Recycled shows a mixed bag
If all else fails, repurpose old films and TV shows. That’s one way to fill out your fall season dance card, and it makes sense — on paper, at least. If the story worked for an old movie or TV show, why not give it another try?
Well, “Rush Hour” is one answer to that question. The CBS reboot lasted only a couple of months this summer.
But the networks may have better luck with three new retreads, to coin an oxymoron. At least they capture the reason their respective source material clicked with the public the first time around.
By far the best of the three is “The Exorcist,” premiering Friday, Sept. 23, on Fox. Created by Jeremy Slater, the series pays homage to William Peter Blatty’s best-seller and the 1973 William Friedkin film, both in dialogue and in a quick shot of the concrete staircase in Georgetown that would prove useful for the film’s finale (fun fact: The filmmakers used a real house in Georgetown, but it wasn’t close enough to the staircase, so they built an entire wing on
the house and then tore it down after filming was completed).
The show moves the story forward to contemporary times, as a young Latino priest named Father Tomas (Alfonso Herrera) is visited by a wealthy parishioner named Angela Rance (Geena Davis) who is concerned that her elder daughter may be possessed. Father Tomas tries to find earthly explanations for the teenager’s behavior, of course. But a series of events, including tortured dreams in which Father Tomas seems to be present at the exorcism of a young Mexican boy by a man named Father Marcus (Ben Daniels), convinces him something supernatural is going on.
The Friedkin film scared the bejesus out of its audience, and it’s safe to say that even if you didn’t see the movie but are old enough to remember when it was released, you can never look pea soup in the … eye? ... again.
The TV version can’t quite go that far, at least not on a broadcast channel, but the special effects are convincing, and the script is a labyrinth of mystery and suspicion guaranteed to hold your interest. show and premiering on Wednesday, Sept. 21, gets mileage out of sticking closely to the original Mel Gibson-Danny Glover film franchise, while tweaking the two characters to make them a better fit for modern times and the lead actors, Clayne Crawford as Martin Riggs and Damon Wayans as Roger Murtaugh.
Crawford’s Riggs is seriously closer to the edge than Gibson’s take on the character. A former Navy SEAL and Texas narcotics cop, Riggs’ life falls apart after his pregnant wife is killed in a car accident. Having nothing to live for anymore, he disappears into a trailer in the desert and contemplates ending it all. Flash forward a bit and he turns up at the Los Angeles Police Department, where he’s paired up with veteran, by-thebook cop Murtaugh, happily married, glad to be aboveground after open-heart surgery.
You pretty much know the rest. It doesn’t much matter what the crime of the week is: The show’s appeal is in the opposites-attract bromance of Riggs and Murtaugh. Riggs helps Murtaugh understand that there’s no percentage in playing it safe in life, while Murtaugh helps Riggs move on, albeit gradually, from his wife’s death.
Wayans and Crawford have great chemistry and make their respective characters their own. Wayans, of course, comes from comedy, which he uses to add a different dimension to the character of Murtaugh. And Crawford invests Riggs with darker urgency. The character tweaks help us see “Lethal Weapon” on its own terms, and not “just” a TV distillation of the original films. The original “MacGyver” starred Richard Dean Anderson in the title role of a secret government operative who could outwit any foe with only his mind and the use of his handy-dandy Swiss army knife.
The two elements that earned the show a decent if not spectacular following were Anderson himself and the cool applications of science in every episode, which, for the Boomer audience, probably made them think of the old “Mr. Wizard” shows but with action scenes.
The CBS update, premiering Friday, Sept. 23, is largely faithful to the concept of the original series. This time, though, Angus MacGyver is a baby-faced hottie played by Lucas Till who implies a fondness for bondage scenes with his girlfriend, is afraid of heights and probably owes his life as much to his colleague and constant protector, Jack Dalton (George Eads), as to his own ability to do almost anything with a bent paper clip.
The original Mac reported to Peter Thornton (Dana Elcar) in the super-secret organization known as the Department of External Services. The new Mac reports to Patricia Thornton (Sandrine Holt).
The premiere episode is OK but not much more. There’s a lot of action, fleet camera work and an annoying, anachronistic voice-over narration by our pretty hero.
Yes, there are cool sciencebased tricks that are explained through onscreen labels and narration.
But here’s the thing. The core audience of the original show was satisfied with comparatively rudimentary science. The information superhighway was basically a cow path compared with what it is today. The fact that Mac can take a copper wire and wrap it tightly around a piece of iron, turn it into a magnet and interfere with a thug’s earpiece reception is kind of ho-hum for a 21st century audience.
The show is rather flat overall. No matter how much Mac implies what fun he’d like to have with a pair of handcuffs and a willing female, the show is a cold procedural and not much more. Sticking it on Friday nights adds a further challenge to the show and makes us question its intended demographic.
At least do something with Till’s hair. He might seem at least slightly more real and perhaps even minimally credible in the role if he didn’t look as though he shares a hairdresser with Miss Piggy. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, and co-host of “The Do List” every Friday morning at 6:22 and 8:22 on KQED FM, 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV