BW New Show Review: Hailey’s On It!

I’m a bit late to this party but the last few weeks have…happened.

Disney may be cutting ties with what Uncle Walt created as fast as they can, but the studios they’re partnering with have at least given us some decent entertainment. One show I was curious about was Hailey’s On It!, a show about a teenage girl who must complete her bucket list to save the world, but there’s a reason she’s been collecting these since she was in first grade and still hasn’t crossed off anything. One of them, and the ads love to bring this up, is to kiss her just-a-friend, and partner in completing the list Scott Denoga, though she may actually have stronger feelings for her. To aid her, the mysterious Professor sends Beta, a talking phone who has a copy of the list and tries to talk her into going for it.

This sounds like an extremely dumb concept, but that didn’t stop Milo Murphy’s Law. It could be an excuse to push girl power or take something mundane and make it important. For what reason could completing a bucket list of completely normal things possible save the world? Well, Disney did release the first episode on their YouTube channel so you get to see if that question gets a decent answer. (Apologies if this doesn’t work in your region.) Then we’ll discuss the show and see if it’s worth checking out. Think of it as making up for missing Saturday Night Showcase last week.

Going by this and the second episode (which starts the annoying “two stories per episode” thing), puking is a running gag on this show. Luckily that’s the only major complaint.

It’s still on the Finally Watch list as of this writing but this sounds like what Captain Marvel thought it was doing. Completing the list is giving Hailey the confidence to become the woman she is in the future. There’s clearly a stronger person inside, but it’s not “men” that are holding her back, but her own insecurities and issues. I can relate to that and I’ve never been a fourteen-year-old Hawaiian girl. The show isn’t all about her being a girl or a person of color, it’s just about a girl who happens to be Hawaiian, and her friends who happen to be Filipino and a cell phone. She’s just a regular person overcoming her shyness and worries to become a better person. So no concerns about the show being “woke”…thus far anyway.

“The Professor”, whoever she is, hasn’t shown up again yet and we don’t know where the Chaos Bots come from beyond the time glitches allowing them in. They didn’t show up in either story of episode two so it should only be a recurring problem unless they forget it altogether down the line. I don’t think they’re necessary to be a constant threat since the focus is on Hailey’s personal growth. The future stuff is just her motivation, not the important part of the story.

Scott seems to be the typical DBF (dumb best friend), but he’s loyal and there for Hailey during her quest to complete the list. I’ve seen worse. At least I can believe Scott can dress himself without suffocating. In “The Wild Wild Mess” from the next episode Scott accidentally makes her goal a bit more challenging, which works for the story, but he does try to undo his mistake. However, this is Hailey’s show so eventually it’s up to her, but Scott tries and is encouraging to his friend. I can sort of see why she secretly likes him and I can root for them to eventually get together or at least to finally kiss and see what happens. Have a feeling that will be a “last episode/season if we have enough warning” thing though.

The animation is quite good and the art style fits the theme and tone of the show quite well.

Overall, Hailey’s On It! seems like a really fun show and I’ll be watching further episodes to see what happens to her next. This is how you do a girl protagonist that encourages not just girls but anyone to pursue your goals in life and we need more shows like that, especially for kids.