Joey King Remains Hollywood’s Stream Queen With Netflix’s ‘Uglies’
Joey King is Hollywood’s reigning Stream Queen, thanks to starring roles in Hulu’s The Act and The Princess, and Netflix’s The Kissing Booth trilogy and A Family Affair. She seems destined to retain that title with Uglies, premiering Sept. 13, a Netflix adaptation of Scott Westerfield’s 2005 novel about a dystopian society that’s achieved peace and harmony through cosmetic surgery.
To say that it’s a fourth-generation knock-off of myriad similar YA sagas that have come before it would be an understatement, but thanks to King’s strong lead performance, it will likely be well received by tween audiences who’ve yet to become numb to these clichés.
In the future, the Earth has fallen apart due to its overreliance on fossil fuels, resulting in war, famine, and all the other terrible things that beget a gray, scary post-apocalyptic wasteland. Fortunately, scientists developed a magic orchid that serves as a renewable power source for the planet. As for what to do about humanity’s penchant for hating, fighting, and discriminating against each other, these geniuses came up with “The Transformation,” a life-altering procedure that, on kids’ 16th birthday, transforms them into physically perfect specimens.