TV Talk: 'Julie and the Phantoms' bursting with good vibes on Netflix

Director Kenny Ortega brings the pop-rock infectious energy of his “High School Musical” to the music-powered Netflix original series “Julie and the Phantoms.”

Now streaming, “Julie and the Phantoms” is a smaller show – smaller cast, fewer sets – but it’s bursting with good vibes and music that’s sure to satiate the tween/teen set and their parents who grew up on ‘90s pop/rock.

The story begins in 1995 as 17-year-old musicians Luke (Charlie Gillespie), Alex (Owen Patrick Joyner) and Reggie (Jeremy Shada) prepare to play their largest venue yet only to die after eating tainted hot dogs. Two decades pass in the blink of an eye in the celestial plane, something they discover upon reappearing in 2020 in the garage/music studio of high schooler Julie (Madison Reyes) who lost her passion for music after her mother’s death. Over time the quartet will form a new band, Julie and the Phantoms.

The show deals with the impact of Julie’s mom’s death on her family and there’s an ongoing story about the ghost teens re-integrating into the world of the living that somehow involves a top hat-sporting character played by Cheyenne Jackson.

Superior to a Disney Channel, three-camera sitcom, each episode features a couple of original tunes that should get toes tapping.

‘We Are Who We Are’

HBO seemed to discover teenagers in 2019’s “Euphoria” and the premium cable outlet, whose content also streams on HBO Max, looks to replicate that buzz with “We Are Who We Are” (10 p.m. Monday) from writer/director Luca Guadagnino, best known for the 2017 feature film “Call Me By Your Name.”

This time the setting is an American military base in Italy but the visuals remain sumptuous even as some characters prove largely unlikable. This is a fascinating show to observe and consider but it’s not always entertaining, enjoyable or logical. It’s not the first first #PeakTV show to embrace this fractured dynamic.

Early episodes focus on 14-year-old day-drinker Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer, CBS’s “Me, Myself & I”), who moves from New York to the base with his military commander mom, Sarah (Chloe Sevigny, playing another cold, aloof character), and her wife, Maggie (Alice Braga).

Fraser and Sarah have an odd relationship. “We Are Who We Are” does an expert job of portraying how the world appears from Fraser’s seemingly ADHD-afflicted point of view. He’s constantly got ear buds in his ears, living in his own world, either ignoring Sarah or treating her rudely, which in one remarkable scene results in Sarah responding with a surprisingly empathetic response.

With his jittery, jumpy behavior, Fraser seems to have undiagnosed mental health issues – or they are diagnosed and the show hasn’t told us about them. If Sarah knows her son is more than just a handful, her compassion makes some sense. But nothing about Sarah suggests a level of awareness, concern or warmth to make her empathetic response to Fraser’s disrespect ring true. Fraser, who’s likely to inspire equal measures of contempt and pity among viewers, seems to be significantly younger emotionally than his physical age.

At the U.S. Army base Fraser meets Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamon), who has her own complicated family dynamics as she secretly explores issues of gender identity.

All of this takes place in a location that’s a beautiful playground as characters drink to excess and then play in a parachute training tower.

Fraser proves himself a fascinatingly messed-up character but in the four episodes HBO made available for review, “We Are Who We Are” only hints at why the adults in his life have failed him so badly. The show barely develops its adult characters. One hopes that will come in future episodes but in the meantime the vibe coming off the kids who want to be more worldly than they actually are proves alternately alluring, dispiriting and fascinating, which makes “We Are Who We Are” a tough show to embrace — and impossible to entirely dismiss.