Which came first: The cancellation news, or the misery? Hard to say today, as Deadline reports that Hulu has just knocked Zoë Kravitz’s High Fidelity off its all-time lists of shows it’s going to make a second season of. The report also notes that this was a tougher-than-usual decision for the streamer, which really hemmed-and-hawed over giving the critically well-regarded series a second season—which probably isn’t all that much of a consolation, now that we think of it.
Adapted from Nick Hornby’s novel (and wholly distinct from the 2000 John Cusack film), High Fidelity starred Kravitz as Rob, a Brooklyn record store owner mulling over the various heartbreaks of her past. (And, unlike Cusack’s Rob, genuinely trying to learn something from the whole ordeal.) Developed for TV by Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka, the series co-starred Jake Lacy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and David H. Holmes, all compellingly stepping into the book/film’s parts in ways that make us legitimately sad to see the series go.
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I still haven’t got around to watching this yet. I’m keen to given I loved the book and movie.I’m not sure how they advertised it in America but in my country the ads were mystifyingly oblique about what the show was actually about – It was lots of tight close up shots of Zoe Kravitz’ face as her eyes moved from left to right or slow-motion of her eating cereal.
I enjoyed it. The show wasn’t life changing or anything, but it was a fine dramedy with well defined and well acted characters. On more than one occasion, it also sent me off to my favorite music streamer to hear more from a musical artist and I know that it caused me to add at least one album to my streamer’s bookmarks.It would have been nice to follow the characters for a couple more seasons, but due to the pandemic and everyone’s schedule, it would probably be years until they could get back to it, so I understand why it may have been canceled.
As someone who loves the novel and 2000 movie, I recommend it. There are a lot of references to the movie, as well as the novel (i.e., the scene with the woman giving away her husband’s record collection), but it adds some cool new elements to the story’s universe.
I have to admit I don’t get Zoe Kravitz. It’s like people have just declared her a “star” but I have no idea why (other than her famous parents).
I also loved the film and the book. The trailers really did not sell me on this show. Showing me the show repeating the exact lines from the film and book didn’t entice me to watch a third version of those same words. Granted, I realize there are differences and those difference can make the show it’s own thing but my point was about the trailer not doing its job, at least for me.I’m going to give it a chance now, though, based on the comments.
It takes a bit to find its groove, but it’s enjoyable enough. Their attempt to make it queerer was sort of misplaced, though (i.e., it wasn’t wrong to make the lead bi, but they picked the wrong exes to expand its queerness, if that makes any sense)
The show was pretty decent, but it relied extremely heavily on lingering goodwill for the movie. It definitely did not feel “wholly distinct from the 2000 John Cusack film” to me, nor to the writers of the movie adapatation, who took some offense at being stolen from:https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/04/high-fidelity-writers-not-credited-hulu-tv-remake/ The show made a few stabs at finding its own voice, and nearly got there by the last couple episodes of the season. But I don’t feel too broken up about it not getting renewed.
Well lucky for them I have a lot of goodwill for the movie. Show a bit less.
Yeah, “wholly distinct from the 2000 John Cusack film” is a REAL stretch, not just from a lot of the lines verbatim (which I assume were also in the book, probably) but a lot of the music cues, scenes, and staging.
While i was at first distracted by how much it mirrored the film exactly, I will agree that it markedly improved by the end of the season, when it really did start to deviate from the movie version, which makes me a little disappointed it won’t get another season to see where it could have really gone.Now that we’ve seen that you can produce a charming yet very similar show 20 years after the movie, I’m hoping High Fidelity will be the new Emma, with new adaptations coming out every few years. Wait… is Nick Horny ALREADY the 21st century Jane Austen? They already did an About a Boy TV show and two film versions of Fever Pitch.
It tried to find its own voice by setting it not in London (as in the book) nor Chicago (as in the movie) but Brooklyn, a setting new and fresh and so little used in film and TV and not at all a tired cliche!
The movie very much felt like they brooklyned chicago.
Not really. Wicker Park (the Chicago neighborhood where it was set) is a hip neighborhood of book and music stores as shown (especially twenty years ago before the chains moved in/internet shopping/covid killing retail). Other than both having a lot of hipsters, it’s not really much like Brooklyn.
it was in Wicker Park? All this time I misremembered it as being one of the Belmont stores
Movies do play fast and loose with geography, and some locations were elsewhere in Chicago or even in California, but the store itself was a real vacant building at 1500 North Milwaukee Avenue (since redeveloped), so definitely Wicker Park.
the location or the store in the movie or both?
Considering how large a role the Double Door plays in the movie, I’d say both. That movie is a pretty accurate picture of Wicker Park of the aughts.
The physical location in Chicago of where they filmed it. The exterior anyway, the interior was probably a set. But it was probably also supposed to be at that address within the context of the movie’s world because the nearby club where Barry (Jack Black) performed at the end was the Double Door, which was then located just down the street at 1572 N. Milwaukee Avenue.
Just makes me wish I’d made it to Wicker Park more than like once in my life. It was a little far west for me at the time but I should have been more adventurous.
The Double Door closing and the space becoming a goddamn Yeti Cooler store is some real “paved paradise and put up a parking lot” shit.
I re-watched the movie recently and had a lot of whiplash trying to figure out the geography. I had to assume he lived somewhere like Uptown/Edgewater/Rogers Park because he was on the purple line (and clearly going past Graceland Cemetery north of Irving Park Rd.), which seems like an awfully long commute to Wicker Park. Every film set in Chicago should hire a local to make sure the geography and logistics are realistic.
The area they set it in, Wicker Park, was “Brooklyn” before Brooklyn happened. Maybe you had to be there, I don’t know. But what happened in 2000s Brooklyn, had already happened in 90s Wicker Park in Chicago. *shrug*
It was a little hokey when Sgt. Jeffords came in, grabbed a Miles Davis record and screamed “Terry likes jazz!”
Hmm. interesting story about the show ripping off the movie. I can’t imagine why there wasn’t a WGA arbitration over the credits. I guess claiming it’s adapted from the book gave them some cover, but the WGA should have been on their side and not just allowed the studio to delete their contributions. That’s the whole point of the Guild and of the maddening, flawed, frustrating, but well-intentioned arbitration process.
I had a headcanon early on that Zoe’s Rob was actually the daughter of the film’s Rob and Lisa Bonet’s Marie De Salle, living a life that eerily echoed her father’s.
Thanks for this- I’ve considered going against my first impression & actually giving the series a chance, what with all the praise I’ve been seeing, but this largely confirms the series is exactly what I intended to avoid anywho.
Agreed. A gender swapped take on the movie. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.
Twitter is freaking out like anyone actually watched it… I couldn’t make it past four episodes This show was beyond cringe…and most episodes had no basis in reality what so ever….the writers should have totally strayed from the original plot to something closer to fantasy or just done a complete gender flipped word for word retelling anything would have been better than what we got
Four episodes is more than I usually give something.
Cringe is getting tossed around on twitter about a lot of different things, what does it mean?
How strange your life must be to assume everyone experiences things the same way you do.
“There it is. Grossly exaggerating the quality of a just OK TV show. You’re officially a millenial”
Hammer, Head of Social Media – Pawtucket Brewery
Who would have thought no one would watch a show that wasn’t what it was based on
I’ve read this five times and still have no idea what you are saying.
He’s mad that they made John Cusack a yucky girl?
Makes sense. What it was based on was about a guy in England.
I guess but does that mean that no one likes Clueless? 10 Things I Hate About You? The Lion King? Because those are all much farther removed from their source material and all widely beloved.
Counterpoint: Watchmen.
also die hard. you don’t hear a lot of roderick thorp fanboys mad they changed joe leland’s name to john mcclane. (i know die hard isn’t a show [yet])
I am one of the seven people on Earth who liked and still likes Watchmen, the movie. I hated the three eps I saw of the show.
H I G H E R
On the one hand, I definitely enjoyed the first season well enough that I would’ve very much liked to see a second season . But on the other, the first season works wonderfully as a miniseries as well, and I can still appreciate it for that.
Perfect summation of the series!
That’s what I was wondering. I haven’t watched it, but was the series not just taking the plot of the movie/book and turning it into episodes? If so, did they not get to the end of it after 1 season? What else would they do?
Yeah it borrows pretty liberally from the film. In fact, one whole episode of the show was based around a deleted scene from the film (involving a valuable record collection being sold by a spiteful spouse for a pittance). In hindsight, I have to wonder if the series’s rather close adherence to the plot and structure of the film ultimately worked against it, because the powers that be at Hulu saw it and wondered “Where could it go next?” Which is a shame, because the show was genuinely good, if derivative, and I would’ve looked forward to seeing where a second season went.
They didn’t get to the end of it, though. I kept waiting for that fun ending but it didn’t really happen.
I didn’t realize it had come out yet.
I loved it, and it worked as a one-season show, but I really, really hoped it would get a second season.
If female studio leads and showrunners have any original ideas, I’d be pretty excited to see them..
I only watched two episodes of this show, but I liked it well enough.Oh, crap, is it MY fault the show got cancelled??
Yeah man, I was totally going to get around to watching Firefly on Sundays. My bad.
Oh, good. I never liked that show.
On the one hand, I definitely enjoyed the first season well enough that I would’ve very much liked to see a second season . But on the other, the first season works wonderfully as a miniseries as well, and I can still appreciate it for that. I am a blogger and i write for – https://pestcontroldubaiprice.com/
They really screwed up by making Cherise not horribly obnoxious and Rob extremely good looking and generally nice. That’s not High Fidelity.
I’m sad to see this go, cause I ended up really liking it, but I went in thinking it was just a mini-series, so I always assumed it wouldn’t go past the last episode.
Randolph has now been in two of my favorite single season romantic comedy shows.That means nothing, but it true.
More like Low Fidelity, amiright!?
High Infidelity?
DEBOOT
HBO canceled Vinyl a while back too. Kinda makes ya think, don’t it?
I only watched Vinyl for it’s honest and realistic take on how you’re supposed to snort cocaine.
I watched it for Olivia Wilde’s merkin.
And CBS cancelled WKRP in Cincinnati after just four seasons!
I still haven’t gotten over it, I don’t think I ever will.
Haha.
Full of that “good will toward the film,” I liked it, then each succeeding episode less until it faded from my watch list before the season ended. To be fair, I feel the same way about most streamed series these days. It appears they attempt to cram 4 episodes worth of decent plot into each full season. (Yes, that is sarcasm.) Netflix is the worst offender. Hulu actually has a better track record. Letterkenny being a standout example.
From one of the writers: Like, even an Easter egg in-joke I laid in to a record store scene for a friend — the meaning of which the TV writers could never know — was simply lifted and dropped into their teleplay with the rest of it.This is pretty damning of the show. Embarrassing stuff.
I was trying to figure out what line this might reference but no luck. I guess the point is that I can’t.
Oh no, not the shitty “not a remake” remake of the movie that some how managed to take good material (from the book AND movie) and make it boring.Then, you know… claimed they didn’t rip off the movie.
‘Wholly distinct’ as in the ‘extremely familiar’ sense?
Show sucked anyway, no big loss.
As others noted “wholly distinct” is way beyond a stretch. Hell, they even ripped off the closing credits music. I felt like the series shared more with the series than it did the book. As much as I enjoyed the series as an extended version of the film with genders flipped. It seemed to run its course as it used up its source material. The attempts to branch out into new territory were a reasonable attempt at new ground but it felt like a search for an excuse for season 2 more than being true to the characters.
Loved this show. This is a real shame.
a Brooklyn record store ownerNo, thank you
Lisa Bonet v2.0 can never be cancelled. 🙂
Look, no BS here. I honestly didn’t even know this was on Hulu. Maybe it needed more marketing or something, but my first take from this article was, there was a series?
I’m surprised I was unaware that this show existed. Sounds like it’s right up my alley. Now I just wonder if it’s worth watching if there’s only one season. Someone who’s watched it – does season 1 stand on it’s own? Like, will I be left feeling unsatisfied by it ending after S1?
If you’re super-attached the book/movie endings, you might feel a little frustrated that it doesn’t quite get that far. But it does stand on its own and has a fairly satisfying ending.
Lil’ Zoë is so fine! I hope she’ll find another tv show.
It would have been nice to see the show continue, since it got better as the season progressed and deviated from the movie (I haven’t read the book). It was a solid 1st season that could have led to an even better 2nd season. Not a HUGE bummer, but a bummer nonetheless.
Eh…nevermind.
the new catwoman show may have something to do with it too, but honestly me and my partner tried it and thought it was really boring? idk, maybe a dramatic plot supposed to be resolved in 100 minutes sucks drawn out over 10 episodes. a lot of these streaming shows don’t know how to do pacing though
‘Cancels’ is a pejorative term. In this age of high series turnover a more apt term might be ‘ends the run’ of a series. I’ve seen AV Club apply that word ‘cancel’ to series that had obviously run their course, finished their story line and ended on their own terms.
Hulu cancellations, all time:1) High Fidelity2) … okay, I’ve never actually subscribed to Hulu, and can’t name any other shows they’ve cancelled. In my defense, I didn’t say it was going to be a list of five.