''High Fidelity'' is an American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

television series, based on the 1995 novel ''High Fidelity'' by Nick Hornby and the 2000 ''High Fidelity'' film. It premiered on the Hulu streaming service on February 14, 2020. The series starred

Zoë Kravitz Zoë Isabella Kravitz (born December 1, 1988) is an American actress, singer, and model. She made her acting debut in the romantic comedy film '' No Reservations'' (2007). Her breakthrough came with portraying Angel Salvadore in the superhero fi ...

, whose mother Lisa Bonet appeared in the original film. Although favorably reviewed, the series was canceled in August 2020 after one season.

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 Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard/East New Yo ...

Cast and characters

Main

as Robyn "Rob" Brooks, the owner of Championship Vinyl who struggles with a lifetime of failed relationships *

Jake Lacy Jake Lacy (born February 14, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Pete Miller on the ninth and final season of ''The Office'', as Fran Parker in the fourth and fifth seasons of HBO's ''Girls'', and his role as Shane Patt ...

as Clyde *

Da'Vine Joy Randolph Da'Vine Joy Randolph (born May 21, 1986) is an American actress and singer. She first gained recognition as Oda Mae Brown in the Broadway production of '' Ghost: The Musical'' (2012); she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a ...

as Cherise, an employee at Championship Vinyl and one of Rob's best friends * David H. Holmes as Simon, an employee at Championship Vinyl and Rob's other best friend who is also Rob's heartbreak story #3

Recurring

* Kingsley Ben-Adir as Russell "Mac" McCormack, Rob's latest ex-boyfriend who broke her heart and heartbreak story #5 *

Rainbow Sun Francks Rainbow Sun Francks (born 3 December 1979) is a Canadian actor known for his role as Lt. Aiden Ford in the television show '' Stargate Atlantis'', and his recurring roles on ''The Listener'', ''The Umbrella Academy'' and ''High Fidelity''. ...

as Cameron Brooks, Rob's brother * Nadine Malouf as Nikki Brooks, Cameron's pregnant wife and Rob's sister-in-law * Antonio Ortiz as Carlos, a bodega cashier * Edmund Donovan as Blake, a barista who flirts with Simon

Guest

* Clark Furlong as Kevin Bannister, Rob's heartbreak story #1 when she was in middle school *

Ivanna Sakhno Ivanna Anatoliyivna Sakhno ( uk, Іванна Анатоліївна Сахно; born 14 November 1997) is a Ukrainian and American actress. She is known for her roles as Cadet Viktoriya in the science fiction monster film ''Pacific Rim Uprising ...

as Kat Monroe, Rob's heartbreak story #2 * Justin Silver as Justin Kitt, Rob's heartbreak story #4 * Kevin Iso as Lewis, a friend of Rob, Simon, and Cherise * Thomas Doherty as Liam Shawcross, a young Scottish musician * Debbie Harry as herself *

Jeffrey Nordling Jeffrey Richard Nordling (born March 11, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jake Manning in ''Once and Again'', Larry Moss in '' 24'', Nick Bolen in ''Desperate Housewives'', and Gordon Klein in '' Big Little Lies'', as wel ...

as Tim Parker, a music enthusiast whose wife is secretly selling his vinyl collection *

Parker Posey Parker Christian Posey (born November 8, 1968) is an American actress and musician. Posey is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Satellite Award nomination and two Independent Spirit Award nominations. Posey made her film debu ...

as Noreen Parker, an Upper West artist who wants to sell her husband Tim's vinyl collection *

Jack Antonoff Jack Michael Antonoff (born March 31, 1984) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. Antonoff is the lead singer of rock band Bleachers, and is the guitarist and drummer in the pop rock band Fun. He was pr ...

as himself * Sydney Mae Diaz and Kyoko Takenaka as Shane and Peachy, two aspiring musicians who borrow the store's records * Brian Silliman as the Hammer, an old friend of Rob and Cameron *

Christian Coulson Christian Peter Coulson (born 3 October 1978) is an English actor known for playing young Tom Marvolo Riddle in the 2002 fantasy film ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets''. Early life Coulson was born in Manchester. He attended Arnold Ho ...

as Benjamin Young, a lawyer and Simon's on-again, off-again boyfriend * Dana Drori as Lily, Mac's fiancée *

Tara Summers Tara Summers (born 19 December 1979) is an English actress. Summers was educated at Heathfield St Mary's School, in Berkshire. She later attended Brown University, where she graduated with a B.A. in history in 2001. Her grandmother was Fritzi ...

as Tanya, Rob's first roommate, with whom she goes out on her 30th birthday

Episodes

Production

Development

On April 5, 2018, Disney announced it was developing a television series adaptation of their 2000 Touchstone 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+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of Midnight Radio and

ABC Signature Studios ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...

. 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 Josh Appelbaum is an American television writer, screenwriter, showrunner and producer. Biography Appelbaum is from a Jewish family.Andre Nemec,

Jeff Pinkner Jeff Pinkner (born November 16, 1964) is an American television and movie writer and producer. Life and career Born to a Jewish family,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 Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein ( ; born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer. She is known for playing Nicky Nichols on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she ...

revealed that she was directing an episode of ''High Fidelity''. On August 5, 2020, Hulu canceled the series after one season.

Casting

Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that

, 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

had been cast as a series regular. On May 17, 2019, it was reported that

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 Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

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 ABC iview is a video on demand and catch-up TV service run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Currently iview video content can only be viewed by users in Australia. As of 2016, ABC iview attracts around 50 million plays monthly and ...

and

ABC Comedy ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of general entertainment prog ...

. It was also released in select territories like Australia, the UK and Canada on

under the Star content hub and on

Star+ A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

in Latin America.

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

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 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 Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{Nick Hornby 2020s American romantic comedy television series 2020s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings English-language television shows Hulu original programming Television shows based on British novels Bisexuality-related television series Television series by ABC Signature Studios