Last week Hulu cancelled one of their reboot of High Fidelity, which reimagined the Nick Hornby book — and its beloved John Cusack movie, from the year 2000 — with a female woman of color protagonist. It was a surprise, given how much press the show received, and given the current focus on gender and BIPOC issues. In fact, one critic of the move was star, Zoe Kravitz.
Soon after news of the cancellation broke, Kravitz took to Instagram with a simple tribute to her High Fidelity family, thanking everyone for “all the love and heart you put into this show.” The post received many well-wishes, including from fellow actress Tessa Thompson, who wrote, “I will miss you alllllllllllll so much.” Kravitz had a pointed reply: “it’s cool. at least hulu has a ton of other shows starring women of color we can watch. oh wait.”
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Kravitz wasn’t wrong. Of the streamer’s many original shows, only one, the Kerry Washington-co-starring Little Fires Everywhere, prominently features a woman of color. As per Entertainment Weekly, the page dedicated to “Black Stories” features few Hulu originals.
The Kravtiz-starring High Fidelity was a loose take on the Hornby novel, first published in 1995 and concerning a thirtysomething record store owner having a kind of early mid-life crisis after a devastating break-up. The movie version, with Cusack, relocated it to Chicago, while the Kravitz iteration moved it to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and swapped the genders of a number of characters. You can watch all 10 episodes on Hulu.
(Via EW)
