upcoming fourth season. With Nini out of the picture for now, it’s very likely a new relationship will form with a different character. This could be interesting in many ways because it could potentially set up a new dramatic storyline, or maybe Ricky’s sexuality could be explored. Joshua Bassett stated that he would “love” Ricky’s queerness to be explored. While that hasn’t happened yet, it could be a strong storyline for HSMTMTS season 4.
More than anything, Ricky Bowen deserves to be happy. While the High School Musical series works without movie connections, it might be beneficial to take some inspiration from the film trilogy and focus more on Ricky trying to find himself. He doesn’t have to act like a goofball or be involved in a love triangle in order to be an interesting character. Better character arcs in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series could solve this problem.
