Hollywood Arts Review
Director: Jonathan Judge, Trevor Kirschner, Nathan Kress
Date Created: 2026-10-16 03:12
2.5
Hollywood Arts Review: Directed by Jonathan Judge, Trevor Kirschner, Nathan Kress and others, Netflix’s sitcom brings Daniella Monet back as Trina Vega, the former Victorious student who now finds herself on the other side of the classroom. The series features Erika Swayze as Jen Z, Martin Kamm as Oscar, Emmy Liu-Wang as Pepper, Peyton Jackson as Qwest and Alyssa Miles as Emmy, alongside returning franchise faces Eric Lange as Erwin Sikowitz and Yvette Nicole Brown as Principal Helen Dubois. With 12 episodes, each runs for approximately 50 minutes.
Hollywood Arts Review
Netflix’s Hollywood Arts starts off with Sikowitz declaring his intention to retire; thus, the Hollywood Arts School requires an instructor. Instead of one of the school’s students taking on the job, such as Tori Vega, Trina Vega is hired by the school to teach there. Trina, wanting to get famous at her old school, perceives the students not as people who need help, but rather as connections that will help her achieve her goals.
But as she gets to know the students better through their auditions, friendships, rivalry and personal issues, Trina realises that helping people may bring her a new mission that she was missing during her own schooling years. At the same time, Emmy tries to overcome the shadow of her brother Oscar; Pepper and Jen Z are rivals competing for attention, while Qwest finds himself between musical interests and his father’s requirements.
What I enjoyed about the show the most was Trina getting a teaching position rather than a second chance to become an actress. This character has been aspiring to be recognised like her sister for years now, and thus her insecure nature makes the role even more intriguing. From the moment Trina enters the doors of Hollywood Arts school, she is actually looking for students with some sort of connection that can advance her career. Her motives are definitely not pure, but that’s exactly why she is such an entertaining character to watch. She isn’t turned into a mature person who knows how to deal with all kinds of situations; she remains exactly who she is.
In the beginning, Trina wanted to participate in the show by performing herself, but upon realising that Emmy had a singing talent even better than her brother’s, Trina decided to give up her chance so that Emmy could perform on the show. It was nice seeing Trina doing something more than just embarrassing herself in front of everybody. Emmy sang the song about how she was living in the shadow of her successful sister, which made her performance more personal while connecting to Trina’s past relationship with Tori.
One of the most interesting students in this fictional school is definitely Emmy. She is talented and creative, although she has stayed in the background all this time while helping her brother with his acting aspirations. What makes their relationship even more complicated is that, once her successful show gets noticed, Oscar begins to feel neglected. Rather than rejoicing over her achievements, Oscar has problems with his role being diminished and not getting enough attention. It might seem selfish on his part, but still, there is some conflict that many people can easily identify with. While Emmy wants to be able to pursue her own talents, Oscar is satisfied with their status quo.
Oscar also offers many of the best comic moments in the series, even though his jealous ways can be annoying at times. The way he interferes with Emmy’s developing relationship with Matty is another illustration. He is convinced from the beginning that Matty likes his sister just because he wants to take revenge on him for being rivals with him.
There may be an interesting tale here regarding an overbearing brother who finds it difficult to accept the fact that the person he knows as his sister has grown up. However, more often than not, Oscar’s need to control the situation seems to overpower Emmy’s needs. This is evident when Trina tells Emmy to keep her theatre plans a secret from him.
Pepper and Jen Z provide a lot of energy to the show through their rivalry. This competition to win the attention of Oscar and their desire to get ahead of each other by any means necessary creates a few funny moments, but the jealousy keeps coming back as a simple way out of writing a decent joke. However, I liked the instances where their relationship with Emmy was on the line, since the conflict had an emotional component that went further than trying to get the part or impress the guy. The troubles Qwest faces trying to confess to his dad about going to an arts academy make the plot more believable amid all the farce of misunderstandings.
The performances are all enjoyable, with Daniella Monet maintaining her dedication to the flamboyant character of Trina. She knows how to make Trina’s self-confidence amusing, even though she is obviously not making the right choice. The young actors also bring their charm to the show, especially through the clash between the reservedness of Emmy and the attention-hungry nature of Oscar. However, I think that the writing should have allowed for more development of these characters. At times, their competition becomes repetitive rather than allowing them to evolve, and the antics of Trina overshadow their storylines.
However, Victorious is not the greatest when it comes to comedy for me either. While the outrageous scenarios are suitable for the show, and I did like the fact that the Netflix series Hollywood Arts continues to be the school where regular teenage troubles evolve into insane occurrences, I still think that not every over-the-top reaction is convincing, especially in long episodes. The idea of the Renaissance Faire, during which the coconut juice makes Oscar and Qwest act weird in the presence of Pepper, was definitely funny. However, in my opinion, the musical numbers could use more emotional involvement on the part of the characters.
Netflix Hollywood Arts Review: Summing Up
In the end, the 2026 Hollywood Arts series has enough charm, although it does not fully persuade me that a revisit to this particular universe was required. The way Trina evolves from an aspirational star to an unwilling mentor shows a lot of promise, and the process of how Emmy learns to speak for herself makes for a great emotional core to the series. Nonetheless, poor jokes, stale arguments, and shallow development leave this production short of achieving greatness. Some aspects were good, but overall, I am not really that impressed.
