Heartbreak High final season review – a colourful but contrived farewell to Hartley High

The third season of Netflix’s remake has a spritely energy and an appealing fresh-faced cast, but it lacks what made the long-running original so compelling When it comes to remaking an old TV show, where do you draw the line between honouring the original and carving out a tone and style of your own? I’ll grant that Netflix’s Heartbreak High remake has its virtues, such as a sprightly energy and an appealing fresh-faced cast, but I’m not sure I can ever forgive the producers for taking such a blinged-out U-turn away from what made the long-running original so compelling. The first Heartbreak High, which aired in the 1990s, had a thrilling near-verite realism and gritty, lived-in aesthetic that was perfectly befitting the authenticity of the characters, who were played by a widely diverse cast well before the diversity movement drew attention to popular culture’s long-entrenched whiteness. Continue reading...

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