Elle is a brand new TV series that is a prequel of sorts for the Legally Blonde film franchise. The story begins at Elle Woods Sweet Sixteenth birthday party in her parent’s palatial home in Los Angeles and she is the popular and articulate belle of her own ball. On the surface she appears vacuous and obsessed with boys and clothes, especially pink clothes. Elle is the epitome of the rich girl cliche.
Her life falls apart when her plastic surgeon father botches a nose job on a famous client and has to relocate to Seattle in order to lie low until the scandal dies down. It’s one hell of a shock to Elle who has to leave sunny Bel Air for the perennially wet and grungy north west.
Arriving for her first day at school Elle’s worst fears are realised – she is dressed in vibrant pink while her peers are all quite drab. After committing lot of faux pas and getting involved in a some misunderstandings she is completely shunned and unpopular.
I won’t provide any spoilers but as this is a teen dramedy you can imagine the likely scenarios and characters who Elle encounters – the jocks, the nerds, and a set of mean girls who are less glam than your typical Hollywood types.
So what’s the show like?
Not bad at all. Lexi Minetree is a treat as Elle and makes her vivacious and the embodiment of the seemingly clueless blonde stereotype but also someone who has emotional depth and who’s capable of learning and growth. Rather than be a parody, Minetree manages to get the balance right. The rest of the cast are strong and I particularly liked June Diane Raphael as Elle’s mum Eva.
Based on the first two episodes, the storylines are quite light. While there are the typical conflicts you’d expect they are not gritty but the way they are told is engaging.
Part of the tension for Elle is the negativity of the Seattle kids to the California ‘lifestyle’ and all its trappings. This is a little far fetched as is the dourness of the fashion but I guess it’s needed to hype up just how much Elle doesn’t fit in.
It’s a little hard to reconcile the series with the films as there was never any mention in either of the movies about this chapter in Elle’s life. The fact she is dealing with issues of not fitting in and having to work around toxic people would have taught her something but in Legally Blonde she faces the exact same thing as thought she’s never been bullied before. So, the best way to think of the series is that it exists in the same universe as the earlier films but it’s not directly related to them.
There’s been a lot of criticism of this show particularly around it not being very deep and I do understand that but I found it a fun watch and with a rather fab leading lady Elle is a nice escape from reality. Having only seen the first two episodes at a preview screening I can say that so far there’s no violence, no drugs, and no murders. I hope that continues because sometimes a bit of light escapism is just the thing.
ELLE
Screening now on Prime Video