Of all the movie and book properties floating around out there just waiting for a remake or a reboot, Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity probably wasn’t on most people’s radar. After all, the book, first published in 1995 received a near-perfect movie adaptation in 2000, with John Cusak as the love-lorn record store owner Rob, whose romantic history is recounted via seemingly top-five lists, and whose days are spent making poor choices and hanging out with the likes of his two employees, played by Jack Black and Todd Louiso.
But that film is nearly old enough to drink in 2020, which means a huge swath of the television-watching public likely hasn’t seen it and considering it’s pre-2011, likely thinks of it as too old. So, as it stands, High Fidelity is, oddly, ripe for a reboot, one that includes some stellar casting choices, like Zoë Kravitz in the role of Rob, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph and David H. Holmes as her employees, Cherise and Simon, respectively. There’s also Kingsley Ben-Adir as Rob’s most recent boyfriend, Mac, and Jake Lacy as Clyde, the unlikely guy who might be more of a rebound.
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There are more, changes, too. For instance, the series takes place in Brooklyn, rather than Chicago or London, and it’s been updated to the present day. That means Rob’s fascination with all things vinyl (records, that is) takes on an even more quaint and fanciful quality, as questions of how someone can live in Brooklyn and pay two employee’s wages and pay the rent on the store with, let’s just say, a limited customer base, are rather difficult to ignore. But ignore them viewers must, and, after the first episode wraps up the unavoidable introductions and startlingly familiar scenario (complete with word-for-word dialogue from the film), High Fidelity begins the slow but meaningful footwork of differentiating itself from Hornby’s novel and the feature film.
Those differences are hit and miss at first, but, like the series itself, they get better the further into the 10-episode season you go. Aside from the most obvious differences offered by the new and diverse cast, the series treats Rob and her co-workers/friends with greater generosity, positioning them less as losers and obnoxious musical gatekeepers than as impossibly cool obnoxious musical gatekeepers. The change is easy to understand. Kravitz, like her mother, Lisa Bonet, who appeared in the 2000 film, exudes an impossible and irrepressible kind of cool. The same isn’t necessarily true for Kravitz’s co-stars, who, though funny and likable, would normally be ideal fodder for some humor centered on music-and-vinyl obsessives. That’s not the case here, as High Fidelity goes in a different direction, approving of their musical snobbishness and undying devotion to Rob and her tortured love life.
As it turns out, those are relatively small quibbles as High Fidelity eventually finds itself pushing past the source material and venturing into unknown territory. That proves to be a positive push for everyone involved, as Rob’s nascent relationship with Clyde (is he nice or not?) creates a compelling conflict with her inability to move past former lover Mac and his new relationship.
Lacy presents an interesting variable to the story, one that plays out like a typical rom-com, wherein Clyde seems like the ideal fit for Rob, so long as she can move past Mac and her own spotty relationship history. In the beginning, Clyde is something of a mystery, and Lacy proves adept at playing him with just enough of a question mark that it’s uncertain what, exactly, he’s after with Rob. Though the same can’t be said for Mac, who isn’t quite as developed as he should be, and therefore it can be difficult at times to understand why Rob’s still so hung up on the guy, Ben-Adir comes across as affable enough to make Rob’s romantic conundrum interesting.
Mostly, though, the series excels due to Kravitz’s megawatt charisma, and, yes, her effortlessly cool demeanor. That much is true even when Rob becomes unmoored by news of Mac’s new girlfriend, which allows Kravitz to come across as surprisingly vulnerable and less stalker-y. Kravitz’s persona carries many latter episodes of the series, as High Fidelity moves past what most audiences know and develops into something altogether new. As far as reboots go, Hornby’s novel may not have been at the top of everyone’s top-five list, but this series proves perhaps it should have been.
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High Fidelity season 1 premieres on Friday, February 14 exclusively on Hulu.
