When it comes to remaking an old TV show, where do you draw the line between honouring the original and carving out a tone and style of your own? I’ll grant that Netflix’s Heartbreak High remake has its virtues, such as a sprightly energy and an appealing fresh-faced cast, but I’m not sure I can ever forgive the producers for taking such a blinged-out U-turn away from what made the long-running original so compelling.
The first Heartbreak High, which aired in the 1990s, had a thrilling near-verite realism and gritty, lived-in aesthetic that was perfectly befitting the authenticity of the characters, who were played by a widely diverse cast well before the diversity movement drew attention to popular culture’s long-entrenched whiteness.
