It feels like recently there’s been a rebirth of all these older shows.
Will & Grace, Roseanne, Full House, Gilmore Girls, King of Queens II (aka Kevin Can Wait). (Maybe more. Feel free to let me know if I’m missing any!)
What do you think that’s about? Why, instead of new, do we want the comforts of old?
Don’t get me wrong. I am just as excited as anyone that Will & Grace is coming back. And I am watching every episode! But to me, this seems like a new phenomenon. I don’t remember a bunch of reboots when I was a kid. So, what is it about this moment in time that makes us want this?
Is it because we want to be reminded of the time before Trump was president?
Is it because those shows take us back to a simpler time when we didn’t have technology that kept us constantly (sometimes (maybe many times) over-)connected?
Is it because we want the shared experience of everyone talking about the same show again?
It boggles my mind to think that there are shows that have been on for more than a hundred episodes that I am barely aware exist. (Last Man Standing. The Middle. Did you know Matt LeBlanc has a sitcom on CBS and it’s already been on a full season?!?!)
I’m so curious what we as a society want when we seem to be clamoring for this.
(…I don’t have answers here – just wondering out loud.)
The trite economic answer is that a cautious reboot that doesn’t completely suck is very likely to make a profit. The benefit from the name recognition > the people who are turned off by relative unoriginality.
As to the larger cultural questions, which really go to the heart of it, I’m not sure. As a semi-SF nerd, computers keep making things possible/afforable that simply weren’t more than 20 years ago. So the giant space battle that used to be dots on a screen and actor commentary can be shown in its full glory, not to mention the alien not looking like some actor in a rubber suit.
In addition, many movies/shows prior to, say, the 1980s (and some since then) had very outdated cultural norms, so there’s the temptation to do it right with our more diverse sensibilities.
But as to why more recent shows are being rebooted, I’m not sure. Maybe, it’s a chance to re-live the moment, or if younger to catch the moment you feel you just missed. (I’m still sad about missing the golden age of disco. 🙂 )
Yeah, no great answer either.
Haha, well, I appreciate the comment nonetheless. And I continue to watch every episode of Will and Grace in it’s new awesome reboot, and I’d totally do the same with a number of other shows haha 🙂