Elle: Legally Blonde prequel without the candyfloss fizz of the film

Lexi Minetree evokes Reese Witherspoon’s character well, but the show lacks the sharpness and cast of the original

Lexi Minetree as Elle in Legally Blonde prequel series
Minetree looks like the film’s star, Reese Witherspoon, and captures some of what made her so brilliant in the part
(Image credit: Amazon MGM Studios / Courtesy of Prime Video)

“Nobody asked for a prequel to ‘Legally Blonde’,” said Anita Singh in The Telegraph, but here it is, because “ker-ching! – there is money to be made from rinsing the original”.

The result is “Elle” (Amazon Prime Video), “a cute but pointless series” in which we meet Elle Woods as a 16-year-old high schooler in 1990s Beverly Hills. She’s living her best life, until her parents announce that they have to move to rainy Seattle. So Elle is transplanted to the “epicentre of grunge”, where her “Barbie-pink outfits and perky demeanour are greeted with horror” by her hoodie-wearing peers. It is “a re-run of the film” – but “not half as funny”.

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