No question, the 2001 Reese Witherspoon feature film “Legally Blonde” was a hoot. But is that a world and a character you’d want to revisit on a weekly basis?
Amazon’s Prime Video seems to think so, already ordering a second season of prequel series “Elle,” now streaming its entire eight-episode first season.
Maybe Amazon will be proved right, after all; its YA shows (“The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “Off Campus”) have been hits for the streamer. While ostensibly a comedy – albeit one that’s rarely all that funny — a lengthy list of “do not reveals” suggests “Elle” will be as soapy as other Prime teen shows, so it may fit right in.
Set in 1995, six years before the events in “Legally Blonde,” Elle Woods (Lexi Minetree) has just turned 16 and is about to start her junior year of high school when her plastic surgeon father (Tom Everett Scott) botches a nose job and the family has to relocate to Seattle.
Clad in her always-pink wardrobe, Elle in grunge-period Seattle is good for a few fish-out-of-water jokes – the show’s theme song is ‘90s Garbage hit “Only Happy When It Rains” — but is that enough to support two seasons of a streaming series? I have my doubts.
“We don’t do posers here,” a Mean Girl tells Elle on her second day at Seattle’s Rainier West High School when Elle shows up in a Nirvana shirt. “Seattle isn’t a costume and pink isn’t a personality.”
Created by Laura Kittrell (“High School,” “Insecure”), the strongest element in “Elle,” aside from the ‘90s music for viewers of a certain age, is the show’s lead actress, Minetree, who looks like Witherspoon, sounds like Witherspoon and effortlessly captures Elle’s innate mix of kindness, smarts, confidence and obliviousness.
Cute but instantly forgettable, “Elle” isn’t awful, but it plays like unnecessary fan fiction.
Native artist public TV doc
Pittsburgh native artist James Michalopoulos (born James Mitchell), who is known for his decades-long career as a contemporary painter in New Orleans, gets profiled in “Michalopoulos: The Art of Celebration,” airing on WQED-TV tonight at 11 p.m.
The one-hour public TV film explores Michalopoulos’ early years in Pittsburgh as the son of architect Edward J. Mitchell, co-designer (with Dahlen Ritchey) of Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena and Mellon Square.
But most of the film focuses on Michalopoulos’ plein air painting in New Orleans, beginning with his arrival in the city in 1978.
‘The Pitt’ adds to cast
HBO Max’s “The Pitt” will add several recurring characters for its third season, including student doctors Taj Osei (Malachi Beasley) and Marisol Elena Sambrano Monterossa (Cheyenne Perez), physician assistant Vera Delgado (Rosanny Zayas) and ER patients Lance “The Professor” Candella (Pruitt Taylor Vince), Grant Emerson (Jeremy Radin) and Angus “Trigger” Gunn (Charlz Williams).
The third season is set in November, just before the holidays. Could it be set on the day of Pittsburgh’s Light Up Night, the Saturday before Thanksgiving?
‘The Bear’
Due to an ill-timed embargo lift, I couldn’t write about the final season of FX’s Hulu series “The Bear” last week, but I mostly thought the final season worked with the exception of the ending of Carmy’s story, which didn’t really get much resolution. Most of the other characters got conclusions to their characters’ arcs over the course of the series, but it remains ambiguous what Carmy will do next. (Seems unlikely he got that architecture internship after blabbering at poor Bonnie Hunt and is most likely still working at The Bear.)
The penultimate episode had all the tension and action of much of season one and the finale played more like an epilogue that was at times predictable (you can see the end of that scene with Carmy and Syd about the Michelin stars coming a mile away) but I did appreciate the subtle tribute to late cast member Rob Reiner (Ebra, talking on the phone to Reiner’s unseen character, says, “As you wish,” a famous line from Reiner’s directorial hit “The Princess Bride.”)
Overall, the final season offered a warm, humanistic portrait of characters trying (and largely succeeding!) in improving themselves, leaning into kindness over chaos, love and camaraderie over fear and disgruntlement, which ultimately makes “The Bear” a welcome salve in a time of division.
‘MRN’ books
Following last month’s debut of the “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” YouTube channel, Fred Rogers Productions has expanded its publishing partnership with Simon Schuster, which has published “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” books since 2014, to include “a new range” of books tied to “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
The first book will arrive in fall 2027, but it’s unclear if these books will be for children or adult fans of “MRN.”
‘MRN’ concert
A recording of the Fred Rogers Institute’s Sounds of the Neighborhood concert, featuring music from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” performed on Fred and Joanne Rogers’ pianos, will air at 7 p.m. July 3 on WQED-FM’s “Performances in Pittsburgh,” also streaming at wqed.org/fm/player/mainand available for listening later on WQED’s Encore page of its website.
Kept/canceled
Netflix will bring back “Nemesis” for a second season.
Amazon’s Prime Video renewed “Every Year After” for a second season.
Netflix canceled “Building the Band” after one season.
Premiere dates
Australian comedy “Colin from Accounts” returns for its third season July 27.
Season four of Amazon’s Prime Video series “Reacher” premieres with three episodes Aug. 12. Spin-off series “Neagley” arrives on Prime Video Sept. 16.
“S.W.A.T.” spin-off “S.W.A.T. Exiles” will debut at 12 a.m. Sept. 25 on cable’s Starz (and its streaming app) as the series follows the further adventures of Honda (Shemar Moore) as he leads an experimental unit of young recruits. Episodes will also air at 10 p.m. Fridays.
Channel surfing
Former SportsNet Pittsburgh Penguins rinkside reporter Hailey Hunter posted to Instagram that she’ll be on-air through Sunday as part of Golf Channel’s coverage of the John Deere Classic. … Late last week, Warner Bros. Animation announced plans to reanimate the live-action supernatural soap “Dark Shadows” as an adult animated series. … After 15 years together, Comcast announced plans to re-separate NBC, theme parks and movie studios from its cable/internet business, which media observers see as a precursor to a sale of one or both companies. Perhaps Netflix will make another run at a legacy studio? … HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver landed a gig guest starring as a character on ABC’s “General Hospital” in the July 2, 3 and 6 episodes. … Timed to America’s 250th birthday, WQED brings back “The War that Made America.” The four-part docuseries about the 1754-1763 French and Indian War, made when WQED still had ambitions for creating national productions, is now streaming at WQED . … Theatrical hit “Project Hail Mary” streams on Amazon’s Prime Video Friday. … Mark Harmon returns to his “NCIS” role as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, appearing in all episodes of the third season of CBS’s “NCIS: Origins” as part of a present-day mystery tied to his ‘90s Camp Pendleton era. … David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown, who played father and daughter characters on “Stranger Things,” will reprise that familial dynamic in an untitled Netflix espionage thriller from “Adolescence” co-creator Jack Thorne.