We need to confess that, when Elle was announced, we felt fear. Elle Woods is one of those rare characters who has stood the test of time. The idea of exploring her teenage years excited us, but it also worried us. A lot. Would the series repeat the same lessons? Would it try too hard to connect every little detail to the film? Most importantly, would it accidentally change the way we see one of our favorite heroines?
Thankfully, Elle Season 1 understands those fears better than we expected.
There’re callbacks to the movie, yes, but instead of trying to recreate Legally Blonde, the series focuses on the small moments that shape Elle long before she realizes who she’s meant to become. This isn’t the Elle Woods who walks into Harvard ready to prove everyone wrong.
She’s still figuring herself out, still making mistakes, still trying a little too hard to control everything around her. And that’s exactly why this version of Elle feels so believable. By the end of the season, we don’t see a completely different character—we simply understand her a little better.
Elle Knows becoming Elle Woods Doesn’t Happen Overnight
Elle arrives believing she can handle whatever life throws at her. A new school, new people, a chance to start over—it all feels manageable at first. Then reality gets in the way. Making friends isn’t as simple as she’d hoped, fitting in takes more than a good first impression, and not every problem has an answer she can plan for.
Honestly, who hasn’t felt that way at sixteen? But life can’t be planned. So Elle’s faced with situations that force her to choose between what’s easy and what feels right. Those choices don’t transform her into the woman we’ll eventually meet in Legally Blonde, but they do plant the seeds.
We begin to recognize the compassion, determination, and unwavering sense of justice that will one day define her, even if she’s still learning how to trust those instincts. That’s one of the reasons why Elle Season 1 won us over.
The series never tries to convince us that this Elle learned every lesson she needs. It reminds us that growing up is messy. And that, sometimes, we need the right people around us before we become the best version of ourselves.
So, before the season premiered, one question followed Elle everywhere: Would this prequel end up stepping on the movie’s biggest moments? And we’re happy to say the answer is no.
Throughout the season, we watch Elle stand up for people who need someone in their corner. We see her challenge unfair situations even when doing so comes at a personal cost. We watch her realize that popularity isn’t nearly as important as integrity. Those ideas immediately remind us of the Elle Woods we already know, but they never feel like recycled versions of the movie’s biggest lessons.
Instead, they feel like the experiences that make those lessons possible later. That’s a much smarter approach than trying to convince us that sixteen-year-old Elle has already become the woman who walks into Harvard.
Elle Season 1 also understands something equally important: growth isn’t linear.
There are moments when Elle gets things right, but, sometimes, she lets fear guide her decisions. Also, she worries too much about what other people think and she believes she has to fix everything herself. And that’s perfect because she’s growing and learning along the way.
The Friendships Shape Elle far More Than the Romance Ever Does
If there’s one thing Elle Season 1 understands from beginning to end, it’s that the people who change us aren’t always the ones we fall in love with. Yes, romance plays an important role throughout the season, and there’s a lot of misunderstandings and complicated feelings. But the relationships that leave the biggest impression in Elle aren’t the romantic ones.
That’s where Liz becomes so important. She refuses to let Elle settle for first impressions or easy answers, calling her out when she needs it and reminding her that doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest choice. Their friendship works because neither girl is there simply to support the other. They challenge each other, they learn from each other, and by the end, they’re both different because they met.
Dustin brings out a different side of Elle. If we’re honest, it’s the friendship that really sells Dustin and Elle. The romance has its ups and downs, but the moments that stay with us are usually the quieter ones. A conversation. A joke. The way they keep showing up for each other without expecting the other person to be anyone different. That’s the relationship we ended up rooting for.
Dustin challenges Elle and confronts her. He is not intimidated by her, on the contrary, he is able to keep up with her. That’s why their connection feels natural and honest. Then there’s Miles, who is another important piece of Elle’s journey. He liked Elle from the beginning—something that was mutual—but we sense that a part of him is dazzled by her brilliance, intimidated by her.
And, the last addiction to the gang is Kimberly. And we loved what Elle Season 1 did with her. At first, she seems like exactly the kind of rival we’d expect in high school. She’s competitive, intimidating, and determined to make Elle’s life more difficult. But the series refuses to leave her there.
Little by little, we begin to understand the pressure she’s under. That said, the show gives Kimberly depth without asking us to overlook her flaws. Even better, her evolving relationship with Elle becomes one of the best examples of what this Elle is about.
After all, Elle is about learning that people are often much more complicated than our first impression of them. It’s about realizing that kindness isn’t weakness. And it’s about discovering that empathy has a way of changing even the relationships we thought were beyond saving.
Eva and Kimberly Are Elle’s Most Unexpected MVPs
As much as we loved watching Elle build new friendships, some of her best relationships come from two women who challenge her in completely different ways. And the first is Eva.
It’s refreshing to see a mother-daughter relationship that isn’t built around conflict or impossible expectations. Eva and Elle love and support each other. That doesn’t mean they always agree, though, and Elle Season 1 isn’t afraid to let them clash.
Those disagreements never feel forced. Instead, they remind us that growing up also means accepting that our parents can make bad and selfish decisions too. Because they aren’t perfect. More importantly, the show allows Eva and Elle to learn from each other.
And now, we have to talk about Kimberly. She worked as Elle’s opposite, but Elle Season 1 not reduce her to the stereotypical mean girl. Yes, Kimberly can be cruel. And yes, she makes choices w spend plenty of time yelling at our screens about. But the series show us why she’s trying to meet impossible expectations without excuse her behavior.
Even better, the series allows both girls to challenge each other’s assumptions. Kimberly slowly realizes that Elle’s kindness isn’t performative, while Elle begins to understand that confidence doesn’t always mean someone has everything figured out.
That doesn’t mean Elle Season 1 is without flaws. And yeah, our biggest issue comes from the romantic side of the story.
We wanted to be completely invested in the love triangle because the series certainly treats it like a big deal. Sometimes we were. Other times it felt like one relationship had done the work while another was still trying to catch up. That makes a difference when the story asks us to care about the bigger romantic moments.
Thankfully, that never derails the show. Yeah, the romance may not always hit as hard as it should to, but the friendships, the heart, and the confidence to let this story stand on its own. Most importantly, Elle Season 1 never forgets who its heroine is. It reminds us that long before she inspired a courtroom, she first had to learn how to believe in herself—and that story turned out to be well worth telling.
Elle Season 1 will premiere on July 1 only on Prime Video.
