In his two-star review, Seale took particular aim at the screenwriting, pointing out that while there are moments of “peppy fun”, the scripts seem to be “deliberately half-baked, as if the show isn’t expecting your full attention”.
And maybe that’s true – it’s been widely reported that writers these days are doing so-called “second-screen writing” – effectively dumbing down plots so that viewers can still follow along, while simultaneously scrolling on their phones.
That doesn’t mean that comedy should suffer, with Seale saying that every time a scene could deliver a “killer gag”, instead it was just “gently amusing”.
“There are just so many moments here that could sing, yet they barely murmur,” he wrote.
It is as if the show isn’t even trying to be funny, said Indie Wire’s Ben Travers, external, because there aren’t many jokes in the show, and the ones that are there are “too tepid”.
Travers also criticised the plot for focusing on “tired teen drama, a pathetic love triangle and a lazy mystery”.
The Independent’s Adam White pointed out, external that Legally Blonde 3 has been stuck in “development hell” since 2018, so Elle is a “quick fix” that will inevitably make money.
But it is “curiously unfunny” and will “likely leave many watching unsatisfied”, he said.
Yes, there are love triangles, “mean teens” and scandals, he said, but the show is missing the “sheer sharpness of the movie”, making it “an unusually sluggish teen drama”.
All in all? Young people deserve better than “warmed-over revivals missing all of the pep, colour and dazzle of their predecessors”, he concluded.
