Whatever happened to the art of leaving well enough alone? Well, apparently not in Beverly Hills, where Alicia Silverstone’s Cher Horowitz is staging a comeback that might actually be worth getting excited about.
The news dropped like a perfectly coordinated outfit – Silverstone, now pushing 48 and arguably wiser than her teenage matchmaking days, is bringing her “most capable-looking” character to Peacock. During a recent Today show appearance, she managed to both confirm the project and keep details tantalizingly vague – a move Cher herself would definitely approve of.
Let’s be real for a second. Most revival attempts land somewhere between tragic and totally buggin’. Remember that bizarre 2020 pitch about Cher going missing? As if! But this new series feels different, probably because it’s got some serious creative firepower behind it.
Picture this: Amy Heckerling, the mastermind who originally translated Jane Austen’s Emma into valley girl gold, is executive producing. She’s joining forces with Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (the duo who gave us Gossip Girl when we needed it most) and Jordan Weiss, whose work on Dollface proved she knows her way around sharp female-led comedy. It’s like the streaming equivalent of assembling the perfect lunch crew.
Silverstone’s relationship with her career-defining role has evolved into something genuinely endearing. Between recreating classic scenes with her son Bear on TikTok and rocking that yellow plaid suit for Rakuten’s Super Bowl spot, she’s mastered the art of nostalgia without becoming trapped by it. Maybe that’s why this revival doesn’t immediately trigger our collective gag reflex.
The timing’s interesting too. As Clueless approaches its 30th anniversary (pause for collective existential crisis), there’s something weirdly perfect about Cher taking on 2025’s particular brand of chaos. Who better to navigate the murky waters of cancel culture or decode the baffling world of BeReal than someone who once explained that it does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty?
Sure, the project’s still in what Silverstone calls its “baby stages,” but there’s legitimate potential here. The original Clueless worked because it understood something fundamental about its moment – how to be both of its time and somehow timeless. With the right approach, maybe this new version can pull off the same trick.
For now, we’re left waiting to see how they’ll translate Bronson Alcott High’s particular brand of drama for the streaming age. But with Silverstone’s assurance that they’ll “try really hard” – delivered with that same mix of determination and charm that made us root for her three decades ago – this might be one revival that doesn’t leave us totally buggin’.
Then again, maybe that’s just wishful thinking. But in a landscape cluttered with half-baked reboots and soulless IP grabs, at least this one’s got the original Betty behind it. And sometimes, that’s enough to make even the most jaded critic pause their eye-rolling long enough to give something a chance.
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