The 'Cruel Intentions' TV Show Is Yet Another Terrible And Unnecessary Reboot

The Prime Video series uses sex as a plot in a way that’s regressive and completely out of touch with today's world.

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.