It's a bittersweet symphony — well, for fans of the Prime Video series "Cruel Intentions," it might just be bitter: the coed drama has been canceled after only one season at the Amazon streamer, per Variety.
Having originally debuted on the platform back in November 2024, the eight-episode show was based on the 1999 cult classic film of the same name starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair, which itself was a modern-day adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses."
Amazon's "Cruel Intentions" followed the same conceit as the '90s movie — two hyper-wealthy and ultra-manipulative stepsiblings do everything in their power to maintain their social status — but changed a few names (swapping out Kathryn Merteuil for Caroline Merteuil, Sebastian Valmont for Lucien Belmont), aged up the characters from high school to college, and uprooted all of the messy manipulation from the movie's original Manhattan to the pulpy politics of Washington D.C.
For example, instead of seducing the daughter of the school headmaster as in the Roger Kumble film, the show's resident lothario Lucien sets his sights on the daughter of the Vice President of the United States.
Actors Sarah Catherine Hook ("The White Lotus", "First Kill") and Zac Burgess ("One Night", "Boy Swallows the Universe") led the reboot's ensemble as the scheming stepsiblings, with Savannah Lee Smith, Sara Silva, John Harlan Kim, Khobe Clarke, Brooke Lena Johnson and Sean Patrick Thomas — who memorably appeared in the original "Cruel Intentions" film as Cecile's music teacher Ronald Clifford — rounding out the rest of the cast.
Despite the enduring love for the OG flick, that affection clearly didn't translate into viewership for the Prime Video adaptation. Though Amazon doesn't release viewership data for their original programming, the "Cruel Intentions" series didn't pop up on the Nielsen Top 10 Streaming charts.
And it wasn't a critical darling either, boasting only a 24% approval rating based on 25 critic reviews, with the site's critics consensus saying: "Neither as fun or transgressive as the original 'Cruel Intentions,' this television adaptation doesn't cut deep enough to make much of an impression."
It's not the first time that the TV powers that be have tried — and failed — to revive the big-screen teen drama as a television series. In 2015, NBC ordered a pilot that continued the film's storyline, with original star Sarah Michelle Gellar attached to reprise her iconic role as Kathryn Merteuil. However, the sequel series never came to fruition.
A prequel series titled "Manchester Prep," set to follow even younger versions of Sebastian Valmont (Robin Dunne) and Kathryn Merteuil (Amy Adams), was dismantled and repackaged by Fox as a misguided sequel film "Cruel Intentions 2," which had a direct-to-video release in 2001.
The original "Cruel Intentions" is currently available to rent or buy on Prime Video, but if you want something totally different, check out all of the shows and movies new on Prime Video coming to that streaming platform this month. (Here are 3 TV shows worth watching on Prime Video right now.)
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