Update your top 5 book-to-film-to-TV adaptations: Hulu’s High Fidelity is here

By Allison Shoemaker | February 14, 2020 | 6:00am

TV Lists What's On Tonight

Update your top 5 book-to-film-to-TV adaptations: Hulu’s High Fidelity is here

Zoë Kravitz
Photo: Phillip Caruso

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, February 14, and Saturday, February 15. All times are Eastern.

Top picks

High Fidelity (Hulu, Friday, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): “‘What came first, the music or the misery?’ asks John Cusack’s Chicago record store owner Rob in the 2000 movie High Fidelity. It’s difficult to separate the two, as yet another of Rob’s relationships goes up in flames, and he wallows in ‘sad bastard’ songs and traces his top 5 breakups to try to figure out exactly what went wrong in his life. Twenty years later, vinyl is back, or still in fashion, and High Fidelity is ripe for a reboot. In the 10-episode series on Hulu, mixtapes are swapped for playlists, Chicago for Brooklyn, and the character of Rob, immortalized both by Cusack and in Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel, is now female. Zoë Kravitz enters the fictional world that her mother, Lisa Bonet, inhabited as singer Marie De Salle in the film, but she doesn’t really need the cred. Kravitz ably inhabits the role of Rob (in her first starring series role), who’s set adrift at the end of another long-term relationship, trying to figure out what it is about her that makes everyone leave.” Read the rest of Gwen Ihnat’s pre-air review here.

Most Popular

Visible: Out On Television (Apple TV+, Friday, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): “In Visible: Out On Television, a new five-part docuseries from Apple TV+ that tracks LGBTQ representation in American television, there’s a consistent thread of innovation. Many of the TV creators featured in interviews talk of how they had to create the narratives that were missing, create their own stories. But the series also reaches back into a time when closeted performers had to create personas for themselves in order to survive in a homophobic industry. Queer activists also had to claim space in the news, interrupting live broadcasts to demand that major news outlets actually cover LGBTQ realities. Using talking-head-style interviews with actors, writers, producers, activists, news anchors, and more, Visible: Out On Television establishes an inclusive and incisive narrative of queer resistance and queer invention.” Read the rest of Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya’s pre-air review here.

Regular coverage

Wild cards

The Thing About Harry (Freeform, Saturday, 8 p.m.): Freeform’s contribution to the biggest weekend of the year for love/corporations that sell heart-shaped things is this charming rom-com, which is worth a look for reasons beyond the fact that its winning protagonist is a gay man—but let’s not let that go uncelebrated either.

For those who love a good romantic trope (and we love a good romantic trope), you should know that this one contains both “enemies to loves” and “forced to share a hotel room.” Take it away, synopsis:

The Thing About Harry tells the story of high school enemies, uber-jock Harry and out-and-proud Sam, who are forced to share a car ride to their Missouri hometown for a friend’s engagement party on Valentine’s Day. Things take a turn when Sam learns Harry has come out. Stuck spending the night together in a roadside motel, Harry and Sam begin to develop a deep friendship—with neither admitting a potential romance may be brewing—leaving them wondering if one road trip could change the rest of their lives.

Prepare to be charmed.

Utopia Falls (Hulu, Friday, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): “In some ways, Utopia Falls is under a hefty amount of pressure. As the creative forces behind the show tout, it is the first sci-fi series to utilize hip-hop. And maybe that’s why the failures of this execution sting so much: When it comes to imagined worlds where Black art is celebrated so rapturously in the future, there really aren’t any other properties to choose from. While it can’t possibly satisfy every single person craving this manner of representation, those who are looking toward Utopia Falls to set a bar may find themselves still wanting. Should it survive beyond its first season—and truthfully, getting a second shot wouldn’t be the worst thing—we can hope that any further attempts to continue this story involve a more well-rounded tribute to all of the voices that make the culture so vibrant, relevant, and for many, life-saving.” Read the rest of Shannon Miller’s pre-air review here.