Reboots on the Other Foot

As a writer I am not really in favour of remakes or reboots. You tell a story once and move on. There are so many stories out there now, with one man and his dog, one woman and her cat, and one celebrity and their gerbil, writing novels – there is no need to repeat anything. Yet, there are loads of remakes (films) and reboots (series), almost as though there is no one having any original ideas. I have three novels myself (soon to be four hopefully) that could be used for a starter – as mentioned before, ‘Rewind’ was a screenplay at one time.

Currently there are a number of reboots of TV series that I do watch – one has to with terrestrial TV thinking that we can all survive on a diet of soaps, cooking, dancing, singing, antiques, sewing and dog grooming. Just to name three of these reboots we have; Hawaii Five O, Magnum and Macgyver. Okay, two of these have already finished their runs but Magnum is still going and is even on this evening.

HFO was not so much of a problem for me because whilst I knew of the original, it was never a staple viewing at home – the parents ran the TV – so I treated it more of a new show rather than comparing it. Macgyver was not a show I saw a lot of on TV in the 80’s when it was made but I caught up with it later – Richard Dean Anderson starred before Stargate. The new show was quite a bit different with more a a team than a one man band. Not very well known in the UK but the original is part of the culture in the US – Macgyver is an actually verb. To Macgyver something is to fix or cobble something together and I have heard it used in dialogue on other shows – Stargate included.

Magnum is also somewhat different than the original and I had trouble at first with the comparison – Higgins is now female and there is not as much antagonism between the two. Again, I watch it as a new show trying not to make a comparison. It is interesting that Rick (Larry Manetti) and T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) have both had cameos in the new show but Tom Selleck, who I once read would like to revisit the character, has not.

Yes, I watch them but then they are my type of shows, although I would have never had said they needed to be remade. I have two of the original series on DVD. Taking another show though, Charmed, which is from the 90’s – which I also have on DVD – the reboot of that which is not a patch on the original.

Of course, the other thing about reboots is the theme tune or lack of it. We all like a familiar catchy theme tune, the problem is programs are so much shorter now to allow fro adveritising, even when the old tune is used, it is shortened to about half its original length.

Anyway, what is it that turned my attention to reboots this weekend. Well, it was the reunion of the cast of Angel