Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special Review: Miley Cyrus returns to an incomplete reunion missing its core cast

I was one of the many millennials who grew up on a steady diet of Disney and Disney Channel. I devoured everything the network had to offer, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place, That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, and, of course, Hannah Montana. At that age, you didn’t stop to ask whether a show was profound or life-changing; you simply watched, absorbed, and let it become part of your childhood, something you didn’t necessarily need, but held onto anyway.

Most of the shows, especially Zack and Cody, and its spinoff Suite Life on Deck, were quite simplistic: There would be a problem, a crazy scheme to make it right, it obviously wouldn’t work, and in 20 minutes, everything would be tidily solved after an earnest talk from a parent. In Hannah Montana’s case, Dad, played by Billy Ray Cyrus.

And yet, it worked. For that age, it more than worked. And Hannah Montana had a charm of its own that appealed to an audience between the ages of 8 to 14, with the theme of a regular teenager doubling as a superstar. Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) was an endearingly overconfident teenager, flanked by the typical Disney ‘two besties’ Lily (Emily Osment) and Mitchell Musso’s Oliver Oken.

While Miley’s antics would take centrestage, the rest of the subplot would involve her brother Jackson (Jason Earles) trying to one-up his bratty boss Rico (Moises Arias) at a beach shack, or just learning a lesson from his country music-crooning dad Robbie Ray (Billy Ray Cyrus).

In truth, the first two seasons were where the show’s humour really shone, even in its exaggerated, almost cartoonish tone. Some episodes remain pure guilty pleasures: Miley attempting the ‘bone dance’, or forgetting the words to the national anthem after mocking Oliver for his bad memory. Someone always got humbled, apologies came a little too neatly, and everything reset by the next episode, but that was part of the appeal.

The show’s flavour didn’t come from Miley Cyrus alone; it was enriched by the absurdity of characters like Jackson, Rico, Lily and Oliver, and, of course, Robbie Ray, whose calm, understated humour was a breath of fresh air. The Jackson-Rico dynamic, in particular, was the spine of the show, if not its heart, their constant riffing endlessly entertaining to watch.

So, there was inexplicably a sense of disappointment mixed with nostalgia, when watching the Hannah Montana special to celebrate its 20 years. No doubt, it was a joy to watch Cyrus sing Best of Both Worlds, and go through the outfits that we would remember to clearly. Cyrus took us to the set of her old Malibu home, the enchanting closet, and also meeting Selena Gomez, who had played the role of Hannah’s snarky rival Mikayla on the show.

Yet, the special was notably missing Jason Earles, Moises Arias, Emily Osment, who shared she was busy filming, and Mitchel Musso, the very characters who helped make the show what it was. We grew up watching the friendship between Oliver, Lily and Miley; it didn’t quite feel right not seeing them together again.

 The friendship between Lily and Miley, especially, had defined ‘friendship goals’, if we were to speak in the current lingo before it existed; Lily had supported Miley through all her mad antics, and Miley dropped a film for Lily, and the series ended with the two of them reuniting at college. A full circle had been earned.

 So, to not see them again, it drove the point home of finality, that truly, a chapter had been closed for good. Without that, the reunion felt less like a homecoming and more like a walkthrough.

Even the choice of host, Alex Cooper, felt slightly out of step for a millennial audience that had tuned in hoping for cast-driven reminiscing. While there were glimpses of reunion moments elsewhere, the special itself stopped short of delivering what many had hoped for: a full gathering.

The original show thrived on noise, Jackson and Rico arguing, Lily and Oliver reacting, Miley's own confusion. The special, in comparison, felt too neat, as if a world once crowded with characters had been reduced to a single voice.

A childhood show isn’t built on one star alone, it lives on through the characters who made it feel like home.