Sarah Catherine Hook slightly reminds you of a young Robin Tunney. In Prime Video's Cruel Intentions, she plays a sly seductress named Caroline. She digs her manipulative claws into the mind and body of her step-brother, Lucien (Zac Burgess), and makes a deal with him that involves him seducing the Vice President's daughter, Annie (Savannah Lee Smith). The basic outline of Cruel Intentions would be familiar to those people who have watched the 1999 film. There, we had Sarah Michelle Gellar's Kathryn, who, with her sexually suggestive gestures, burned the screen. Whatever your feelings about the film, you cannot deny that Gellar brought a gloriously vicious spirit. We were convinced by the control she had over Sebastian's body. Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon were also effective. The latter looked innocent and charming, which is why the mind games felt fiendish. No such emotions are felt while watching this new Cruel Intentions. The actors here behave appropriately - they do what must be done to tell this story. Caroline is manipulative, Lucien is a playboy, and Annie is innocent and a sweet virgin. I was never totally convinced. It seemed to me as if the show wanted us to believe in its characters' attitudes because that's what it was selling. Cruel Intentions says, "This person is like this because that's what I am saying. Close your eyes and trust me."
Burgess has a cute, babyish face that doesn't show many feelings. He pouts when distressed or angry and smiles a little when happy. Burgess lacks that wild sex appeal that screams, "Girls desperately want to sleep with me." There are other boys in the series that look better than him physically. And his character doesn't have any great or amusing thoughts that girls could find attractive. Lee Smith and Catherine Hook are infected with the same problem: They imitate virgins and devious seducers from other teen movies. These kinds of films, focusing on sororities and fraternities, used to be "dumb fun" and "sexy." If you read about Greek life, you will discover that these social clubs have a dark side: Racism, favoritism, elitism, alcohol abuse, and hazing. Cruel Intentions tries to deal with this aspect through a journalist character named Beatrice (Brooke Lena Johnson), but these ugly incidents are portrayed as casually and lightheartedly as they are in teen adult comedies. The series, in fact, makes a joke out of Beatrice. When she urges everyone to wake up and consider the reality of fraternities and sororities at a party, she is displayed as a crazy, delusional lady. Even you, as a viewer, don't take her side.
Cruel Intentions makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously. It shoots itself in the foot with a half-baked critical lens on Greek life. The show wants to be a drama, but its characters are far too thin. A drama becomes juicy when it reveals its characters' inner lives instead of merely moving the plot wheel. Cruel Intentions reduces its characters to puppets and renders them hollow and uninteresting. The Blaise (John Harlan Kim)-Scott (Khobe Clarke) thread appears to have been inserted to keep the show busy. The sadness it generates conflicts with the ridiculous shenanigans of Caroline's Delta Phi. The intellectual discussions between a student and a professor feel out of place in a silly show where sex hormones run high (before you say this is supposed to be taken as a contradiction or something, let me point out that the professor, at one point, is brought down to the dumb realm of an erotic movie). It would have been better if the sex bet between Caroline and Lucien was treated as something silly. By giving it the weight of a "child seeking mother's approval," Cruel Intentions becomes more jarring because it lacks the substance that could hold something this heavy. It's impossible to take these characters, who do things like throwing a birthday boy into a swimming pool, seriously.
Two things in the series are somewhat interesting. A character tells Lucien that one of his actions is motivated by fear, and you understand what she means when you watch Caroline looking at her laptop and masturbating (I am trying to be as vague as possible because the studio has put this point under DO NOT REVEAL category, which is quite stupid). When Caroline talks to Annie about the strength that comes from producing desire within somebody and how the spell breaks when this desire meets reality, you come close to Caroline's mood and way of thinking. Cruel Intentions could have benefitted from more moments like these. But forget everything else; even the sex here is not sexually arousing, passionate, or erotic. Sex is used for manipulation, destruction, expression, and character assassination - it's the most crucial aspect of this story. What could be more cruel than destroying the very soul of your series?
Final Score- [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 8 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: November 21, 2024, on Prime Video