Elle 2026 Tv Show Review
In her first starring role, Lexi Minetree admirably takes on the role Reese Witherspoon completely owned and, although she’s a bit old (25) to be playing a high schooler, rises to the challenge quite effectively.
As is typical, every actor playing high school students is absurdly too mature (both physically and emotionally) to be playing these characters. Granted it’s admittedly difficult to balance having kids who are legal enough to work with the need to have that young, school-aged look, but this casting seems like a few “who cares?” were tossed around. I’m also curious to see how Seattle responds to the plethora of plaid-wearing, grunge-listening, naval-gazing stereotypes. Hopefully they realize this story takes place in the 90s and can laugh at themselves.
Those minor gripes aside, the characters are fun (June Dianne-Raphael shines as Elle’s “the tree doesn’t stand far from the apple” mom), the direction, cinematography, and set decoration are impressive for a Prime production (although it’s pretty obvious this is British Columbia, not Seattle), and the scripting stays true to the charming fish-out-of-water source material. This could’ve easily turned into an embarrassing and childish disaster, but the team behind the series smartly leaned into the “lovable and ditzy narcissism you can’t resist” that Reese perfected 25 years ago.
So far, so good. Nothing award-winning by any stretch, but its a fine and faithful spin-off that deserves attention. Oh, and be on the lookout for the Beverly Hills Hotel car-phone/rainy Seattle phone booth scene at the beginning of episode two. Yes, that’s where the famous album cover for Eagles’ “Hotel California” was photographed.
