'Cruel Intentions' Reboot Review: A Bad, Unnecessary TV Series

Cece Carroway, Caroline Merteuil and Lucien Belmont in Prime Video's "Cruel Intentions" TV series. However, while the film became a cult classic for its satirical adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” today’s version fails to execute that intention. From “This is bigger than color war; college is camp times a million” to “What if fascists are just power-hungry philanthropists?” the show fails to execute the satirical elements of the 1999 movie or Greek-system satires like “Scream Queens.” It’s also hard to watch a show like “Cruel Intentions” and not feel that it is completely out of touch with this specific cultural moment. Like the movie, the show also reinforces the harmful, heteronormative construct of virginity, and what does and doesn’t “count” is debated between three girls, one of whom argues, “A thrust is a thrust is a thrust.” Again, instead of being satirical, lines like these feel completely out of touch, regressive and problematic, perpetuating power imbalances in which men have more control and sex must look one way to “count.” In addition to these larger content issues, the show is also poorly constructed. The entire thing is so painful to watch that it can’t even be the kind of “bad TV” that becomes a “guilty pleasure.” If you want to watch a show about the fine lines that separate love, sexual manipulation and emotional abuse, I recommend Hulu’s “Tell Me Lies,” which, although also set in college and features a lot of sex, the sex is part of a larger narrative that the series is constantly questioning and reexamining.