With TV and movie reboots and spinoffs becoming more common, they are slowly killing the magic of the past.
Throughout the years many TV shows and movies have come back to life. By doing that Hollywood is killing the legacies and memories that the originals brought to their fans.
In an era where nostalgia has become sort of an idealization, Hollywood has taken the opportunity and used that nostalgia to create reboots of some of the most popular TV shows and movies as a way to regather audiences and make serious money. Yet this isn’t the best idea.
The reception these reboots and spinoffs have received have not been the best and are often criticized for its poor writing, miscasting and failure to recapture the essence the original brought, which is almost impossible to do.
Let’s take the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” as an example.
The “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” was a highly successful show in the 90s. The show followed Will Smith as he moved into his uncle and aunt’s house in Bel Air after leaving West Philly because of his troublemaker ways.
The show is known for its pop culture references and outrageous jokes and scenarios that frankly cannot be replicated in today’s world because of cancel culture.
So as Hollywood moves on with these reboots, which only last about one or two seasons, instead of creating new fans or gathering the old fans, they tarnish the legacy the original shows or movies built.
“Fresh Prince of Bel Air” isn’t the only example of this. There are “That 90’s Show,” a reboot of “That 70’s Show” which only lasted three seasons, “Suits LA,” a spinoff of “Suits” which only lasted one season, “How I Met Your Father,” a spinoff of “How I Met Your Mother” which only lasted two seasons and, more recently, the “Harry Potter” reboot, which fans are claiming will be the worst reboot in history.
Other examples are the Disney reboots. Disney is well known for their animated films, films that impacted generations and truly marked a point in history. Now, they want to do the same, but instead of keeping them as animated films they have turned them into live actions, thinking it would attract new audiences, yet it has done the opposite.
Most fans have rebuked these reboots and it can be shown through the box office numbers. According to Box Office Mojo, “Snow White” cost Disney $270-million to make, one of Disney’s most expensive movies. Yet at the box office it only grossed $204-million globally. While it may seem like a lot, due to the high budget of the movie and not even breaking even at the box office, it has been labelled as a box office bomb.
While most reboots and spinoffs have not been huge successes, there are the occasional few that are made right and become hits. Shows like Cobra Kai, Battlestar Galactica, and Doctor Who have been praised for being able to capture the essence of the original while still adapting to today’s world.
So as networks continue to reboot and spin off iconic shows and movies people have become more and more vocal about their demand of keeping the original work intact, yet for now this revolution of reboots and spinoffs shows no signs of stopping.
