If Elle is to turn into its own franchise, it needs a lot more substance, notes Deepa Gahlot.
Key Points
- The Elle series explores Elle Woods’ high school years six years before the Legally Blonde film.
- Lexi Minetree portrays a teenage Elle who is depicted as smart and adaptable, contradicting the ‘ditzy’ persona of Reese Witherspoon’s character in the original film.
- Despite Lexi Minetree’s charming performance, the series is criticised for its lack of substance and its struggle to reconcile the prequel’s narrative with the established character of Elle Woods.
For a series made in 2026, Elle ought to have realised that the dumb blonde trope that the 2001 film Legally Blonde used is now outdated and sexist.
It was just smart marketing that turned the likeable but otherwise ordinary fish-out-of-water comedy into a franchise.
Based on a novel by Amanda Brown, Legally Blonde starred Reese Witherspoon as an airhead, whose brain cells get fired up when her boyfriend tells her she is not smart enough. So she follows him to the Harvard Law School to win him back.
Even if her wisdom comes from Cosmopolitan magazine, she proves that she has what it takes to be a case-winning lawyer, never mind that she uses a pen with a pink pom pom to make notes, and runs to a manicurist in a crisis.
Exploring Elle‘s Teenage Years
Elle, an eight-part series developed by Laura Kittrell, is a prequel to the film, taking place six years before the original, and covering the high school years of a teenage Elle Woods.
The role that Witherspoon played is portrayed by Lexi Minetree, who finds herself as a different fish in a different pond.
The portrayal of an optimistic, cheerful and clueless LA girl is fine, but this 16-year-old Elle is smart enough, even though her ‘Bible’ is Cosmo and her guide is her stylish mother Eva (June Diane Raphael), who has drilled it into her head that she can never fail.
The girl, who has already adapted to a hostile environment and emerged winner, could not possibly have grown into the ditzy Elle of the film, who is oblivious to the world around her that does not involve fashion. That big glitch out of the way, and Elle is just like countless other high school films and shows.
Culture Clash in Seattle
The series is set in 1995, so the costumes, cars, gadgets, music reflect the era and kissing a boy is a very big deal.
Elle’s plastic surgeon father (Tom Everett Scott) messes up a case, and they all have to move from sunny California to grey, rainy Seattle. In the high school she joins, Elle’s shiny blonde hair, bubblegum pink outfits and gleaming wedge heels stand out in a sea of dark hair, grungy black hoodies, plaid and boots.
She cannot understand why the other students immediately dislike her, and the leader of the mandatory mean girl clique, Kimberly (Chandler Kinney), goes out of the way to target her.
Elle almost paints a target on her back, like walking into a pool party at Kimberly’s house in a tiny pink bikini because that’s the done thing in LA, and finds there isn’t even water in the pool! Her mother is equally shocked when the neighbours she invites to a housewarming party, reject champagne and caviar in favour of beer and bread.
Forging Friendships and Finding Purpose
The school secretary, Donna (Amy Pietz) is the only one who is kind to her, but Elle inadvertently gets her fired, which makes her position at school even worse.
Still, in the process of trying to undo her error, she befriends Liz, Donna’s daughter, an out-of-the-closet gay (Gabrial Policano). Then with her can-do spirit, she wins the grudging respect of Dustin (Zac Looker), the school activist and the Miles (Jacob Moskovitz), the jock, who is almost a stock character in American high campus films.
Apart from the lack of acceptance and the almost daily humiliation inflicted by Kimberly (she writes slut on her locker with indelible ink), Elle’s sincerity and ability to solve problems does allow her to break through that wall of Seattle scowls.
Getting over the oddity of the school not having cheerleaders because of growing feminism — ‘it’s very in right now’, her mother observes — Elle manages to bring LA campus rituals like homecoming to Seattle. And she ends up not just joining but leading Dustin’s campaign to expose corruption in the school.
Elle’s Evolving Ambitions
Seattle changes her ambitions too, so Elle walks out of her dream internship at Cosmo because it is too ‘expected’ and ducks the attentions of ‘hot Josh’ whom she was enamoured of in LA.
She still graduates with a degree in fashion merchandising because six years later, that is what resume says when she seeks admission to the Harvard Law School.
The film, and the series, try too hard to hammer in the point that even dumb blondes can use their Cosmo-enhanced brains when the situation demands it, but do not see the irony of portraying them as bimbettes to begin with, like Elle’s group of permanently overexcited gal pals in both eras.
Lexi Minetree channels the Witherspoon spirit, without aping her, and anchors the series with her charm. If this series is to turn into its own franchise, it needs a lot more substance.
Elle is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
