“High Fidelity” Review by Josh Davis
March 5, 2020 8:07 pm |
Hulu’s “High Fidelity” reboot is actually the third adaptation of Nick Hornby’s beloved 1995 novel of the same name, following a well-received 2000 feature film starting John Cusack, and even a 2006 Broadway musical.
In the book, Rob Fleming is the owner of a London-based record shop, Championship Vinyl. Rob Fleming becomes Rob Gordon in the 2000 film and London is recast as Chicago. In the latest incarnation, Rob is gender swapped for Robyn “Rob” Brooks and Chicago is traded for Brooklyn, New York.
Each version keeps the record store backdrop and the name “Championship Vinyl,” and each follows a protagonist who recently split from their longtime significant other.
Zoë Kravitz (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “X-Men: First Class”) plays the latest Rob, notable because her mother, Lisa Bonet, played one of the love interests in the film adaptation. A neighborhood bar, “DeSalle’s,” in the show is also named after Bonet’s character, Marie DeSalle.
Fans of the original book and film will be clued to several similar Easter eggs and should be more than familiar with the main plot. Rob, romantically and in life, is kind of a fuckup.
After a messy breakup with Russell “Mac” McCormack (Kingsley Ben-Adir from “King Arthur” (2017) and “World War Z”), Rob creates a mental top-five list of her all-time best/worst breakups, from middle school through the present day. Later, Rob, searching for closure or some kind of insight into why she can’t make relationships work, looks up all of her exes. One married the very next person he met; another is an Instagram influencer and successful fashion model.
Adding a unique wrinkle for the show, one of Rob’s exes works with her at Championship Vinyl. Simon (character actor David H. Holmes) came out as gay while dating Rob and the two now have a – mostly – healthy relationship as friends. Also working in the shop (in the role previously made famous by Jack Black) is boisterous Cherise (Da’Vine Joy Randolph from “Empire” and “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”), a woman who talks a big game about her chops as a singer/songwriter, but who we never really see sing or song-write.
Throughout the 10-episode first season, “High Fidelity” feels like a familiar retread of its source material. It pays homage to the book and film that came before it and doesn’t bother to reinvent the wheel. Rob is still a lout – occasionally lovable, but also selfish, stunted and too obsessed with creating top-five lists and living in the hazy dreamworld of an obsessive music fan.
Kravitz is great in the leading role, bringing a fresh take and a lot of charisma to a character already familiar to many. Her background as a musician and her family ties to “High Fidelity” make her a believable Rob.
Simon and Cherise also get more fleshed out here than their analogs did in prior versions. One episode focuses entirely on Simon and his top-five relationships – all with the same man who keeps breaking his heart – and it’s a season standout, thanks to some fine acting by Holmes.
Cherise gets more to work with as the season develops. We see her dedication to becoming a real musician, as well as her struggles with the expectations of beauty in modern society. In one emotionally brutal scene, a guy looks over Cherise’s flyer advertising her as a lead singer, likes what he sees on paper, but then looks her over in person and passes. It’s only a brief moment, but Randolph shows a lot of depth as an actor in one, defeated glance.
One thing “High Fidelity,” the TV show, does differently is refocus Rob’s romantic endgame from ultimately reuniting with Mac, to instead pursue someone new: Jake Lacy’s (“Obvious Child”) Clyde.
Rob and Clyde’s first date is so disastrous that Rob, at first, excuses herself to go to the bathroom and tries to sneak out. When she realizes, halfway down the street, that she’s left her phone at the bar, Rob goes back and ends up drunkenly sleeping with Clyde that night. He’s not exactly her type: well adjusted, relatively drama free, and genuinely a nice guy. Also, he listens to Phish, which Rob hilariously chastises him for.
When Rob later realizes what she really wants – or needs – is a nice guy to treat her well, it might be too late, as the season ends on a cliff hanger.
As of this writing, it’s unclear whether “High Fidelity” will be renewed for another season. It’s not yet groundbreaking enough to land on a top-five list of all-time best TV dramedies, but a likable and talented cast and the prospect of unexplored territory in season two is enough to keep this viewer watching.
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