Legally Blonde Prequel Elle Is A Cute Origin Story That Plays It Too Safe
Legally Blonde introduced us to the blonde, pink-loving Elle Woods, a young woman deemed unserious by her ex-boyfriend and decides to prove him wrong by enrolling in law school. What begins as an attempt to win him back becomes a journey of self-discovery, as Elle realizes she never needed him in the first place. The role was a major turning point in Reese Witherspoon’s career and remains one of her most iconic performances.
Following the film’s success came multiple sequels of varying quality, including Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, which follows Elle as she fights to protect animals from cosmetic testing, and Legally Blondes, centered on Elle’s British twin cousins. And, of course, my personal favorite: Legally Blonde: The Musical and its reality competition companion series The Search for Elle Woods. Now, we’re getting Elle’s origin story in the new Prime Video series Elle. Set in the 1990s, the show stars Lexi Minetree as a teenage Elle Woods who relocates from sunny California to Seattle.
The show certainly has potential, but it doesn’t always make sense within the world of Legally Blonde. In many ways, it rehashes plot points from the original film, which ends up undermining some of what made that story so effective in the first place. The aesthetic also rarely feels like the 1990s. Outside of the soundtrack, there’s very little to distinguish the setting from the present day. Throw an iPhone into a scene and the show could easily pass as contemporary.
Minetree does a solid job as Elle Woods. She captures the character’s sweetness, charm, and genuine desire to be a good person. After leaving her California bubble for Seattle, Elle finds herself judged for supposedly being “just like everyone else,” despite the fact that she’s the only person dressed head-to-toe in pink and actively trying to connect with others. Ironically, the Seattle rebels spend much of the season criticizing Elle’s conformity while every single one of them looks and thinks exactly the same. They pride themselves on being nonconformists, yet they all wearing black and plaid and have variations of the same attitude. They’re terrified of blending in, but they’re the ones who are indistinguishable caricatures from one another.
The series is packed with Easter eggs and callbacks to the original film, including how Elle gets Bruiser, her iconic “Woods, comma, Elle,” her being a Gemini vegetarian, wearing the wrong outfit to a party, and even a new spin on her famous courtroom moment as she helps uncover a financial scandal at her new school.
Along the way, Elle discovers that she actually enjoys being challenged by her new classmates and forms a strong group of friends. There’s Liz (Gabrielle Policano), a lesbian musician who encourages Elle to stop worrying about what others think, and Dustin (Zac Looker), an activist who becomes both an unlikely friend and a potential love interest. Not every character lands though. Her primary crush Miles (Jacob Moskovitz) never quite brings enough charisma to the role and his storyline puts Elle in an awkward position to break girl code.
Ultimately, Elle is a cute and easy binge. I’ll probably keep watching if the already-confirmed second season arrives. Still, the first season feels somewhat lackluster. The idea of following a younger Elle as she tackles new legal mysteries each season is a fun one, but the show needs to push her journey beyond Seattle stereotypes. The original Legally Blonde was about proving that people are more than the boxes they’re placed in. Elle Woods deserves a rich origin story, not one that limits her world with a new set of labels.
The first season of Elle is streaming now on Prime Video.
