When “Legally Blonde” came out in 2001, it blew up the box office. Grossing about six times its $18 million budget and spawning both a sequel (“Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, & Blonde”) and a Broadway musical, not to mention innumerable Elle Woods Halloween costumes, “Legally Blonde” has become a certified cultural touchstone.
It was also the movie that — for all intents and purposes — launched Reese Witherspoon’s career. She’d had notable turns in films like “Cruel Intentions” and “Election,” but “Legally Blonde” was the project that made Witherspoon a certified star. And while she’s starred in dozens of movies and TV shows since, she’s always held a public torch for “Blonde” and for Woods.
So it was understandably exciting in 2024 when it was announced that Witherspoon and her Hello Sunshine production shingle would produce a prequel for Prime Video. Titled “Elle,” the series is set in the mid ‘90s, when Woods is a junior in high school. After her plastic surgeon dad (Tom Everett Scott) bungles a Hollywood starlet’s nose job, her family flees town to lay low in Seattle.
It goes about as well as you’d expect in the beginning, with the pink and sunny Elle (Lexi Minetree) facing cultural shock as she knuckles down on her new grey, rainy life. At Rainier West High, her fellow students hate her try-hard attitude and general L.A. vibe, claiming they’d all sooner die than visit California — something that seems hard to believe given the show is set during the heyday of both “Beverly Hills: 90210” and “Melrose Place.” When Elle tries to fit in with the grunge-loving student body, cringily bedazzling a Nirvana t-shirt with little heart sequins, it fails the student stink test almost immediately.
While the idea of Elle Woods being thrust into mid ‘90s Seattle is cute enough on paper, in practice it feels thin and forced. “Legally Blonde” was set in a bit of a fantasy world, where reality is heightened and people are found guilty of murder because of their perm maintenance routines, but it at least all felt like campy fun. In “Elle,” Seattle is a dour hellhole full of gloomy teens — none of whom seem aware that Kurt Cobain died over a year before this show is supposed to start.
Elle finds her people eventually, though, bonding first with high school secretary Donna (Amy Pietz) before falling in with kind but odd outsiders Dustin (Zac Looker) and Liz (Gabrielle Policano.) She even gets a crush on a kind but bland cross country athlete (Jacob Moskovitz), only to find out that he’s already dating Shannon (Danielle Chand), a fashion-loving senior she bonds with spontaneously after a tough first week. Elle also keeps in touch with a friend back home (Jessica Belkin), who comes to visit midseason if only to remind Elle of how much Seattle has supposedly changed her.
If that sounds like a plot point you’ve heard before in other “fish out of water” stories, it’s because you have. So much of “Elle’s” plot is reheated pap, including plot points that are direct ripoffs of (or references to, if you’re being generous) the original plot of “Legally Blonde.” Teen Elle is tricked into attending a party she’s scandalously underdressed for, a la the legal mixer in the original film. She also susses out a crime based on a fashion don’t, makes a video documentary to apply for a prestigious internship, and wins over a bitchy fellow student just by using kindness and perseverance.
“Elle’s” plot isn’t all high school drama, though. There’s also mild legal intrigue, including a principal (Matt Oberg) suspected of embezzling school funds, some mild marital strife between Elle’s parents (Tom Everett Scott and June Diane Raphael), and whatever’s going on with school superintendent and mayoral candidate Dean Wilson (the late James Van Der Beek in his final role.)
Despite a bang-up supporting cast, though, almost every episode of “Elle” seems to drag. Each episode seems needlessly tedious, running between 45-60 minutes long when they should be a quick and fun 30. Beats that are telegraphed from Episode 1 drag out endlessly and even fun bits, like the back-and-forth banter between Elle and her mom is marred by an almost comical amount of product placement. In fact, within the first 10 minutes of the show, there are hamfisted references to L’Oreal, Nexus hair products, Dove soaps and Ferrero Rocher. It’s oppressive, awkward and unbearable, especially considering how ably other Prime Video shows (like “Off Campus”) seem to have dealt with their placements. With a second season already ordered, though, it’s clear that Prime Video believes in the show (and its profitability) enough to give it a chance.
“Legally Blonde” was fun, fresh and brilliantly paced, but “Elle” is dour, boring and tedious. It’s unfortunate, really: It’s clear that Witherspoon, Hello Sunshine and showrunners Laura Kittrell and Caroline Dries love the source material, but perhaps by attempting to capture lightning in a bottle once again they’ve only served to dim Elle’s shine.
“Elle” premieres Wednesday on Prime Video.
The post ‘Elle’ Review: Amazon’s Dull ‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel Series Is Awkward and Forced appeared first on TheWrap.
