Many viewers feel the final season addressed several issues with E.J.'s character, despite his limited screen time. He notes the mistakes he made in the previous seasons and how they landed him where he is now, he encourages his friends and family to work on their own issues, ends things with Gina on a more positive note, and in general becomes more of a mentor figure to everyone.
Miss Jenn is a lot more considerate of her students' feelings in season four as well, definitely beating the concerns that she was just trying to live vicariously through them. It was also appreciated when Miss Jenn broke up with Ricky's dad, since the relationship didn't get a lot of attention and many people noted she had more chemistry with Mr. Mazzara (who she gets together with in the series finale).
Fans of Ricky think he's a young man who's finally trying to come into his own and find where he belongs in the world, despite making several bad choices along the way. Those who dislike him think he's an uncaring boyfriend, a girlfriend stealer, or both, and that he's handed the lead role of every show without trying very hard. His feelings for Gina tend for form the crux of it: either he was specifically toying with her during season two and three or simply didn't know where his true feelings lay. However, from the peek of the first draft of the script that Tim Federle posted, it can be said that he did know how he felt about Gina in season 2; he was just trying to stay loyal to Nini.
Nini's fans see her as a driven young girl who's willing to pursue her passions despite personal sacrifices. Those who dislike her tend to paint her as controlling and willing to drop those who care about her without a second thought.
Fans of Gina think she's an ambitious young girl who hasn't had a very stable home life. They empathize with everything she's been through: from her having to move away a lot since she was a kid, especially just as she was making some friends in the drama club, to her having what were thought to be unrequited feelings for Ricky to her boyfriend at the time (E.J.) not keeping his promises to her. Her fans just want her to be happy. Those who dislike her think of her as an obstacle to Ricky and Nini's Happily Ever After, a person who is mean to everyone, and a disloyal girlfriend to E.J. (especially since she and Ricky were spending a lot of time together at camp).
E.J.'s fans see him as this guy who has grown from his Anti-Hero persona from season 1. They appreciate how he has grown into a character who actually cares about others' feelings and is just trying his best, and they feel bad for him because of how his dad treats him. However, those who dislike him paint him as this grown man who should be at college already, even though he still doesn't know what he's going to do with his life. But him avoiding that problem of his was not helping his case.
Miss Jenn is either a very kind teacher who's trying her best to foster the kids' creativity in a world that can be hostile towards that, or is an abusive authority figure who belittles her students when they don't follow direction and is trying to live out her glory days through them. General consensus is that she grows out of this at the end of season 2 when she realizes how bad she's been.
A lot of Rini (Ricky/Nini) shippers didn't like Gina for being a Romantic False Lead for Ricky, but cooled off when her romantic arc with E.J. started...but turned on her again when she seemed to be leaning towards Ricky again in season three.
Rina (Ricky/Gina) fans hated on Nini for letting Ricky go so easily and claimed they had no chemistry. They disliked how E.J. seemed to only function as Gina's love interest in the second season, how he did not keep any of his promises to her in season 3, and doubted the relationship would last. And it didn't
Portwell (E.J./Gina) fans started hating on Ricky as soon as it was revealed that he had feelings for Gina - and it only intensified when Ricky and Gina kissed in the season 3 finale. Not to mention the fact that some of them also started hating on Gina after that.
Due to his role as Sharpay in the first season, many fans and fanworks interpret Seb as varying forms of nonbinary or genderqueer.
Many fans agree that if Big Red is bi like his actor, then his Closet Key is Ricky. The first part of this turned out to be true, since Big Red came out as bi in the season 3 finale.
Friendly Fandoms: With Andi Mack. In fact, a lot of the show's fans are coming from the Andi Mack fandom, in part thanks to Sofia Wylie playing a lead character in both shows. It helps that this is the first Disney property to follow that show’s lead in featuring openly gay characters.note A Disney+ sitcom with four prominent gay characters was scrapped with no explanation, raising worries that they were totally backtracking on representation until this show arrived.
Gotta Ship 'Em All: There are many ships in the fandom. Notable ones are: Ricky/Gina (Rina), Ricky/Nini (Rini), E.J./Nini, E.J./Gina (Portwell), Gina/Nini (Gini), E.J./Ricky (Caswen), Carlos/Seb (Seblos), Carlos/E.J., Nini/Ashlyn, Gina/Ashlyn, Seb/Ricky, Big Red/Ashlyn (Redlyn), Big Red/Ricky (Redky), Ashlyn/Maddox, Jet/Ricky, and many more.
In Episode 4 after EJ and Nini get into a major fight, they have to block a scene together, and when they’re too awkward around each other Miss Jenn says they’re blocking a romantic scene, not a SARS epidemic. Later that year...
The entire "I love you" scene in the season finale becomes hard to watch after Olivia Rodrigo released her song "driver's license," which is theorized to be about her relationship with Joshua Bassett.
A joke in the fourth season has Miss Jenn mention she's "willing to scab" by being part of the student's production of HSM 3. This season came out deep within the strikes of both WGA and SAG-AFTRA in 2023, and many involved were vocally urging prospective writers and actors not to scab for AMPTP studios.
Ho Yay: In season 3, Ricky expresses interest in playing the male leads with EJ with the immortal line "Those guys. There's two of them. They're friends, enemies... lovers?" with an Aside Glance.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many people feel that E.J.'s pontential was squandered over the course of the show. In the first season he's clearly Nini's Romantic False Lead so there's not much to do. He starts to branch out in season two when he's rejected from Duke University and tries to find a new goal, but the second half of the season is taken over by his and Gina's growing attraction to each other. When they get together in the finale many fans hoped he'd be able to finally get his own stories, and to a degree he does because he spends the season trying to put on the perfect play to impress his dad. But by the season's end many viewers felt it got too caught up in his and Gina's clearly failing relationship to focus on his development as his own person.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Related to those who think E.J.'s character never really went anywhere, there are those who think the buildup to him and Gina becoming a couple was a waste because by the time we see them together they're immediately forced apart by circumstance and spend the entire season growing apart from each other. While some say that it's clear that they never would have worked, others argue that the only reason it seems that way is because they were never shown as a normal couple - only ever the buildup and the breakup.
Ship Mates: Because the four leads are also part of the most popular pairings, it makes sense that their various combinations would fall like this. If someone ships Ricky/Nini, they probably ship E.J./Gina too; and if somebody ships Ricky/E.J. they probably ship Nini/Gina as well. The one exception was those who ship Ricky/Gina, since the E.J./Nini ship was never taken seriously - any fan works featuring this ship usually have E.J. and Nini Put on a Bus due to graduating or pursuing a music career respectively. After the season 3 finale aired, however, there have been Ricky/Gina fans who started coming out as E.J./Nini shippers, but most of them see the two coming back to each other as adults.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: As soon as Ricky and Gina started sharing a lot of screentime, and Gina confirmed that she was willing to pursue Ricky in the first season finale, the Ricky/Nini and Ricky/Gina camps started battling it out. But the real game-changer was when Gina and E.J. began their romance arc, as the Portwell fans numbered just as many as the Rina shippers and neither of them wanted to back down.A majority of the posts regarding the show in the year between seasons two and three composed of one faction calling the other some degree of toxic or delusional for thinking their ship was superior. Naturally, when the season 3 trailer implied that Ricky was going to pursue Gina despite her being with E.J. at the end of the previous season, shippers on both sides lost it. And after the finale, Portwell and Rini shippers doubled down on their animosity towards Rina shippers on social media.
The show is meant to be one to the movies rather than an actual continuation.
"Something in the Air", the song that opens the second season, is one to "What Time is it?" from High School Musical 2. The latter was all about celebrating summer break, and the former is about celebrating winter break.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The show isn't entirely as kid-friendly as the film it's based on. There is mild swearing throughout the series (including some bleeped words), and the series is much more focused on teens falling in and out of relationships with one another than the films were.
The Woobie: Poor E.J. His girlfriend dumps him for her ex, he misses out on the lead role in his senior year, he doesn't get into his dream college, he's forced to direct a musical that will be recorded for Disney+, he's so overworked that he can't spend his last summer before adulthood with his new girlfriend and his friends, his next girlfriend dumps him for his last girlfriend's ex, and his father is trying to ship him off to a success school instead of letting him have a proper gap year.
Also doubles as a shoutout to Olivia's debut work, Grace Stirs Up Success.