COMFORT FOOD
The TV industry is continuing its embrace of reboots into 2019. Here’s what 2018 taught us,
2018 was the year that nostalgia really hogged the couch.
What began as a trickle earlier this century — Battlestar Galactica in 2005, 90210 in 2008, Hawaii Five-0 in 2010, Charlie’s Angels in 2011, Dallas in 2012, Arrested Development in 2013 — has turned into a flood of television redos over the last couple of years.
And there are more so-called reboots in the offing, too many to list here, including Roswell, New Mexico, an update of the early-aughts space-alien drama debuting Jan. 15 on Showcase.
Nor are Canadian producers immune to the remake siren song, with Street Legal, a new take on the late-’80s law-office soap opera, hitting CBC on March 4.
Who can blame nervous networks for grabbing onto nostalgia with both hands when cable and streaming services cut into their audiences and ad budgets more and more every year?
Particularly after Roseanne debuted to 18.2 million viewers in March, an eye-popping number in this age of fractured attention spans. True, the ratings dipped after that first outing and, yes, Roseanne Barr blew up her own show with a racist tweet, but the Roseanne-less version that replaced it, The Conners, is still holding its own. Negotiations are reportedly underway for an expanded Season 2.
If reboots and revivals are the equivalent of comfort food — the easiest and most fitting analogy — viewers are willingly consuming it.
Here in Canada, The Conners was the sixth most-watched show in the first week of December, according to Numeris data; Hawaii Five-0 made No. 11, and S.W.A.T. and MacGyver also scored top-20 berths at No. 14 and 18 respectively.
Obviously, reboots are here to stay, so we humbly offer some pointers for those looking to cash in on the mania for nostalgia. Get the gang back together One of the things that re-endeared viewers to Roseanne and, later, The Conners, was keeping the cast intact. Even after Barr was fired by ABC (and her character killed off via opioid overdose), patriarch Dan (John Goodman), sister-in-law Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), daughters Darlene (Sara Gilbert) and Becky (Lecy Goranson), and son D.J. (Michael Fishman) were still around to sling jokes.
… But it’s also cool to round up a new gang
The best example of the benefits of wiping the cast slate clean is One Day at a Time, the 2017 version of the 1970s comedy about a divorced mother muddling through with her two kids. In the Netflix reboot, the white family is now Cuban-Amer- ican, allowing the series to tackle issues like immigration and racial prejudice. It’s been well received critically, with a third season due to land in February. … Although new people don’t always improve things
Moustacheless Jay Hernandez is fine in this year’s remake of Magnum P.I., but I wager no one is going to remember him for the role decades later like they do Tom Selleck from the ’80s. And critics have complained the three sisters of the new Charmed ( Melonie Diaz, Madeleine Mantock and Sara Jeffery) lack the chemistry of the originals.
Don’t take yourself too seriously
This was one of the issues that doomed the two-season reboot of The X-Files, which debuted in 2016 (that and Gillian Anderson jumping ship). There were some fun monster-of-the-week episodes, but the series’ “truth is out there” mythology got too convoluted and farfetched, even for fans. In a more recent example, ratings have dropped for Candice Bergen’s Murphy Brown comeback. One potential reason? Its zeal to make the show politically relevant with anti-Trump salvos that seem more forced than earned. … But sometimes it’s OK to get earnest
Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina scored with viewers and critics by deviating from the comic overtones of forerunner Sabrina the Teenage Witch. It can indeed be chilling, with Kiernan Shipka playing a woke half-witch, half-human in a supernatural milieu that is more darkly menacing than mirthful. Do what you did in the old days On Will & Grace (revived in 2017), the characters are older, yes, and living in a new political reality, but with original actors Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally delivering quips from the original writers, overseen by the original director, it is essentially the same show that went off the air in 2006, something that has resonated enough with viewers for NBC to renew it for a third season. … But it’s also OK to move on CBC’s Anne With an E has proven that you can mess with something that viewers revere (the Anne of Green Gables novel and beloved 1980s miniseries) and create a global hit. Creator Moira WalleyBeckett kept the broad strokes of the tale of an orphan adopted by a brother and sister in rural Prince Edward Island, but gave her Anne a harrowingly real backstory while adding new characters and exploring issues like bullying, racism, sexuality and gender identity.