I may be older–er, seasoned–but I’m not dead. And I also have a few guilty pleasures that might surprise you. One just happens to LEGALLY BLONDE, a now 25-year-old movie that was a hit with pretty much every other demographic quadrant other than the one I actually fell into. It was a great date movie when it hit the theatres; I was “on the market” at that point and was willing to accommodate the wishes of pretty much anyone who would actually agree to let me take them out. On three separate occasions within a month I met three different women who expressed a desire to see it, and I wasn’t going to actually let the fact that I had already seen it stand in the way of what I piously thought could be true love. None of those first dates turned into a second, but at least I got the chance to dream about Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Coolidge–and not necessarily in the order one might be inclined to think. In subsequent years its ubiquitous availability on cable networks made it comfort food on the many nights when I was otherwise dreaming of dating again.
Hence I’ve been following the evolution of ELLE, the prequel series that finally dropped on Prime Video yesterday, ever since it had been announced it was going into development shortly after Amazon acquired the IP with its purchase of MGM. At the time, the management team was hell bent on mining everything it could about what they thought was a gold mine of possibilities, especially after they ran into the brick wall that was the Broccoli family that undermined their determined efforts to reimagine what they thought of the crown jewel, JAMES BOND. LEGALLY BLONDE seemed to hit the key tick marks that went into their analyses–a successful and successful cross-generational title on linear and streamingv and a willing and aggressive team at HELLO SUNSHINE that was predisposed with working with Netflix competitors. THE MORNING SHOW did put APPLE TV on the map, after all.
What has emerged is clearly trying to lean into the association with the film, as evidenced by the fact that every splashy and well-targeted ad that Prime dropped into the eight episodes that I somehow binged last night (thanks, insomnia) was prefaced with the qualifier “from the world of LEGALLY BLONDE”, and the era, which takes the title character back six years and plops her right into the sweet spot of the 30-year rule that dominates the thinking of nostalgia-themed timelines. These are points not lost on the LOS ANGELES TIMES’ clearly not target-demo reviewer Robert Lloyd:
“Elle” revisits that film’s heroine, Elle Woods (Lexi Minetree), as a 16-year-old high school student, suddenly transported from Beverly Hills to Seattle after her plastic surgeon father (Tom Everett Scott) botches a nose job and has to lie low. Set in 1995, six years before the events of the first “Legally Blonde” film, with Seattle still living through the long tail of first-wave grunge — Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell are mentioned almost in a single breath — it shares with the big-screen mothership only its indomitable protagonist, who loves pink and her Chihuahua, Bruiser. (The dog gets its own origin story: It was “rescued” from the Spellings, as in Aaron, who found that its “earth tones” didn’t match “their new color palette.”).
As a de facto period piece ELLE takes full advantage of trying to appeal to those of us who actually were around for it–from the liberal use of bands like Radiohead, Bryan Adams, INXS, R.E.M., The Psychedelic Furs, The Cranberries and Queen in the soundtrack to the now-poignant casting of DAWSON’S CREEK hero James Van Der Beek as a cringy political aspirant who befriends the transplanted Woods family. There’s a plot line that connects the episodes that’s evocative of VERONICA MARS, and not-so-thinly veiled references to Elle and her classmates banding together as a “Scooby gang”–and not the animated version. There’s other appealing nuggets for folks of my vintage, including the inspired casting of June Diane Raphael as Elle’s mom who channels equal parts ditzy blonde and cunning bitch in ways that would have made her perfect for the cast of an Aaron Spelling drama. I’m a huge fan of hers going back to her run on GRACE AND FRANKIE, the Netflix series squarely aimed at my demo that introduced me to the concept of binging in the first place.
Still, I’m conditioned to be leery about the things that appeal to me having the ability to reach an audience that I’m most def not a part of. Especially with the new Prime Video management obsessed–their word, not mine–on now becoming the YA destination for young ladies who span Elle Woods’ age ranges across all of the properties we’ve seen in her in, and are driving the platform’s recent success with the likes of OFF CAMPUS and, as the Ankler’s resident mean girls Elaine Low and Natalie Jarvey breathlessly reported on their arrogant AGENDA podcast this morning, pretty much all of the current development of other summer beach novels they are rapidly acquiring rights to and finding the appropriate voices to bring to the screen.
Which makes me wonder if somehow, despite all of the bravado and support they are attempting to envelop ELLE in by now positioning it as a key spoke in this strategy–even reminding people they’ve already renewed it for a second season and indeed end season one with a appropriate cliff-hanger–if they actually know if all this actually does appeal to the demo they’ve now laid claim to. THE WRAP’s Loree Weitz obliged the executive overseeing all of this with her elevator pitch:
“We were looking at what was happening on social media and feeling like there was a lot of negative messaging for the next generation of young women … She really felt like the world could use Elle Woods,” (said) Hello Sunshine president of film and TV Lauren Neustadter… “There was a real opportunity to bring Elle Woods to this next generation and remind them of all of the things she messaged to us, which is ‘Be yourself, believe in yourself, you’re capable of anything, don’t sell yourself short.’ ” …Neustadter and Witherspoon enlisted Laura Kittrell (“Insecure,” “High School”) to craft her take on the prequel…”If we just do her in Bel-Air it’s ‘Clueless,” and that already exists.”.
Indeed it does, and it’s impossible not to unsee elements of Alicia Silverstone’s Cher in Minetree’s intrepretation of the adolescent version of Woods. CLUELESS did not work as a TV series despite a determined attempt by Paramount to cash in when its irons were hottest. I can’t help but have my doubts that ELLE may have already missed its window of opportunity and I sincerely question whether what Neustadter stated was little more that retrofitted bullsh-t to accommodate Prime Video’s pivot.
Loving the original movie as much as I did, I also can’t help drawing comparisons, and earnest as Minetree and her castmates’ efforts are they just don’t compare to the treasure trove of talent that we got in the movie. The scenes that drop breadcrumbs to Woods’ eventual legal prowess are dogwhistles to the film but nowhere near as dramatically written or staged. And you’d need to convince me if that indeed inspires all of the doomscrolling young women that Neustadter described and that Kittrell’s previous successes have taken full advantage of.
All that aside, maybe I should take more direction from the ‘tude that ROGER EBERT.com’s Jen Chaney dropped earlier this morning, since she’s is likely far more qualified than I am to pass judgement:
“Elle” won’t teach you anything important that you don’t already know about Elle Woods or, for that matter, what it’s like to be a teenage girl in the ‘90s or any other era. But it’s light, cheerful to look at, and unchallenging to binge in a weekend. Sometimes you need a dose of that after wallowing for too long under heavy clouds and too much flannel.
In that light, I suppose I’d be open to be rewatching ELLE in a more upbeat environment. I’ve certainly got such experience under my belt. Any single moms out there who haven’t yet seen it free in the next few days?
Until next time…