"Julie and the Phantoms" is SO FREAKING CUTE, Y'ALL

After marathoning Emily In Paris last Saturday, I thought to myself, “Why not follow up fluff with more fluff and put on the first season of Julie and the Phantoms?” LITTLE DID I KNOW that I was about to watch an incredibly cute, sweet show with fun music, very cute boys, and TONS of heart.

The show follows three teenage members of a rock band who, right before their big break in 1995, eat bad hot dogs and die. Twenty-five years later, young Julie finds their CD in her mom’s things, and when she plays it, she accidentally summons their ghosts. She’s the only one who can see them, but everyone can hear when the boys play music — and even better, when they play with Julie, they actually become visible during their performances.

Such a perfect setup for meaningless fluff show!! But this series has so much going for it than its cute, pop-y premise. Julie’s still grieving her mother, who died a year ago, and is struggling to enjoy music again. The boys, meanwhile, yes, are adorable himbos, but also hugely supportive of one another — there’s not a drop of toxic masculinity among them (they even flirt with each other every once in a while!). More importantly, each one of them is IN AWE of Julie and her talent (as they should be), and they realize that while they had a great band before, they could make a completely different great band with her.

And Julie’s journey isn’t solely defined by her relationship with the male ghosts; the show makes a point of highlighting how important her relationship with her best friend Flynn is and how Julie is who she is because of their friendship.

You also get Cheyenne Jackson as a mysterious powerful ghost who is NONE too pleased that these boy ghosts have powers, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it under his control. Any excuse to get Jackson to sing is okay with me.

Oh, and did I mention that there’s a GAY GHOST LOVE STORY and it’s SO FRICKING CUTE? YES. IT’S THE BEST.

The music is wonderful — very catchy, to the point that I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on repeat all week. And lest you think it’s all just upbeat pop rock songs, just wait until episode 8 when out of nowhere, Julie and the Phantoms breaks your (my) heart in the best way and makes you (me) cry SO HARD. (I was like, PARDON ME, how did you sneak such emotion into what was supposed to be an inconsequential cute boy show???)

This entire cast is excellent — Madison Reyes is brilliant as Julie, and Charlie Gillespie, Owen Joyner, and Jeremy Shada have such excellent chemistry together that you really believe that they’re best friends and a great band. Gillespie and Reyes particularly have a lot of heavy lifting to do, and they kill it every time.

I loved loved LOVED Julie and the Phantoms and I can’t recommend it enough. I can’t wait for Season 2 to come out.

Julie and the Phantoms is on Netflix.

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