SummarySet in New York City during the last days of 1999, Lindsay (Mae Whitman) and Miguel (Carlos Valdes) meet and fall in love in the musical comedy series from Steven Levenson, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and Robert Lopez.
SummarySet in New York City during the last days of 1999, Lindsay (Mae Whitman) and Miguel (Carlos Valdes) meet and fall in love in the musical comedy series from Steven Levenson, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and Robert Lopez.
Up Here certainly has the pedigree to be a good musical rom-com. But Whitman and Valdes elevate what is already good material by just being so damned cute together.
As the show progresses, we get to know him [Miguel] and Lindsay better so that by the third episode of the season, they feel more like people than the types we met in the pilot. The songs also get better, no longer so achingly earnest and striving but rather expressing real human experiences. ... By the time Lindsay and Miguel celebrate the turn of the millennium in the finale, “Up Here” had fully captured me.
The struggle to be true to yourself while reinventing yourself: a potentially rich theme. ... But the emotional journey there is more cloying than moving. Lindsay and Miguel break up and reconcile repeatedly. If you bail on this relationship halfway through, it’s unlikely you’ll come crawling back.
I wish the story line were a little less predictable and trite, as the pair fall apart and get together a few times. Whitman and Valdes are charming enough, but they’re caught in a will-they-or-won’t-they situation that has nothing fresh to offer and songs that too-often fail to rouse or move.
While Lindsay and Miguel’s issues go to some dark places, they too get glossed over by narrative forgetfulness, superficial optimism and rom-com contrivances. That makes for light entertainment with a few good hooks. But considering the star power, “Up Here” really should have been more mind-blowing.