High Fidelity (TV series)


High Fidelity is an American romantic comedy web television series, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, that premiered on Hulu on February 14, 2020.

Premise

High Fidelity follows "the ultimate music fan, a record store owner who's obsessed with pop culture and Top Five lists" in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Cast and characters

Main

Production

Development

On April 5, 2018, it was announced that Disney was developing a television series adaptation of the 2000 film High Fidelity to be written by Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka with the intention of distributing it through their then-unnamed upcoming streaming service, now known as Disney+. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of Midnight Radio and ABC Signature Studios. On September 24, 2018, it was announced that Disney had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. Executive producers were expected to include West, Kucserka, Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Zoë Kravitz. On April 9, 2019, it was announced that the series has been moved from Disney+ to Hulu. In July 2019, during an interview, Natasha Lyonne revealed that she was directing an episode of High Fidelity.

Casting

Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that Zoë Kravitz, whose mother Lisa Bonet appeared in the 2000 film adaptation, is set to star in the series. On April 22, 2019, it was announced that Jake Lacy had been cast as a series regular. On May 17, 2019, it was reported that Da'Vine Joy Randolph and David Holmes had joined the main cast. In the same month, Kingsley Ben-Adir was cast in a guest starring role.

Filming

The principal photography started around July 2019 in Brooklyn.

Release

Broadcast

High Fidelity premiered on February 14, 2020. The first three episodes were also aired on March 16, 2020, on Freeform. Internationally, the series premiered on February 21, 2020, in Canada on Starz and on May 1, 2020, in Australia on ABC iview and ABC Comedy.

Marketing

The first set of images were released in late October 2019 with the announcement of series premiere date. The teaser trailer for the series was released on December 20, 2019

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an 86% approval rating with 70 reviews, with an average rating of 7.79/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Though it skips the occasional beat, High Fidelity fresh take on a familiar track is as witty as it is emotionally charged, giving the charming and curmudgeonly Zoe Kravitz plenty of room to shine." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".