From shows like 24, Heroes and Full House, rebooting old tv shows is the new thing. Star Trek is being brought back to the small screen. Twin Peaks is also on its way. And how could we forget Prison Break? Ah yes, the age of reboots is definitely upon us. Looking back at some of my tv shows I make a case to bring each back.
Lost – “We have to go back!” Nothing was more exciting to watch than Lost during it’s run. How dare someone try to call you or try to talk to you during an episode. If you lost focus on the show you could miss some minor thing that finally answered what you needed to know. Unfortunately, it would create at least 3 new questions. While it’s been said that the characters have run their course, there’s plenty of room to go back and create a whole new narrative. Plenty shows have tried to emulate Lost’s success. Why not bring back the original and take us back to the land of confusion?
[Rick]
Dexter – Did you ever think you’d see the day where you’d side with a serial killer? Dexter took us to the dark place opposite most shows. Shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones often leave you thinking “Man I hope my favorite character doesn’t die”. Dexter, on the other hand, was more “God, I hope he kills her next! I can’t stand her”. It wasn’t the wish of pain on another human being, but the journey the viewer took. You often felt sympathy for Dexter as well as believed most of the victims deserved it. With each season a new moral dilemma that challenged the viewer’s ways of thinking.
House – Was there any show more fun to watch than House. It was the perfect balance between comedy and drama. Each episode a new case for the team to tackle, while still maintaining multiple-episode story arcs. Since hospital shows rarely fail, there could be a new twist on an old favorite. With where the show left off, a full reboot might not work. A spinoff or reworked reboot could very well have a leg to stand on.
Burn Notice – Burn Notice was a new age Macgyver. Well, the one before the new Macgyver. A former CIA spy that gives you all the tools(but one) to take down hostile enemies. The show’s appeal was half story, half gadgets you almost thought you could build yourself. How there wasn’t already a spinoff from this show still baffles fans. Luckily for them, the writers left plenty of room for the show to be rebooted.
Fringe – Fringe was one of those remarkably weird shows you couldn’t stop watching. It perfectly balanced science and science fiction. While most of the show was too strange to ever be true, you almost believed with the right technology you could get there. Where’s Tony Stark when you need him? Then the science fiction aspect of it. Much like X-Files before it, Fringe took you outside the realm of traditional thinking. They explored the weird and out of the ordinary and pulled you into its world. With a show as unique as Fringe, the possibilities on a reboot are endless.
The list of shows we’d like to see rebooted is always growing. When shows pull you in, you can’t help but to want more out of those characters. Tv has hit a snag as of late. Once one network has success with a show, the rest try to emulate it. If original content can’t be thought up at the right pace, why not bring back the shows we knew and loved. Bringing in new shows that will eventually get canceled due to saturation of that genre is ill-advised. If network tv is going to bring us shows we’ve already seen, they might as well be ones we’ve liked.