High Fidelity series

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http://deadline.com/2018/04/high-fid...io-1202358814/

"A romantic comedy TV series inspired by Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel High Fidelity and the 2000 feature starring John Cusack is in early development for Disney’s upcoming direct-to-consumer service. The project, a gender-swapped take on the classic title, comes from writers Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka (Bull, Ugly Betty), the Midnight Radio producing team and ABC Signature Studios (SMILF), the cable/streaming division of ABC Studios. Midnight Radio is comprises Scott Rosenberg — who co-wrote the High Fidelity feature — Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec.

Written by West and Kucserka, the High Fidelity TV series is described as a departure from the book and the movie while still capturing the romantic comedy and authentic spirit of the original source materials. I hear it centers on a record store owner — a female take on the character played in the movie by Cusack — talking straight to the camera as she chronicles past relationships.

While the Touchstone Pictures movie was rated R, I hear the TV series — an optimistic-in-tone mixtape/diary rom-com — will be PG-13 and intended for family co-viewing, consistent with Disney’s plans for a family-friendly OTT service that is not expected not feature R-rated movies or series."



I can kinda see this working. The movie was insanely quotable but it worked because the characters were well-realized and it was entertaining just watching them argue and kill time. That's a very TV-series kinda thing.

That said, I don't like that the first handful of episodes figure to be a rehash of the movie's plotline.



Looking forward to binging this this weekend.



I like the idea of this new adaptation, of the gender swapping of the roles, and I like the symmetry of Marie De Salle's real-life daughter becoming their version of the Rob character.

I'm down.
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



The gender swap is odd because so much of Rob is that he's a type, and that type is very dude-like, in ways both good and bad. A lot of the character has to be tossed out if he goes from a normal-looking man to a striking woman. Early reviews suggest she's good enough in the role to overcome it, though, even if it remains a thing to overcome. And as you say, the symmetry is super cool.

But yeah, they say people watch movies for plot and TV shows for characters, so the record store BS chat stuff is particularly well-suited to a series relative to a lot of other film-to-show adaptations.



And the movie High Fidelity is already an Americanized adaptation of a Nick Hornby (About a Boy) novel, so resourcing the resourced material is good for me. Fair game, Mates. London to Chicago to New York. British to American to African-American female. All good.



Sure, it's all fair, and all deserves a chance to stand on its own merits. There's no Ghostbusters-style grousing here, though I think it's a bigger change than swapping nationality, especially when the nationalities share so much musical culture.

But more to the point, Rob's sexual insecurity is a big part of his character. He's a normal, schlubby guy, and he knows it and frets about it. So either they're going to try to make us believe Zoe Kravitz is like that, or they're just going to excise it entirely. I assume the latter, which could definitely work. Or maybe she'll be insecure because being immersed in music culture leaves her surrounded by self-absorbed Robs. Either way, it seems like it'll be based less on the original protagonist and more on the record store hangout culture stuff, which sounds perfectly fine to me.



None of this is a complaint, BTW, just an observation. Rob could be grating (though I imagine that's kinda the idea sometimes). This could easily be better.



Sure, it's all fair, and all deserves a chance to stand on its own merits. There's no Ghostbusters-style grousing here, though I think it's a bigger change than swapping nationality, especially when the nationalities share so much musical culture.

But more to the point, Rob's sexual insecurity is a big part of his character. He's a normal, schlubby guy, and he knows it and frets about it. So either they're going to try to make us believe Zoe Kravitz is like that, or they're just going to excise it entirely. I assume the latter, which could definitely work. Or maybe she'll be insecure because being immersed in music culture leaves her surrounded by self-absorbed Robs. Either way, it seems like it'll be based less on the original protagonist and more on the record store hangout culture stuff, which sounds perfectly fine to me.
I don't agree with your read of Rob Gordon from the original movie. He is not schlubby. He was the hottest DJ in town and owns a hip record store and can pull ass like Marie De Salle (Lisa Bonet) and Charlie Nicholson (Catherine Zeta-Jones). He is an underachiever and self-defeating, his flaws like jealousy and infidelity sabotage his romantic relationships. He is very attractive and smart and knows it. Bedding women and even falling in love is not difficult for him. He is supremely confident when it comes to that part of the game. It's maintaining the relationship that he can't do.

Cusack's Rob presents himself as a self-deprecating slacker but he knows he looks and talks like John Cusack. When Rob, Barry (Jack Black), and Dick (Todd Louiso) see Marie De Salle perform and are all smitten by her talent and physical appearance it is clear Barry and Dick know she is out of their leagues. On the other hand Rob hits on her and sleeps with her immediately. He knows he is that guy. At the end he knows he could easily sleep with and start a relationship with Natasha Gregson Wagner's reporter character. But for once he gets out of his own way.

His monologues to camera, while charming and funny, are often lies and half-truths when he's confessing about himself. The most prefect example is the difference between his version of his number five all-time breakup and the truth when he meets up with Penny (Joelle Carter). He was not the betrayed, he was the one who treated her like garbage. He has selectively painted it as woe-is-me, but he was the problem. He is not insecure because he thinks he is some unattractive schlub. He is where he is because he has a pattern of making things what they aren't and then uses that falsely identified problem as justification for depression, anger, infidelity, and loneliness.

Those qualities, of being attractive but underachieving and self sabotaging, are certainly not exclusively male characteristics.




I agree with a lot of that. I think you're probably right that "schlubby" is a bad descriptor, though I was thinking mainly of the slacker dress code stuff you mention. Still, poor word choice on my part.

Maybe part of the issue is that I'm mentally correcting for the fact that it's a movie and not real life. For example, I'm grading Cusack on a Hollywood curve. Obviously he's an attractive person, because duh, almost everybody in the industry is. But as far as leading men go he's a lot closer to normal than most, which I imagine is part of why he was chosen and is why I think he's such a good fit. I take for granted that you have to drop everyone three points in attractiveness to approximate real life, in the same way I just accept 25-year-olds playing high schoolers and only raise my eyebrow if they start pushing 30. John Cusack's a good looking guy, but I don't think you cast John Cusack as the good looking guy. I think he's just normal looking enough to signal "this is a normal guy" without casting an actual normal-looking person. Charlie said it best: "someone more...glamorous."

Same thing with his intelligence and wit: everybody in movies is wittier and more articulate than in real life, though I agree his character is still meant to be smart and clever and perceptive, even by that standard. But I think intelligent people are more likely to be insecure, anyway.

The Penny example you mention is interesting, because I took the opposite lesson from it. You seemingly mention it as an example of a half-truth to call the self-deprecating stuff into question (which I've always felt was genuine). But of course in the end, he realizes he totally misunderstood the situation. To me, that's an example of insecurity: he managed to take a situation where a beautiful girl adored him and still found a way to think he wasn't good enough for her! I guess it's arguable whether this is just him being dense/stupid, as opposed to insecure, though that's how I took it.

To be sure, Rob outkicks his coverage in the film, but in both of the examples you mention he's kind of in disbelief about it. With De Salle he specifically notes how surprised he is, and with Charlie he's immediately concerned he'll lose her because she's out of his league, which of course he does. As you allude to, some of this is self-fulfilling. Which is why I agree he's not insecure because of his looks, really. He's just insecure, albeit in a very male way. Or at least, a way I can't really fathom Zoe Kravitz having to contend with. Maybe her performance is that good and I'll buy whatever she's selling, like a good record store owner. I guess we'll see. I'll definitely be giving it a chance.



My impression of Rob was similar to Yoda's but I read the book, High Infidelity (which is told from his often insecure perspective) and did not see the movie, so it's based on that.



For a variety of reasons I didn't get a chance to watch this back when it dropped on Valentines Day but my wife and I finally binged Hulu's "High Fidelity" last week (thanks, COVID!). We did nine of the ten episodes in one sitting until 1:00am, then finished up during my telework lunchbreak the next day.

The headline: I fu*king LOVE this show.



Lots of spoilers coming, so if you don't want 'em, stop reading.


I have still never read the Nick Hornby novel but I have seen the 2000 Stephen Frears film over a dozen times beginning to end and have the whole thing memorized. Speaking as a mega fan of the flick, the series is already better than the movie after only its inaugural season. Gender swapping the protagonist from Rob to Robyn is genius. Far from losing its misanthropic slacker edge I found that by having a woman make these habitual bad decisions the choices are just as self destructive but from a point of view almost never seen by the female lead in a RomCom.

Zoë Kravitz is excellent. I had only seen her in smaller supporting roles, never as the lead, but she takes control from the first scene onward (and DAMN she looks just like her momma). Even with the chunks of dialogue and scenes that were nearly beat-for-beat with Cusack's turn I found myself instantly buying her. I had the same reaction seeing The Producers on Broadway when Matthew Broderick instantly became Leo Bloom even though I know every single tic and inflection of Gene Wilder's original performance.

That it is a series means things didn't have to be wrapped up neatly by the end, and that is a massive edge. As much as I like the movie the transition for how quickly Laura (Iben Hjejle) takes Rob back after the funeral is a bit rushed and underdeveloped. If indeed the showrunners here are building to a similar eventual mend between Robyn and Mac (Kingsley Ben-Adir), they didn't have to cram it in here. And the addition of her budding romance with Clyde (Jake Lacy) feels true and the kind of pattern breaking that seems healthier than simply trying to atone for past sins and repair a relationship that may be past that point. The Clyde character doesn't feel like a plot point to be overcome but a great character with rhythms and strengths that are a welcome new ingredient.

Of course all the characters get a chance to be real people. Jack Black is an absolutely hysterical ball of comic energy in the film, and if you were not already a fan of Tenacious D High Fidelty was his coming out party, the performance that birthed his A-List career like Michael Keaton in Night Shift or Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids. But as endlessly amusing as he is in High Fidelty there isn't much of a character there, and as a supporting player his arc is only a simpler version of Rob Gordon's. Here the equivalent character Cherise (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) is just as funny and caustic with the same underlying dream but the series gives her time to breathe and not just be comic fodder. The gift Rob gives her, though easy to spot coming plot wise, is still emotionally resonant because it is earned.

Even more so the Simon character (David H. Holmes), who is the equivalent of Dick (Todd Louiso), that he is also one of Rob's All Time Top Five heartbreaks representing not just Dick but also Lili Taylor's sad sack Sarah, instantly makes that relationship deeper and more meaningful. It's another brilliant bit of adaptation. His entire episode of backstory and parallel, taking over the narration, is so very good.

But beyond all of the character meldings, additions, and expansions the brilliance of the show may be best summed up for me by episode five, "Uptown". This episode is an expansion of a four-minute scene that was cut for time from the movie. It was included on the DVD and is rather perfect at showing Rob's love for records and respect for other collectors...



The TV series takes this bit and makes an entire episode out of it. Parker Posey stands in for the cheerfully vindictive wife, but even with padding her Posey-esque eccentricities there isn't enough there on the bone to make thirty minutes out of. But what they do is Clyde comes with Rob, because he has a car and she doesn't. Not only does Clyde get to witness Rob's integrity and passion firsthand but they have this great impromptu date where they go to a local fancy hotel to investigate what kind of a-hole the husband really is before considering taking his prized collection. It is so fun and funny and Clyde's gesture at the end truly signals he is not just a distraction to be overcome on a road back to Mac but a worthy contender for her affection and trust.


I love this show. I can hardly wait to see a further season or seasons. There are still some of the original plot points obviously running through unresolved, most importantly the creation of the record label and the debuts of the shoplifters and Barry/Cherise's band. But other than that it feels like now that the show creators have successfully spliced the film's DNA with the series and gotten all of the requisite characters, lines of dialogue, and scenes checked off the list (all of which was so much fun, like the "What fu*king Lily girl?!?" imagined beatdowns and talking it out with Debbie Harry instead of The Boss) they can take this tone and these characters pretty much anywhere.




Just finished this last night. It only took three days once we started it. Agree on pretty much all counts: it's really, really good.

I was worried the gender swap would be lazy, but I think they put a lot of time and thought into how to make it work. But mostly, it's just Kravitz, as you alluded to. She's got the right vibe, and both the movie and the show are all about vibe. It's funny how well it can work to have half of something known in advance. On one hand I'm literally predicting lines before they happen, but on the other, that predictability in some places makes it all the more surprising and interesting when something doesn't go the way I thought it would.

There are some minor things I think could use some work, I'm sure, but most of it works and what works works really well. It's "found itself" a lot quicker than most shows (which so often use their first season to figure out what they've got), and I guess that's the virtue of having that source material to lean on. The real test, of course, comes in a second season, but I have a lot of confidence they'll pull it off.