New TV show “Heathers,” based off of the 1989 movie and 2014 musical, premiered on Paramount Network on Oct. 25. Actors James Scully, Brendan Scannell and Nikki SooHoo star alongside Grace Victoria Cox and Melanie Field, who play the show’s main characters.

The plot follows Veronica Sawyer (Grace Victoria Cox), a junior and unexpectedly popular girl at Westerburg High School, as she challenges the hierarchy between the students and attempts to find love along the way. New kid Jason “J.D.” Dean (James Scully) tries to win Veronica’s affection whilst manipulating her into destroying her friend group.

At Westerburg High, all students subconsciously bow down to a group of friends called the Heathers. This group consists of Heather McNamara (Jasmine Mathews), an African American lesbian; Heath “Heather” Duke (Brendan Scannell), a male who identifies as gender-queer; and Heather Chandler (Melanie Field), the powerful female antagonist of the cult.

Veronica maintains her reputation as part of the popular group, but she never gets rid of her former friends, especially Betty Finn (Nikki SooHoo) who secretly hates Veronica for abandoning her during high school.

A major highlight of the new show is how it was modernized by the show’s writers. Instead of the basic, boring high school it was in the original movie, Westerburg is now a diverse community of different body types, skin colors and personalities. In this school, stereotypes are completely shed away, and even the jocks quiver at the mere idea of Heather Chandler.

What seemed to upset most viewers is how the TV show strayed away from the original plot of both the movie and the musical. In order to maintain a multi-episode series, the writers removed a major plot point during the first episode, which in turn, spurred backlash from die- hard fans of “Heathers.” However, the story is well-written and viewers remain enthralled by the actions of the characters.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5