High Fidelity: 6 Reasons The Hulu Series Is The Best Adaptation (& 4 It'll Always Be The John Cusack Version)
Told from the perspective of the main character Rob, played by John Cusack in the original High Fidelity, and Zoë Kravitz in the new Hulu Series, High Fidelity tells the story of both Robs diving in the past to figure out what happened with each of their major five exes.
Many fans of the original High Fidelity movie have been excited about the new reboot while others are worried about the changes Hulu, the writers, and director might make to the original fan favorite. However, while the two shows have the same original premise, the new Hulu series has made many changes that are for the better, and a few that are for the worst.
9 Hulu Series Is Better - It's More Diverse
Other than Lisa Bonet, everyone in the original movie is white. In Hulu's version of High Fidelity, the main character is a queer Black woman and her two best friends are a fat Black woman and a gay man. There are also two young ambiguously queer racialized character who we briefly see.
Given their new musical relationship with Cherise, it seems they might be reassuring characters in the second season. While it might seem like the show is trying to get diversity brownie points, the three main characters are fairly fleshed out and don't see there just for representation.
8 Hulu Series Is Better -It's Queer
The original series was very straight, all of John Cusack's love interests being women, and all his friends were ostensibly straight men. The new High Fidelity reboot stars three major queer characters (and two presumed queer characters) which bring new life to the series. When Simon and Rob initially meet, they really hit it off and date, though something is clearly off, and it's not their chemistry.
Eventually, Simon realizes he's gay and the two stay friends, their friendship solidifying over the years. One of Rob's exes is a woman, who while a bit of a boring character who we don't see much, is still there, making Rob also queer.
7 The Original is Better - It's Not A Breakup Movie
The fun part about the original series is that even though Rob is an anti-hero and we as an audience are not really meant to feel bad for him, he still ends up with Laura, his most recent ex, in the end, leaving the viewer with hope about love.
While this neat ending of the film might seem a bit cheesy, it worked as a good contrast to Rob's pessimism throughout the film, bring a little bit of joy back into his life. While the new series couldn't end that way if they wanted to be able to film a second season, the ending left something to be desired, and not in that, we can't wait to watch more type of way.
6 Hulu Series Is Better - Zoë Kravitz
John Cusack did a great job playing the anti-hero in the original High Fidelity but it's hard to deny that Zoë Kravitz is a much more alluring, attractive, and interesting actress that brings some new and exciting to the role.
Zoë Kravitz is actually the second person in her family to star in High Fidelity, her mother, Lisa Bonet, having played Marie, a nightclub singer with a beautiful voice who mostly played a potential love interest for Rob, not having much of a role otherwise. Kravitz, on the other hand, changed things around by playing the main character.
5 Hulu Series Is Better - The Friendships are Better
The friendships were fine in the older version of High Fidelity but they are clearly way better in the new series. It's hard to believe that the friendships were seeing on-screen aren't real given the chemistry the actors have with each other; they look like they're having such a fun time together.
It makes it really fun and sweet to watch and makes the audience root even more for the record shop employees. The friends are real with each other, and clearly care, and when Zoë Kravitz realizes she messed up with both of them, she tries really hard to make it up to her friends.
4 The Original is Better - The Exes Stories
The exes get much more screen time and bigger storylines and arcs than those in Hulu's High Fidelity. While each ex in the older version gets about the same air time, except for the first ex and the last, Rob's exes in the new series aren't that interesting and feel very one dimensional, except for Simon.
It's even hard to see Mac as a fully fleshed-out character, though he at least returns to give us more context regarding who he is as a character.
While Kat Monroe in the new High Fidelity series was supposed to be a new queer version of Catherine Zeta-Jones' character, Charlie Nicholson, the new character never even came close to having Zeta-Jones' alluring nature, spunk, and passion for life. She also represented someone who was out of Rob's league.
In comparison, Kat Monroe feels like a bit of a poor attempt at recreating the old character; Kat Monroe just felt one dimensional and boring, and it's hard to believe that she was out of Zoë Kravitz's league.
3 Hulu Series Is Better - Simon & Cherise
Simon and Cherise are Rob's best friends, played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph and David H. Holmes, and their characters are some of the best on TV. They're both hilarious, especially Cherise, and have great chemistry with each other, and Zoë Kravitz's Rob.
When Rob is clearly feeling bad for herself at home, they come over to try and drag her out, giving her some tough love but they don't push her too hard because they realize she has to have a night in. The friends hang out at work and outside work all the time, and it's the kind of friendship we love to see on screen, making us a little FOMO we are spending time with Cherise and Simon.
2 Hulu Series Is Better - The music
While both movies do an excellent job of curating their music, it's undeniable that the Hulu version's soundtrack is better, even simply because they had more years of music to work with. Every episode ends with a killer tune, and the show is riddled with fantastic music, whether it's the classics like Fleetwood Mac and Frank Zappa, or newbies like Omar Apollo who was only two or three years old when the original movie came out.
The newer soundtrack is also much more diverse, bringing in music from around the world, we can thank the internet for.
1 The Original is Better - Jack Black sings Let's Get It On
One of the best parts of the original movie is Jack Black's performance of Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On. The actor plays Barry who works at the record store Rob (John Cusack) owns and is part of a band called Sonic Death Monkey.
Throughout the film, the audience is made to feel worried about Barry's abilities as a musician, his best friend Rob even worried about his performance. However, when he's on stage, he tells everyone the band, for tonight, is called Barry Jive and the Uptown Five. Surprising everyone, Black's character sings beautiful, with his classic Jack Black mannerisms.
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