Kravitz as Rob, the
record-store owner
with a broken heartPHILLIP^
CARUSO/H
ULU,
2ALAN SEPINWALL
In the 25 years since the
book was published, Horn-
by’s words have been used
and reinterpreted plenty.
There was the 2000 High
Fidelity film, co-written by
and starring John Cusack,
then a 2006 Broadway musi-
cal. Now, a new Hulu series
casts Zoë Kravitz as Rob. This
Rob (née Robin) is a biracial,
bisexual woman, but, like her
male forebears, she still runs
a record shop (in Brooklyn),
still compulsively makes top-
five lists, and is still a disaster
romantically. Oh, and she has
strong opinions about play-
lists, telling us, “Like so many
things in life, it’s hard to do.”
This High Fidelity —
adapted by Sarah Kucserka
and Veronica West — deftly
straddles the line between
faithful cover song and
radical reinterpretation. The
10-episode season frequentlyR
OB, THE record- store-
owning hero of Nick
Hornby’s classic novel
High Fidelity, has strong opin-
ions on many musical sub-
jects, particularly the making
and deployment of a great
mixtape. He has rules about
what kinds of songs to use, in
what order, and believes that
structuring the playlist just
the right way says more about
who he is and what he cares
about than anything he could
say with his own words.paraphrases memorable
scenes from the book and/or
the film, updating the refer-
ences for the times. Instead
of scolding a customer for
trying to buy “I Just Called
to Say I Love You,” Rob and
employees Simon (David H.
Holmes) and Cherise (Da’Vine
Joy Randolph) debate wheth-
er to sell someone a copy of
Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall,
in light of all the allegations
against the late King of Pop.
(Rob wonders if they’d
be unjustly punishing
Quincy Jones’ bril-
liant horn charts
in the process.)
Some of the
broad strokes
are the same,
particularly
Rob flailing in
the aftermath of
her number-one
heartbreak, cour-High Fidelity
NETWORK Hulu
AIR DATE February 14th
STARRING Zoë Kravitz
David H. Holmes
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Jake Lacy
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Rainbow Francks
4things. The season also takes
advantage of having five-plus
hours to cover. The movie
had to cut one of the book’s
most entertaining passages —
a vengeful wife offers to sell
Rob her cheating husband’s
priceless record collection
for a pittance — while here
it’s a whole episode (with a
marvelous Parker Posey as
the wife) that doubles as a
spotlight on Rob and Clyde’s
connection. The series takes
pleasure in diversions like
that, and the chemistry
among Kravitz, Holmes, and
Randolph makes the record
store an inviting hang.
As the child of a rock star,
Kravitz is a natural fit for this
world (though it’s a bit dis-
tracting when she hooks up
with the male equivalent of
her real-life mom Lisa Bonet’s
character from the High Fidel-
ity film). This is the best, rich-
est role she’s had, and she’s
every bit as magnetic and
funny and messy as the part
requires. Rob is arguably the
quintessential John Cusack
role, but Kravitz winningly
steps into those shoes.
That said, Hornby was writ-
ing about a very specific and
insufferable flavor of male
arrested development and
the ways obsessive fandom
can become a debilitating
crutch for such an overgrown
adolescent. Kucserka and
West give their Rob different
self-destructive hang-ups —
emotionally (and with her
quick asides to the camera),
she resembles Fleabag more
than Cusack — but she doesn’t
seem as fundamentally con-
nected to her love of music as
prior Robs. Her encyclopedic
knowledge is believable, but
thematically, she could just as
easily own a restaurant as a
record shop.
Even if this TV mixtape of
High Fidelity misses some
fundamental ideas behind
the source material,
it’s still a delight. Is it
a top-five show that
was previ ously a
book and a
movie? It’s not
hard to imagine
Rob, Simon, or
Cherise making
a passionate,
entertaining case
for its inclusion.tesy of ex-fiance Mac (Kings-
ley Ben-Adir), but many are
tweaked. Simon is another
of Rob’s top-five exes — he
came out of the closet while
they were dating — and while
she’s still drawn to Mac, the
show presents an alternate
path in the form of nice guy
Clyde ( Jake Lacy), with whom
she can’t stop sabotagingRandolph
and Holmes‘HIGH FIDELITY’ PLAYS THE HITS
Hulu’s new series based on the Nick Hornby novel (and
2000 movie) is a loving cover, neatly updated for todayTV
86 | Rolling Stone +++++Classic |^ ++++Excellent |^ +++Good |^ ++Fair |^ +Poor