Cruel Intentions Review
By Sioph W. Leal
Cruel Intentions is Amazon Prime’s new adaptation of the classic novel, following the elite students at Manchester College, a Washington, D.C.-adjacent university. The story revolves around two ruthless stepsiblings, Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Cook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess), who are determined to maintain their power and reputation after a brutal hazing incident threatens the Greek life system. To ensure that Caroline’s legacy as Delta Phi’s president doesn’t go down in flames, Caroline must ensure that the vice president’s daughter Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith) pledges to her sorority.
The original movie is a classic and is no easy feat to live up to with standout performances and an easy chemistry between the leads that can’t be matched. Given this new series format, you would expect the central characters to have more depth and exploration, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. In both the series and movie of Cruel Intentions, reputation is everything. It’s the power that propels you further in the world—well, that and money. While reputation is mentioned a lot, the series fails to show the true importance of this. Throughout the series, we are shown the consequences of that almost fatal rush of the Alpha Gamma fraternity; but the potential ramifications to their reputations is what is lacking in the series. For most of the series, the Greek houses are without any true consequences of the rush night, so when Caroline explains at least once an episode at how imperative it is to get Annie Grover, the importance of the Greek society houses survival is lost in translation.
Caroline’s desire to save the sorority and secure Annie Grover is apparently a big part of the series, and while it is the foundation of the infamous stepsibling bet, Caroline shows no real interest in Annie up until the fourth episode. It’s an odd choice considering Lucien and Annie barely spend any time together, and when they do, it feels very forced and cliche. Annie’s only true character-defining trait is that she doesn’t know what she wants, be it in her father’s policies or her romantic entanglement. Annie allows other characters to choose her path, making her lack any agency, which makes her character feel underdeveloped.
Cruel Intentions is supposed to be an enjoyable watch into the lives of the rich and depraved, a masterclass in manipulation, but the series fails to live up to this. In the movie, Caroline’s counterpart ensures that nothing leads back to her, proving herself to be a mastermind in every sense of the word. In the series, Caroline makes choices that are easily led back to her, and often her moves are overexplained while at the point of completion. It’s only in the fourth episode that Caroline’s skills are brilliantly shown, which is a shame as Hook had the ability to showcase this main draw of Caroline, but it’s the writing that lets the character down.
Blaise Powell (John Harlan Kim) is the strongest part of the series, and for a supporting character, he has some of the most intriguing scenes until the very last episode. As the episodes progress, it’s clear that Blaise is the true mastermind of Cruel Intentions, leading one to wonder what the point of Lucien (aside from the bet) was. Paired with Scott Russell’s (Khobe Clarke) transformation from mindless jock to something more potentially powerful, their own storylines are what carry the series. Through Blaise and Scott’s storylines, you can see how reputations can make or break you, something that the main part of the story lacked.
Perhaps these storyline issues could have been fixed had the three main characters (Caroline, Lucien, and Annie) interacted with each other more frequently. While Lucien, at times, had the potential to be an interesting watch, sometimes it felt that Burgess tried to emulate his movie counterpart rather than make the character his own. Too much time is also spent on CeCe Carroway (Sara Silva). Her character didn’t have any true impact on the series, and often it felt like Silva was told to play Cece as erratic, always on the move with boundless energy to spare, but it felt as if Silva could have used a coffee or two to give the role the energy that was needed.
One of the most enjoyable parts of Cruel Intentions is how the elite exploit situations around them, while securing even more power for themselves and then watching it all crumble away, at least that was the intention of the movie version, but the series fails to live up to its original movie's expectations. The Greek society's survival is lost in translation, while Blaise Powell is one of the strongest parts of the series. He is the true mastermind of Cruel Intentions, but the series lacked depth and exploration.
Cruel Intentions premiers on Amazon Prime, November 21st 2024.