Paramount's Heathers problematic TV show should have been dead

Earlier this summer, the Paramount network brought a chainsaw to the long-troubled television show, adapted from the cult classic of 1988 about the late teens (Winona Ryder and Christian Slater) who plot to kill cool children in school.

Initially developed for TV Land before being transferred to the renowned sister network Paramount, black comedy has sparked sharp criticism and even more unfortunate timing: less than a month before its scheduled launch in March, 17 students and staff were killed by an armed man at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Paramount announced that it would delay the creation of the series out of respect for the victims, before deciding to completely suppress the show after another shootout at a school in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

But earlier this month, the cable channel changed its mind and chose to burn a revised version of the show on five consecutive nights starting Thursday (10 am EDT / PDT). The reworked season features two main scenes depicting violence in a high school, one of which represents dozens of students killed in a bomb blast on ball night.

But it was not worth saving what remains a disgusting and petty satire attempt, which uses carefree wisdom as a pass to play in every imaginable offensive stereotype.

Christian Slater, on the left, and Winona Ryder played deadly interests in the movie "Heathers". (Photo: NEW IMAGES OF THE WORLD)

The film features engaging white actresses to embody the popular The Heathers clique (led by Shannon Doherty), which could elevate or ravage their classmates' fame with a manicured finger. Her television adaptation tries to subvert the original's brutal group by transforming megalomaniac queen Bee Heather Chandler (Melanie Field) into an imposing girl, whose respectful cohorts (always called Heather) are a complicit man (Brendan Scannell ) who identifies herself as queer gender and biracial girl (Jasmine Mathews) who claims to be gay.

Assuming the roles of Ryder and Slater with much less spark, Grace Victoria Cox and James Scully play with intransigents like Veronica and J.D., who accidentally murdered Chandler (at least according to them) in the first episode. While the Heathers argue with Betty (Nikki SooHoo), an Asian-American student once unpopular, to take power over the student body, the series may inadvertently turn into two bitter-white kids who are trying to take their minority comrades between them – an uncomfortable message at any time, let alone in 2018.

By denigrating his plus-size characters and LGBTQ, "Heathers" also ends up imitating the egocentric and factitious behavior that he is supposed to satirize. When Heather catches a member of the group talking to a teacher, he notices that Heather's head will "get lean" when she hears the news.

And when Veronica and JD staged Heather's murder as an apparent suicide, a group of faculty members marveled with lightness from the school's new progressive hierarchy: "Fat kids can be popular now," say they, while others notice how much gay and black kids are no longer "and Asian students" never really jumped. "

In spite of judicious modifications, there is still free violence, including the graphic suicide of another main character who gives "13 reasons" the appearance of good taste by comparison. Like many of the other worst pieces in the series, he is supposed to shock and cause uncomfortable laughter, but only looks rude.

We recommend instead to take a croquet mallet on your TV remote rather than watching this movie "Heathers", unfortunately misplaced, which is worse than a slushie of several days.