From platform shoes to slip dresses to chokers, fashion that was once popular in the ’90s is back again. The biggest difference is that it’s likely to be of even worse quality than the clothing and jewelry that was actually worn in the ’90s. The eternal wisdom that everything comes back in style but now at heightened speed and with poorer construction also seems to be an apt truism for television adaptations of ’90s entertainment, including Prime Video’s unnecessary and poorly executed series “Cruel Intentions.”
The eight-part series, based on the classic 1999 film starring Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe and Selma Blair, reimagines it in today’s world. In the original, the setting is the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, and the characters are teenagers on summer break before they return to their elite boarding school in the fall. Now, the setting is Manchester College, an elite school in Washington, D.C., where the students serve as proxies for their parents’ political agendas within the campus’ sororities and fraternities.
Instead of two manipulative stepsiblings betting on the seduction of a virginal classmate as part of a larger scheme that is supposed to benefit the sister socially, the storyline is now about two manipulative stepsiblings betting on the seduction of the vice president of the United States’ daughter as part of a larger scheme to save the sister’s sorority after a hazing incident has endangered Greek life.
Within this new framework, there are frequent and obvious allusions to the movie: the use of the same font for the title sequence, a vintage black Jaguar, a cross necklace filled with cocaine, a suggestion of someone with an eating disorder, and a closeted gay storyline. There’s also an affair with an older Black man who becomes a pawn in the sister’s scheme, as well as a scene where two female characters practice a first kiss together. Even actors who appeared in the movie pop up in the series, as is the case with Sean Patrick Thomas, who plays a professor at the college.
The characters’ names are also clear references to the original. The sister is Caroline (Sarah Catherine Hook) instead of Kathryn, the brother is Lucien (Zac Burgess) instead of Sebastian, the new girl he is trying to seduce is Annie (Savannah Lee Smith) instead of Annette, and the sister’s best friend is Cece (Sara Silva) instead of Cecile.
However, while the film became a cult classic for its satirical adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” today’s version fails to execute that intention. Instead, the spiteful stepsiblings and their sexual manipulations just feel pointless and problematic.
To be fair, when the movie is viewed through today’s eyes, it is also problematic. Sebastian’s sexual behavior — everything from spreading nude pictures of his therapist’s daughter online to the imbalanced power dynamics between him and the girls he sleeps with — is not OK. It’s similarly problematic that Annette’s virtuosity is tied to her virginity, a construct that is part of a larger sexual double standard that the movie reinforces. The difference now is that it emphasizes its satire by making it feel far removed from the world we live in.
The same is not true for Prime Video’s adaptation. The plot uses sex in a way that feels especially regressive, as does the choice to set the story within the Greek system. It’s “exclusionary, classist, binary, [and] heteronormative,” says a student involved in protesting the sororities and fraternities in one of the episodes. “That’s all the buzz words,” she adds in a way that is supposed to evoke irony but only manages to reinforce how dated of a choice it was for the show to use the Greek system to create stakes.
Every episode is plagued by poorly written one-liners like this, especially the first few. From “This is bigger than color war; college is camp times a million” to “What if fascists are just power-hungry philanthropists?” the show fails to execute the satirical elements of the 1999 movie or Greek-system satires like “Scream Queens.”
It’s also hard to watch a show like “Cruel Intentions” and not feel that it is completely out of touch with this specific cultural moment. It’s particularly troubling to watch a show that centers on sexual manipulation post-Me Too, as well as in a world where the president-elect still managed to win despite bragging about sexually assaulting women. We’re also in a post-Dobbs country in which 21 states “ban abortion or restrict the procedure earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade” and where women who experience sexual manipulation or assault do not have control over their bodies.
Like the movie, the show also reinforces the harmful, heteronormative construct of virginity, and what does and doesn’t “count” is debated between three girls, one of whom argues, “A thrust is a thrust is a thrust.” Again, instead of being satirical, lines like these feel completely out of touch, regressive and problematic, perpetuating power imbalances in which men have more control and sex must look one way to “count.”
In addition to these larger content issues, the show is also poorly constructed. Characters are one-dimensional, and stereotypes are used as lazy plot devices. The entire thing is so painful to watch that it can’t even be the kind of “bad TV” that becomes a “guilty pleasure.”
If you want to watch a show about the fine lines that separate love, sexual manipulation and emotional abuse, I recommend Hulu’s “Tell Me Lies,” which, although also set in college and features a lot of sex, the sex is part of a larger narrative that the series is constantly questioning and reexamining.
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Ultimately, “Cruel Intentions” is just another example of an adaptation that wasn’t needed. There’s a level of intentionality that is missing from it, and like a black stretchy choker, the series would’ve been best left on the shelf.