The Heathers reboot

[rivkat]

OK, I saw episode 1 and have positives and negatives:

1. Aesthetics were on point, both candy-colored enough to evoke the movie and updated enough to feel not-80s to me.
2. Veronica's casting: that voice is perfect Winona Ryder in voiceover, and her uncertain misery worked. You don't get a Christian Slater every time, though, and they didn't here.
3. Now the bad: this felt like it was punching down, not up.  Yes, I get it, mean teens use the weapons they have at hand, but this felt like a slam on "SJWs" and the Glee-knockoff genderqueer Heather had none of the vicious skill that made Heather Duke understandable/fun. Relatedly, the Betty Finn switch felt like it was taking away from the humanity that the original still had some faith for. The only twist that worked for me was the final one. Maybe there's more in further episodes; the aesthetic might be enough to get me watching again/even change my mind.

Comments

[conuly]

Apparently the show-runner is under the impression that in the original Heathers, the eponymous clique was supposed to be understood as aspirational. Those were the ones he loved, and he thinks that any other view is the opinion of a small minority.

https://www.metafilter.com/172562/The-new-Heathers-is-written-for-aging-Fox-News-viewers#7327920

[rivkat]

I really don't know what to say to that! Thanks for the link--a lot of great analysis there.

[heresluck]

...how did I not know that there's a Heathers reboot? Well, I'm glad to know about it now -- though based on this review, I think I'll wait to see whether it improves before checking it out. Failure to find the new Christian Slater could be an unsolvable problem.

[rivkat]

The early reviews don't look great. I may try one more episode... maybe with the sound off.