Your past life is being rebooted. Well, the television part of it, anyway. Soon, you will turn on the boob tube and wonder whether you've time-traveled back to the '90s, because networks everywhere are stealing from the past as a means of creating "new" content. The reason is obvious: Originality is dead and pre-existing brands are like a pile of cocaine to studio executives who think we're all so dumb and unadventurous that we only like the familiar.
But these proposed revivals aren't all bad... or ARE they? Let's take a look at the most recently announced reboots and revivals currently in development and grade them on how necessary they seem.
GILMORE GIRLS (Netflix, in development)
THE ORIGINAL: Set in a small Connecticut town overflowing with eccentric townies and wacky events, a highly caffeinated, pop culture-obsessed single mother and her bright, bookish daughter are best friends. Amy Sherman-Palladino's fast-talking, feel-good dramedy about the bonds of friendship and family dynamics aired on The WB before making the jump to The CW for its seventh and final season, the first without its creator, who left the series amid contract disputes with Warner Bros. The show was beloved by many, but the final season is widely considered to be a low point, despite the best effort of everyone involved.
THE NEW SHOW: Although the project has yet to be confirmed by Netflix or Warner Bros., reports say www.tv.com/shows/gilmore-girls/community/post/gilmore-girls-revival-netflix-lauren-graham-alexis-bledel-144529122942/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.tv.com/shows/gilmore-girls/community/post/gilmore-girls-revival-netflix-lauren-graham-alexis-bledel-144529122942/">the revival would be set in present day and take the shape of four 90-minute mini-movies written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Daniel Palladino, who was an executive producer on the original series. Leads Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel are expected to return alongside Kelly Bishop and Scott Patterson, with the possibility of appearances by Jared Padalecki, Milo Ventimiglia, and Matt Czuchry.
HOW NECESSARY IS THE REVIVAL?: The news of the potential revival comes four months after the cast reunited to celebrate the show's 15th anniversary at the ATX Television Festival. Although it won't likely attract new fans, the nostalgia level is high with this one, and the revival could give ASP the chance to end the series on her own terms, which will hopefully include those elusive "four little words" that we've been hearing about for years. — Kaitlin Thomas
NECESSARY-NESS GRADE: B+
LETHAL WEAPON (Fox, in development)
THE ORIGINAL: A pair of mismatched Los Angeles cops (Riggs and Murtaugh, played by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, respectively) team up for police shenanigans in a franchise that would spawn four very successful action films and renewed interest inThe Three Stooges. One of the cops is a psycho mourning the death of his wife, the other is old. One is white, the other is black. One does things by the book, the other has barely read a book. Initially at odds, the two form a rock-solid partnership and take down all types of bad guys, as well as usher in a whole bunch of cop movies looking to replicate the franchise's success.
THE NEW SHOW: Fox is basically picking up the premise and plopping it down in present day, instead of making this about Riggs and Murtaugh's kids or a new generation of Lethal Weapon spawn. www.tv.com/news/lethal-weapon-tv-show-fox-144381741092/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.tv.com/news/lethal-weapon-tv-show-fox-144381741092/">Details are scant, but Fox's version features a Texas cop and former Navy SEAL moving to L.A. after the death of his wife and baby, where he's partnered up with an older cop who has to avoid stress because of a heart condition. Sounds like Fox really focused on the "I'm too old for this shit" part.
HOW NECESSARY IS THE REBOOT?: Sure, Fox can call this Lethal Weapon, but it's really just an entry point for another cop show to hit the air with some familiarity to sucker viewers in (kinda like Minority Report). Because without the magic chemistry of Gibson and Glover, this could be anything! But hey, a series about mismatched cops is an action-show staple, so if it wasn't Lethal Weapon, it would be something else. This is fine, but not really related to Lethal Weapon in any meaningful way. — Tim Surette
NECESSARY-NESS GRADE: B-
CRUEL INTENTIONS (NBC, in development)
THE ORIGINAL: A wealthy, cocky, and sexually promiscuous teenager attempts to seduce an innocent classmate who's vowed to save herself for marriage, but ends up falling in love with her instead. Meanwhile, his sexy, deceitful, and manipulative step-sister schemes and plots to ruin the girl's reputation to get what she wants. Adapted from the French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, the 1999 film starred Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Selma Blair and was a box office success that eventually spawned two direct-to-video films.
THE NEW SHOW: The www.tv.com/news/cruel-intentions-tv-series-nbc-144544190139/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.tv.com/news/cruel-intentions-tv-series-nbc-144544190139/">potential series is the work of the film's original writer and director, Roger Kumble, and the creators of the Los Angeles-based Unauthorized Musical Parody of Cruel Intentions, Lindsey Rosin and Jordan Ross. It would pick up 16 years after the events of the movie and follow Bash, the progeny of Phillippe's Sebastian and Witherspoon's Annette, as he discovers his late father's journals and books it out of Kansas to attend a boarding school in San Francisco where he's drawn in by power, money, and sex.
HOW NECESSARY IS THE REBOOT?: This feels like a lazy attempt to develop the next Gossip Girl and slapping the Cruel Intentions name on it does little but remind the movie's original fans how old they are. NBC is hoping this will draw in a younger crowd, but neglected to consider the fact most of today's teens weren't born or were only toddlers when Sarah Michelle Gellar's Kathryn was doing cocaine out of a crucifix and making bets with her step-brother in which the prize was that she'd let him "put it anywhere." Without the nostalgia factor, there's no reason for them to tune in, especially since the film's fans, now nearly twice the age (or older) of the protagonist, likely have no desire to watch what inevitably would be a stripped down, second-rate version of what they once loved. — Kaitlin
NECESSARY-NESS GRADE: D-
PRISON BREAK (Fox, 2016)
THE ORIGINAL: The title is really self-explanatory here. When his older brother is sentenced to die for a crime he didn't commit, an intelligent young man with a full-body tattoo—before it was the new, cool thing to do—stages an elaborate plan to help him escape from prison and clear his name. Although the series ran for four seasons on Fox, the first one was really the only one that was considered to be very good.
THE NEW SHOW: The www.tv.com/shows/prison-break/community/post/prison-break-revival-fox-2016-143887768614/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.tv.com/shows/prison-break/community/post/prison-break-revival-fox-2016-143887768614/">10-episode limited revival hails from series creator Paul Scheuring and will be an open-and-shut story, though what that story is remains a mystery. Original stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, both of whom currently recur on The Flash and who will appear on its upcoming spin-off DC's Legends of Tomorrow, have signed on to reprise their roles as Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows, respectively.
HOW NECESSARY IS THE REVIVAL?: When you consider that Michael apparently died in the straight-to-video film www.tv.com/movies/prison-break-the-final-break/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.tv.com/movies/prison-break-the-final-break/">Prison Break: The Final Break, it's hard to call this a "necessary" continuation of the Prison Break saga. Over the summer, Fox Television Group Chairman Dana Walden told reporters that what Scheuring had planned was a "logical and believable—in the world of Prison Break—explanation" for why these characters are still alive, but the fact that the series took a dive once Michael and Lincoln escaped from prison, it's difficult to muster up much enthusiasm for this one. But hey, who's gonna turn down more Wentworth Miller? — Kaitlin
