10 Things I Hate About You Premiere Review
1999's 10 Things I Hate About You was a film with a witty outlook on high school life from the popular kids to the loners. 10 years later, a series for the TV show has made its debut on ABC Family.
It seems like a series would have worked better if it were released closer to the film. There are definite difficulties in taking a 90-minute movie and having enough material for an entire series. Just like any remake, you are posed with questions of loyalty to the original source and the fans while still not want to copy situations exactly. Something new needs to be brought forward otherwise it's just a longer version of something that has already been done, and done with great charm and comedic flare.
10 Things I Hate About You doesn't quite find this balance of loyalty and originality, at times seeming too closely scripted, and at others times dumbing it down.
Kat (Lindsay Shaw) and Bianca (Meaghan Martin) are new to Padua High School. Bianca is determined to make a great first impression that will land her a spot at the popular table. Kat just wants to be herself and tries to convince Bianca to retain some of her individuality. She is given some help by their father (Larry Miller), not because he has a problem with her vain desires, but because he wants to keep his daughters from having sex for as long as possible. He figures having unpopular daughters will only help this cause.
Once Bianca eyes Chastity (Dana Davis), the popular, spoiled, and nasty head cheerleader that rules the school, she sets out to befriend her. She does hit a minor set back when Chastity's boyfriend, Joey Donner (Chris Zylka), seems to connect better with Bianca than Chastity. Kat manages to help her out when she makes friends with a misfit spray paint artist, Mandella. Kat also clashes with Patrick Verona, the bad boy of the school.
The original cast was so incredible that it would be hard for many actors to live up to the performances of the initial group. The cast we are given doesn't even come close though.
One of the worst is Ethan Peck who plays Patrick Verona. He is a bit too much of a pre-teen pretty boy to deliver the wild, dangerous, and unknown persona of Verona. There really isn't much conviction and we definitely aren't given the offbeat charm that the character is known for. Nicholas Braun does a horrendous job as Cameron, who was my favorite character in the original film. The nerdy aspect is drastically overplayed and nearly everything else seems to be drained out of the character. Braun's portrayal makes Cameron look like an imbecile. He plays him very flat and void of any sense of genuine emotion. Kyle Kaplan brings this same flat nerdy characteristic to Michael, who was the far bigger geek. Originally, there was a childlike element of fun that he brought while he is just the stereotypical geek in the TV series.
It shouldn't be any surprise that Larry Miller, the only returning member of the original cast does a terrific job. He brings forth that same overbearing fatherly role towards his daughters and all of the boys out there he sees as sexual deviants with great comedic timing. Lindsey Shaw manages to give one of the better portrayals as Kat. Shaw doesn't show the same shrew-like bitterness that Julia Stiles encompassed. Looking at it aside from the original though, Shaw does manage to bring snappy dialogue, condescending tones, and confrontational delivery. The main difference is she doesn't always talk like this. She even befriends Mandella on her first day. She's civil with her dad and as much as she looks down on Bianca, she sticks her neck out for her. The original Kat Statford isn't the person we are given. Still, it's a character who thinks you should live life on your own terms rather than doing everything because of what others will think. In this respect she's a very likeable and strong character that the others could learn from. This might retract from the taming aspect, but it's a character you have to respect.
Majority of the dialogue is cheesy and poorly written. There are several Harry Potter references, which were actually funny in a corny way since they seemed a bit random and out of place. Patrick Verona is essentially shown as a stalker, always happening to be wherever Kat is. Kat did accuse him of this in the movie, but this was when an arrangement for him to get her to go out with him was present. Here there is no arrangement; he just seems creepy for all the wrong reasons. Also one possible hole in the plot is why Kat has this resistance towards popularity. In the movie, Kat had once been popular but treated poorly after having sex with Joey. It's this treatment that turned her bitter to the popular kids in particular. Since she is a new student in the show, Kat doesn't have this experience. She isn't quite as bitter, though, just a free thinker. So this change might work as long as it is handled right.
The writing for Cameron is probably the worst. Cameron was an intelligent, caring, and insightful guy. In the show he can barely form a coherent sentence. Even for some of the more shallow characters, we aren't given that same sense of tasteful mockery that the name implies. There are some laughs in the show, but there are often equal amounts of dense moments. The original film managed to update The Taming of The Shrew in a new and inventive way. You would think the series would take the advantage of bringing a new aspect to the material presented a decade prior to it.
10 Things I Hate About You dumbs down a lot of the smart comedic spark that the original had, but if they concentrate on some of the better characters and developing them as much as possible, the series could still be worth watching.