Elle

“Unlike the original film, it’s not really a comedy, whether that’s by design or because writer Laura Kittrell can’t come up with the jokes. There are a couple of good lines, as when someone points out the various groups of jocks, stoners and “kids with parents with Microsoft money” in the cafeteria and it’s impossible to distinguish them because all are dressed in exactly the same grungewear. Kittrell seems happiest when ladling nostalgic references into the show, whether that be the Nineties soundtrack, the presence of the late Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek as a supporting character, or lines that are meant to make us chuckle because of what we know now (“What do you think of the Hugh Grant scandal? Because I don’t think he’s coming back from it,” Elle’s mum says of the actor’s arrest on Sunset Boulevard). The best thing about the series is its celebration of a character who brims with positivity and goodness. And it’s nice to know that TV can still produce something so wholesome. Elle is 16 and has never been kissed; contrast that with the sex, drugs and nihilism of teenage life in Euphoria, and Elle’s world is a comfortingly safe place.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“It’s just very, very 2026 – a photocopied version of something beloved from 25 years ago, stacked with callbacks and pointless origin stories (ever curious how Elle got her pet chihuahua Bruiser? Well, here’s your answer), but given the aura of something essential because it’s executive-produced by the star of the original. Perhaps I’m simply too old for this. But I’m convinced the young people of today expect and deserve more from their entertainment than warmed-over revivals missing all of the pep, colour and dazzle of their predecessors. That’s not meeting the audience where they are. It’s serving them slop and expecting them to be grateful.”
Adam White, Independent

“I’ll be honest, the series (which tilts towards a second one at the end) is all a bit young for a fogey like me, but it is a nice, slick nostalgia fix — a throwback to simpler, happier times — and as a prequel, it definitely works.”
Carol Midgley, The Times