Rainbow High (2024)

TV Series Review

Rainbow High isn’t your typical high school. Here, reading, writing and ‘rithmatic take a back seat to the arts, and more trendy classes emphasizing the art of fashion, music, etc., which seem designed to make the students into pop culture icons.

Popular influencer Violet and her perpetually optimistic BFF Sunny are joined in their artistic pursuits by several other Rainbow High students. Through the drama of high school relationships and difficult group projects, the girls must learn to support each other and embrace their inner qualities.

The show, based on a line of popular dolls, can be consumeristic and shallow at times. All the girls, Violet especially because of her online presence, care a lot about what people think of them and how they look. On numerous occasions, the characters wear tight or low-cut outfits that would be revealing and inappropriate in real life. We hear slang terms throughout the show such as “sick” and “literally die.”

But the girls are almost ceaselessly supportive, and learn from each other, even when they argue. And, outside the elements that we mentioned above, the show is otherwise clean.

Episode Reviews

Oct. 3, 2020—S1 Ep1: “Part 1”

Violet and Sunny are beyond thrilled to start school at Rainbow High because the people there are “fire” and almost guaranteed a successful life. They immediately become close friends with the girls in their runway group, whose names seem color-coded to their outfits. The runway group’s task is to create seven great fashion looks to showcase at the end of the semester.

The girls have a minor conflict when one of the girls in the group, Ruby, sets up a date with Colin, who is actually Skye’s boyfriend of several years. Colin claims that he thought he had broken up with Skye, but he upsets both girls, who decide never to talk to him again and comfort each other. Jade is afraid her friends don’t appreciate her designs, but again the message is about teamwork and trusting your talent to overcome challenges. Bella, part of the runway group, takes a picture of her work, which is against the rules. She is subsequently expelled much to the dismay of the other girls.

July 16, 2021 S2 Ep1: “Part 1”

Bella (who was expelled in the previous season) returns to Rainbow High to find that it seems different. Friendships are harder than she remembers, and she is feeling a lot of pressure. The girls get closer to a group of older students (called “prefects”), who help them feel better. Violet and Sunny get into an argument, but they resolve it and grow closer in the process.

Bella falls asleep on the couch of her new room before meeting her roommates. They suggest that the room she is in might be cursed because three people have already lived in it. One of these roommates tells her not to be a “baddie” anymore, and Bella says she will always follow the rules from now on. One girl’s name is Karma, and she has a channel called “Content with Karma.”