elle is chewing gum for the eyes.

I do love films. I know that makes me sound pretentious, but honestly I can watch a movie, absolutely adore it, and then look up the reviews to find out that it has a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and is universally panned. Unpopular opinion, I wasn't a huge fan of The Odyssey. It was good, yes, but... good doesn't imply likable. Anyway, I recently started watching Elle, a prequel tv-show to Legally Blonde; Elle Woods, universal charmer, has to move from sunny L.A. to dreary Seattle due to her father's mishap as a plastic surgeon. 

If you know me, I love Legally Blonde. Elle Woods is a genius and if you don't agree, you're misogynistic because she doesn't conform to your standards of intelligence, which I believe is unable to be measured. Elle is a phenomenal character because they made her a nice girl, which we desperately need more of these days; however, I find it quite interesting that Elle is literally the only nice person at Harvard Law, as opposed to her peers, who consistently pick on her for her appearance and put her down in the beginning of her law school journey, even though they all made it to the same place??? Which makes me question the director, a male, for using a stereotype where the nice girls aren't smart and as a female, you must be a jerk to get where you want in life. Perhaps Vivian, Warren's fianceé who started off as a total shark to Elle, was one of the first appearances of a 'girlboss' stock character/portrayal of women in professional fields, which slowly crept through the noughties to rose in the 2010s as apart of fourth-wave feminism. Whatever, enough with my 2020s reevaluation of the film.

What I can criticize, however, as it didn't come out over 20 years ago, is this new Amazon Prime TV show. It's cute, it's camp, it's definitely chick-flick-esque; it's also really bad. Chewing gum for the eyes. There's abhorrent product-placement from L'Oreal, the lighting is very Dhar Mann, and there's literal ads before each episode; I thought the point of streaming was to get away from infamous cable commercials. 

It takes place in the late 90s, when Elle is 16 entering her junior year, and she has to move away from L.A., where she has friends, a social life, and a potential prospect for a boyfriend (not important at all during highschool & Hollywood execs gotta stop pushing this highschool romance propaganda; it sets you up for failure 99% of the time) to Seattle in the midst of the 'grunge' movement which was popularized there. So like of course everyone's wearing flannel, but this isn't even accurate??? I bet not everyone was wearing flannel, like I thought the punk movement which inspired the grunge movement was all about individuality and not conforming to the norm. Nevertheless, Elle is like the only one wearing pink on her first day of a new school, and everyone's a jerk to her because she's different; so ironic because isn't the setting a traditionally left-wing city? If not one of the most left-wing places in the world? Perhaps they are judging her for wearing colors that are traditionally associated with femininity in a patriarchal view, which is unfair because she's not wearing it to attract/please anyone, she's wearing it because she likes it. 

Pictured above is an example of the culture-clash depicted in Elle. 

What is the main difference between these two images? Well, for one, Elle in Elle is wears extremely muted colors as opposed to Legally Blonde, which may be a nod to the cooler color palette of Seattle, or how she grows into a bolder pink as she matures. But what I think is absolutely abhorrent is the LIGHTING!!! It's like someone took the saturation and turned it all the way down!!! Please! We are the most technologically advanced at this point in time, how have we forgotten the charm of warm lighting! Elle is warm, she has a warm color palette and she's extremely kind, why is she in boring lighting? This is an apocalypse swooping throughout most films/tv shows, and it's like, what is this Kim K-advertisement-on-Instagram lighting? Why doesn't anyone want to stand out?

Anyway, I have more to say but this isn't a book it's a blog, so I might go episode by episode or something I'm only on episode 3/4 I think.

xoxo, Louisa