CAN YOU ENJOY A TV REVIVAL IF YOU DIDN’T WATCH THE ORIGINAL?
When it comes to television, the phrase “everything old is new again” has applied for quite some time. Over the past few years, we’ve seen everything from Will & Grace and Roseanne to Prison Break and 24 to Dallas and Gilmore Girls revived, continuing the story years and even decades later. There have also been countless reboots – series such as Wentworth, Magnum P.I., Dynasty and Charmed – which have been reimagined for a new generation, often re-telling the same (or a similar) story with a new cast. But I’m talking about the former category of shows here
– those that pick back up with the same characters after a lengthy absence.
Until now, the revival phenomenon has largely been confined to American shows, but this week sees the comeback of a turn-of-themillennium Australian drama: SeaChange (starts Tue., Aug. 6 at 8.45pm; Nine). I lived overseas between 1998 and 2000, when the series about a city lawyer relocating to a small coastal town ran for three seasons on the ABC, and so for me, this fourth season is my first exposure to the goings-on in Pearl Bay. Would I be able to jump in at this point in the narrative? Would anything make sense? Surely it would be the same as trying to watch any show starting at Season 4 – kind of an odd thing to do – right?
Having seen the first episode of the new SeaChange, I can say that it is quite easy to start watching at this point. For one thing, it’s not exactly the most complicated of shows. And any relevant backstory is sufficiently explained to bring newcomers up to speed. For another, this season is really a brand new plot that just happens to concern some characters who have been involved in other stories on screen before. To understand and enjoy the new storyline, you really don’t need to have seen any previous seasons.
And that’s the key, I think, to a successful revival – having a balance of nostalgic elements to appeal to the existing fanbase and compelling new stories anyone can appreciate. It’s a tricky balancing act to get right. The recent fourth season of Veronica Mars (on Stan now), for example, did a better job than the standalone VM movie five years ago, which was really for die-hard Marshmallows. This time around, the bombing mystery felt designed to draw in new viewers, while existing fans were catered for by all the returning characters and callbacks to previous storylines.
I would say that the revivals of Arrested Development and Twin Peaks weren’t as successful at welcoming new viewers (and in both cases, they’ve kind of alienated some existing fans by being so impenetrable).
So yes, you can enjoy SeaChange if you didn’t watch the original – provided light and breezy Australian drama is your thing to begin with. And, depending how it rates, this may well be the start of a flood of old local hits being given a new lease of life. Packed to the Rafters: The Next Generation, anyone? •