Steve Newall: entertainment correspondent on the release of Prime Video's Legally Blonde prequel

21 years after the release of Legally Blonde, Prime Video launched a new prequel series exploring the life of Elle Woods.

The show follows a high school-aged Elle needing to adjust to a fish-out-of-water situation after her family moves to Seattle.

Entertainment correspondent Steve Newall reviews the series further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is garbage. I'm only happy when it rains. It
is the soundtrack, I suppose the theme song from a
new TV show that's hit Prime called al Yes, this
is kind of a legally Blonde Alwoods. We're talking about
illegally blonde based TV show. It's time to talk entertainment,
and Steve Neil joins me. Now, good morning, good morning.

(00:33):
I cannot stop singing that song. I heard it for
the first time and I went straight. I was saying
before Actually the news this show has done what Rivals
did for the eighties for me. So when I watched
Rivals on Disney, I immediately went and made an eighties playlist.
I just loved all the music. And then this show's
come out. I've watched a few weeps and now I'm
putting together the nineties playlist and reliving my nineties.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
It's kind of a double nostalgia fest, right, So it's
a prequel, a prequel series too Legally Blonde, set when
Alwoods is a teenager, so kind of get must algia
for the film franchise. But because it's set in the nineties.
You get nostalgia for the music and the culture at
the time. The Legally Blonde film from two thousand and

(01:18):
one saw l go to law school and that was
kind of a big fish out of Water kind of comedy.
And the fish out of Water comedy here is that
this blonde, wealthy and spoilt teenager gets transplanted from la
to Seattle, where everyone's dour and grumpy because it's grungies

(01:38):
and everyone's serious. So it's a really it sort of
minds us I guess a similar vein but in a
different way. And yeah, I think what I found interesting
about it was was that it just has this new
pool of stuff to kind of make fun of. And
you know, sorry, teenagers, but when you're too self serious,
you're pretty funny.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Sure. Leximind Tree is the young actress who plays al Woods,
and she does very much look like a young with
a spoon, doesn't she and that same facial sort of structure.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Witherspoon's got a very singular appearance.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
She's pretty similar, but.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
There's a good resemblance. But I think it's also like
great casting of younger actors for older actors. There's so
much of its energy, and I think like Yellow Jackets,
Yellow Jackets TV shows a great example of that. Some
of the younger versions of the characters, if you put
them side by side of the photos, don't look the same,
but they feel like they're the same person. They're really

(02:36):
embodying the same characteristics. That's really really true here. And
then actually, the other nostalgic thing that kind of jumped
out to me watching it as.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, was.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
It's a lot like Clueless. Yes, it's a lot like
mean Girls. I think it's it's teenage high school setting
allows the show to kind of touch a whole bunch
of other reference points outside the legally blonde.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I also mentioned you before, though, you know, there's this
crazy obsession with this Taylor Tracy wedding that's going on,
even though we know nothing and have seen nothing. Everyone's
very very obsessed about it. And I wonder whether it's
just because everyone's after a feel good story. A wedding's
a feel good story. It's you know, it's a happy
story al is as a TV show, I feel there's

(03:20):
she's sort of sprinkling a little bit of her fairy
dust that she does in the film on You know
on the you know, the people that are around her.
I sort of feel like that show's doing a little
bit as well. It's kind of you know, there's sort
of a there is a goodness to this and a
sweetness to it, and let's just have a little bit
of fun and poke fun at ourselves feel to this.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, I've described it as a confection, and not in
a bad way, like it's just describing what it is
that's on the side of the tin of the show
in a way. And I think that like the feature
film where you know, both these kind of culture clash
sides learned a little something from each other. That's how
these films have to go. And the TV show is
going to have its elements of that, but ultimately the

(04:02):
character's main character's positivity, it's going to be irrepressible of
the show.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Tell me about Make that movie, which is on neon.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
This is a real surreal treat. Make that movie. It's
a sort of surreal comedy series from Australian comedian Sam Campbell,
made in the UK for Channel four. Sam Campbell was
a great kind of disruptive presence on Taskmaster UK on
Last One, laughing and as guy Montgomery's co host on

(04:33):
the third Australian season of Montgomery's guymont spelling Bee. And
he's kind of this live wire, quite a narcic comic presence,
so when he makes his own show, he's kind of
actually at the epicenter of the chaos rather than kind
of chepicking from the sidelines. The premise is that he
runs a small team of filmmakers who travel England helping

(04:54):
helping fans who write in make the movie from their lives.
Takes a whole bunch of different genres along the way.
It's kind of a kitchen Nightmares, I guess kind of
set up. It's like one of those reality shows, although
it should be stressed this is straight up scripted comedy.
They've got personnel problems, they've got infighting in the team.
Sam Campbell plays a character called Sam Campbell and he's

(05:16):
extremely unlikable. There's so much good stuff going on here.
It's kind of hard to condense down what it is,
but it's worth a nosey. This is definitely a one
for fans of more offbeat British comedy, and keep an
eye out for a Rose Madafayo cameo Oh I love
later in the season.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Thank you so much. Steve so l is screening on
Prime probably pretty good for the school holidays. And also
make that movie that TV show is screening on Neon.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.