REVIEW: "Desert Island Top 5": Hulu Original High Fidelity
by Amelia Johnson
Fans of Fleabag and Ferris-Bueller-style fourth wall breaks; fans of a New York City washed in neon light, aesthetic grime, and smoke clouds; fans of music and characters whose language trades in obscure music facts; fans of Zoë Kravitz screaming curse words into the camera while dressed in immaculately thrifted outfits….watch Hulu Original’s High Fidelity.
Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (1995) followed the romantic misadventures of Rob Fleming – a London record shop owner in his thirties whose girlfriend leaves him. He runs a store called Championship Vinyl with two of his friends, trading Top-Five lists and musical knowledge. He decides to track down his former flames to see what went wrong, hoping to find some closure. In the 2000 film adaptation, directed by Stephen Frears, Rob Fleming became Rob Gordon (John Cusack) – a record shop owner in Chicago working through his Top-Five breakups, including one currently in progress with his girlfriend.
“Anyone played by Zoë Kravitz in a show that is primarily her talking to a camera on being a quintessential Brooklyn-based twenty-something cannot really be relatable as much as unbearably cool.”
20 years after the release of the movie, often hailed on Best Movies of All Time lists, Rob Gordon becomes Robyn “Rob” Brooks (Zoë Kravitz – whose mother Lisa Bonet also happened to appear in the film), the recently-heartbroken and almost-30 owner of Championship Vinyl in Brooklyn.
Season 1 of High Fidelity premiered as a Hulu Original series on Valentine’s Day in 10 short episodes, around 25 to 35 minutes each, that can not only be finished in a five-hour quarantine binge but makes you want to watch it that way.
Calling back to the familiar Top-Five lists of the novel and movie adaptation, “Top 5 Heartbreaks” (Episode 1) begins with a close shot of a teary-eyed Rob narrating straight to the camera: “My Desert Island All-Time Top Five Most Memorable Heartbreaks in chronological order are as follows: Kevin Bannister, Kat Monroe, Simon Miller, Justin Kitch…” Her list cuts off to reveal Heartbreak 5 packing his bags in her apartment, preparing to leave – Russell “Mac” McCormack (Kingsley Ben-Adir).
“Number five with a bullet,” Rob tells us, just before a cut to the title sequence.
A short, rock music-filled title sequence later, and Rob is shown in the exact same spot that Mac left her crying. About a year has passed, and Rob’s Brooklyn apartment looks the same – messily covered in artwork, stacks of records, and old Chinese takeout boxes. Big bay windows and a fireplace that now serve as an extra storage space for her. This will become the setting of many moments of Rob smoking cigarettes, drinking, and loudly narrating directly to the camera for minutes on end about the mess she has made of her life. (Get comfortable here.)
Against her better judgment and to prove her own I’m totally fine-ness a year out from her breakup, Rob goes on a date with Clyde (Jake Lacy). She turns to the camera almost immediately with an “I’m not fine. I’m not ready. This is fucked” and in the middle of Clyde trying to tell her about his cross-country road trip through national parks, Rob uses a trip to the bathroom as an excuse to duck out of the bar (a move we will see Rob use several times in these ten episodes) but accidentally leaves her phone in the booth.
She has to return and finish her date, which gets better after a few more drinks and an enthusiastic discussion of Fleetwood Mac. She asks him to drive her home, and Clyde hurriedly parks her car in front of her apartment (remember this bit) before coming up. They have sex, and afterward, share several surprisingly sweet moments, chief of which is Clyde promising to get her breakfast in the morning even after Rob admits to trying to ditch their date.
He tells her, “yeah I know” and smiles.
We watch this and think, oh finally, this is working out so well for our new favorite protagonist. What will these ten episodes even be about?
Rob wakes up in the morning, and Clyde is gone. Incised by being seemingly screwed over by such a nice guy, Rob returns to her Top 5 Heartbreaks list, taking us through the beginning and end of each relationship.
L to R: Joy Randolph, Holmes, and Kravitz (High Fidelity, Hulu)
Interspersed with flashback recollections of her ex-partners is Rob in her natural habitat of Championship Vinyl, a struggling record shop where Rob worked and then became the owner sometime after Heartbreak Number 2. She runs the store with her two friends, Cherise (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and Simon Miller (David H. Holmes), also known as Heartbreak Number 3. They converse in a language all their own, driven by Top-Five lists, obscure music knowledge, and familiarity – the kind of conversation that only flows between people who know each other well.
Simon arrives into work bragging about finding an original pressing of Lena Platonos’ Gallop in beautiful condition and immediately puts it on the store’s turntable. Cherise bursts through the door in brightly striped clothes, slides down her sunglasses, and says, “Uh-uh. What the fuck is this?” and proceeds to dance around the store to “Come On, Eileen.” After Rob makes her turn it off, Simon and Cherise bicker about whether Lauryn Hill or Franky Valli and the 4 Seasons made a better version of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” until Rob slams her office door and continues her list.
Heartbreak Number 5 is, of course, Mac – who we will find out near the end of the episode has returned to New York City, with his girlfriend Lily, although Rob does not know this part yet.
(Tune in for Episode 3: What Fucking Lily Girl?)
In a surprising turn of events, Clyde returns at the end of the episode with a to-go box of french toast for Rob. He did not ditch her. He woke up to his car being towed from in front of her apartment (see, I told you to remember this). Rob ends the episode in her kitchen, smoking a cigarette, eating french toast, and lamenting about still being in love with Mac.
Onboard yet? As Rob says in an early episode: “Keep listening. There might be more here than you thought.”
Over the course of the first season, Rob brings us back to her Top-Five Heartbreaks, contacting each of them to find out why the relationship failed and, more importantly, if that failure was her fault. It isn’t clear if Rob wants closure or just to be reassured of nothing being her fault.
Rob’s friends and coworkers develop into a vivacious part of the show – so much so that Simon is given his own episode to narrate later in the season. Simon has his own romantic troubles, picking up right after realizing he was gay before the end of his relationship with Rob, and Cherise wants to create her own music. She brings it up constantly throughout the season, after which Simon and Rob usually stare at her and ask her where the record is, if the record is ever coming. Cherise insists it is.
Aside from being fascinating characters, Simon and Cherise help to humanize Rob, who after finishing the show, I am not sure is a particularly sympathetic character. She can be selfish and self-sabotaging – shown from the moment that Rob tries to ditch Clyde during their date instead of opening herself up to the possibility of moving on. She meets Mac’s new girlfriend and, in a callback to a scene from the movie, imagines several scenarios of chasing her down, jumping her on the sidewalk, and other violence before smiling and saying, of course, we can be friends.
Zoë Kravitz as Rob (High Fidelity, Hulu)
Anyone played by Zoë Kravitz in a show that is primarily her talking to a camera on being a quintessential Brooklyn-based twenty-something cannot really be relatable as much as unbearably cool. She knocks back whiskey and smokes cigarettes and with her two friends, trades highly specific music knowledge and Top-Five Lists as banter, making you feel like you are either envious of and being included in an inside joke, depending on whether you understand them.
I finished the show over two evenings, unable to stop watching it. I laughed, cried, and was so simultaneously angry and empathetic towards Rob, who is so aggressively human.
It’s like watching a train wreck – a strangely lovable, cigarette-smoking, music-filled, immaculately Brooklyn train wreck wearing a shirt that says Shit Happens. It is fascinating, funny, heartbreaking, and surprisingly tender.
Desert Island Top 5 Reasons to Watch High Fidelity:
Zoë Kravitz is an absolute wonder as Rob Brooks.
Clyde and Mac are the two potential love interests in the show but are both so likable that a viewer who might want to pick a side will be left feeling incredibly confused.
Cherise and Simon light up the screen as side characters – with side storylines stretched across the first season that are resolved in heartwarming and satisfying ways by the end.
It is not just a show. It’s an 8-hour Official Spotify playlist. And it’s fantastic.
Simon is given his own episode to narrate all his own, and the producer Veronica West has promised that Cherise will get one too in the next season, assuming it is renewed by Hulu.
Desert Island Top Five Hulu Binge Recommendations: High Fidelity, High Fidelity, High Fidelity, High Fidelity, and once more for good measure, High Fidelity.