If there is one thing nobody associates with the 2001 Reese Witherspoon comedy Legally Blonde, it is the grim, gritty 1990s grunge scene. Yet that is the universe into which the baffling and tonally bizarre prequel Elle, which is on Prime Video from Wednesday, dives headlong as it maroons privileged LA princess Elle Woods in overcast Seattle sometime between the release of Nirvana’s In Utero and Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. All this with the blessing of Witherspoon, who is involved as executive producer.It’s hard to tell who this show is aimed at. Presumably not fans of the original Legally Blonde, who could have done without a scene in which characters debate the relative merits of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. But nor will 1990s nostalgists be gagging for the origin story of Witherspoon’s bubble-gum-brained heroine.The very concept of a prequel to Legally Blonde is flawed. The premise of the movie was that Elle arrives at Harvard Law School as a fashion-obsessed Californian who sees the world in 50 shades of pink, but gradually discovers that there is more to life than the perfect shade of nail polish.The problem is, according to Elle, she has already learned that lesson. Set in 1995 the prequel sees teenage Elle exiled to rainy Seattle along with her family after her plastic surgeon father botches the nose job of a Hollywood star.This raises all sorts of questions to which there are no obvious answers. Are the earlier adventures of Elle an elaborate fever dream? Or did she live in Seattle and discover that personality counts for more than surface sheen, only to forget it all by the time Legally Blonde comes around?As the eponymous Elle, Lexi Minetree has the daunting mission of capturing the essence of Witherspoon’s performance without dialling in a straight-up impersonation. She mostly gets the register right, though for the Irish viewer it is often difficult to tell whether the script is mocking Elle’s positivity and self-confidence, or if that’s just what Americans are like.[ Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV: 10 of the best new shows to watch in JulyOpens in new window ]The show has mixed feelings about Woods – is she a heroine or a punchline? It also doesn’t know whether to satirise her as a completely absurd creation who may be emotionally unhinged, or to depict her as a misunderstood victim of terrible parenting. The show largely settles for bouncing around the two; on her first day at school in Seattle, she totters around cluelessly in head-to-toe lip-gloss pink. Yet we are also supposed to believe she is a three-dimensional character who can adjust to her new setting (before forgetting all the life lessons in time for Legally Blonde).The 1990s-ness of the whole thing is underscored by a cameo from the late Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek as a striving politician and by a soundtrack jammed with period favourites such as Garbage and L7. So 1990s nostalgists will find lots to admire - but why are they watching a Legally Blonde prequel in the first place?