"So here's how not to plan a career. One: split up with girlfriend. Two: ditch college. Three: go to work in struggling record shop. Four: become owner of said record shop and stay there for rest of life."
"My whole life, every place I've ever been, I've always had one foot out the door. I guess it just made more sense to commit to nothing, you know, just keep my options open. But fuck, man, that's just, that's suicide, by tiny, tiny increments."
— Rob
A series adaptation of the book High Fidelity, which had previously been adapted into a film of the same name.
Like the book and film, the show is about a music snob and record store owner Rob (reimagined as a bisexual woman of color played by Zoë Kravitz). Rob isn't over her ex-boyfriend Mac (Kingsley Ben-Adir), and eventually decides to seek out her top five exes to find out where her relationships go wrong, even as sparks fly with a man named Clyde (Jake Lacy). Along for the ride are her employees and friends Cherise (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and Simon (David H. Holmes); the latter is Rob's third heartbreak.
The series premiered on Hulu in February 2020. It was not renewed for a second season.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The Hulu series stretches to ten episodes, adding new characters such as Rob's brother. While the book is the longest form of this story, the series is a semi-remake of a two hour movie.
- Adaptation Name Change: Rob's last name once again is changed, this time from Fleming to Brooks.
- Adaptational Location Change: The series is set in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City instead of London.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Rob in the series, along with being female, is bisexual, while both the previous incarnations were straight.
- Amicable Exes: Rob is now best friends with Simon, who used to be her boyfriend (before realizing that he's gay.
- As Herself: Deborah Harry is the one who convinces Rob she's doing the right thing in tracking down her "top five" exes.
- Aside Glance: Rob frequently looks over to the audience while addressing them on her life. Simon does too when it's his turn.
- Bad Influencer: The Setting Update of the Hulu series makes Rob's third ex, the mercurial, glamorous Charlie (named Kat Monroe in the series), a professional influencer. Rob goes as Kat's plus-one to an event and is struck by how fake it all feels. Even the glamorous apartment turns out to have been rented by the company for the event.
- Bathtub Scene: Rob is in the tub when her family video calls on her birthday, quickly covering herself.
- Best Friend:
- After they broke up, Simon became Rob's. He also works in her store.
- Mac's Cameron's, and he's not pleased to learn he broke contact with Mac over his relationship with his sister Rob collapsing after learning she'd actually cheated on him.
- Camp Gay: All three of Simon's roommates are effeminate gay men.
- Casting Gag: Zoë Kravitz is Rob in the series. Her mother, Lisa Bonet, played one of his love interests in the 2000 film version.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rob frequently has sarcastic commentary on her life and other things.
- Dreadlock Rasta: Rob has dreadlocks and is a cool, freespirited young woman. Deconstructed however as she's also lonely and pretty unhappy with her life.
- Gender Flip: Rob is made a woman in the series. Barry is replaced by Cherise, a black woman.
- Has a Type: Rob claims the reason Kat broke up with her is Kat's preference for tall and blonde white woman (Rob's not any of these). However, when she meets Kat again Kat's reasons have to do with Rob's personality.
- Heel Realization: The series has Rob confessing, relatively late, about something utterly terrible she did. Redeeming this somewhat is her dawning knowledge that she is a "fucking asshole".
- Incompatible Orientation: Rob dated Simon, but they broke up due to him realizing that he's gay, becoming best friends instead.
- Indulgent Fantasy Segue: The series has a little scene where Rob imagines assaulting the new lover of the object of her desire.
- In-Universe Soundtrack: Much of the music is diegetic, being played in the record store, in headphones when a character puts them on, or from other sources such as phones or laptops.
- It's All About Me: Rob is faulted by multiple people for being overly selfish.
- Last Het Romance: Rob is the last woman Simon ever dated, as he realized that he's gay when they were together.
- Lighter and Softer: The series is warm and has comedic elements, missing some of the darker events or themes of the novel.
- Love Confession: Simon is shown confessing he loved his ex Ben in the past, who later says this too.
- Maybe Ever After: Rob resolves to pursue Clyde even though he says they have little chance together, with the series ending without showing if she succeeds.
- Moment Killer: In a brief Flashback in the pilot, before her date with Clyde, Rob runs into Mac on the street. They get to talking, and it seems like they might make up...and that's when a biker runs into Rob, cutting her hand, and she and Mac end up just saying goodnight to each other.
- Ms. Fanservice: Zoe Kravitz is seen topless or otherwise showing a lot of skin a couple of times. It's not blatantly fanservice, but neither is it 100% plot-necessary.
- Mythology Gag:
- The novel was set in London. In the pilot, Rob's ex Mac, whom she's having trouble getting over, moves to London when he leaves her (though he's back in Brooklyn by the end of the episode).
- In the novel and the movie, Rob loses his first "girlfriend", Alison, to Kevin Bannister. In the series, Kevin Bannister is now Rob's first ex.
- In the movie, Rob, Barry and Dick end up seeing Marie DeSalle at a club. In the series, the singer Rob, Cherise and Simon go to see - Liam - is playing at a club called DeSalle's.
- In the movie, during a busy day at the record store, Rob puts on the Beta Band's "Dry the Rain" in order to sell records by the band. Early in episode seven, at the record store, "Dry the Rain" is playing.
- Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever)" plays over the closing credits of the movie, and for the beginning of the last episode of the first season, as well as the end of that episode.
- Nice Guy: Clyde is pretty much defined by being a friendly, kind man. Even when he's telling Rob off he stays polite and has a level tone.
- No Fourth Wall: Rob directly addresses the audience often talking about her life. Simon does the same in his Perspective Flip episode.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: Clyde leaves without saying goodbye after he sleeps with Rob. He later claims it was due to his car being towed, though Rob doesn't believe it.
- The One That Got Away: Mac was clearly the ex who Rob misses the most (they even were engaged). He feels the same.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Rob is only called her full name Robyn occasionally.
- Perspective Flip: "Ballad of the Lonesome Loser" focuses on Simon instead of Rob, including having him talk right to the audience like she does and shows more of his backstory.
- Precision F-Strike: Gender flipped from the movie and novel, when Rob hears Mac is with some "Lily girl".
- Premature Encapsulation: Episode two ends with Rob hearing about Mac and Lily (see Precision F-Strike above). Episode three is called "What Fucking Lily Girl?".
- Race Lift:
- Rob, who's white in every other version, has been reimagined as biracial, in addition to being gender flipped, for the series.
- Barry is now Cherise, a black woman.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- When he's drunk, Rob's brother Cameron says the reason all of her relationships have failed is due to Rob, and not her partners.
- Clyde tells Rob off as selfish and says there's very little chance of them working together after she wants him back.
- Sassy Black Woman: Cherise embodies this. She's black, loud, outspoken and very forward, to the point of telling strangers off quite frequently.
- Setting Update: The series moves the book's 1990s London setting to 2020s Brooklyn, New York.
- STD Immunity: Averted as Simon caught chlamydia from Ben even though he had no other partners. Ben slept with one other man however, and got it from him. Simon at least avoids HIV, which is what he'd really worried about.
- Straight Gay: Simon has no stereotypical gay traits. His ex-boyfriend Ben also was pretty similar in this.
- Tomboyish Name: Due to the series making Rob a woman, the name becomes one (it turns out that her full name's Robyn). Rob's appropriately something of a tomboy, having a slightly masculine clothing style.
- Truer to the Text: The series, unlike the film, opens with the same line the book does and includes the scene where a vengeful ex-wife attempts to sell Rob her husband’s record collection (the scene was cut from the film).
- Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: Simon went with his boyfriend to a gay bar where they had wild dancing sometimes and a drag queen singing.
