Just checked out the trailer for the new Quantum Reap (he's asian, it's a cheap joke), and the 'look' because there's no such thing as a real trailer anymore, has him in a completely modern neighborhood, dressed like he's from current year, and everyone else looks/acts like they are current year. The actual year for the setting? 1985. Everyone acts, talks, dresses, and looks like they stepped out of a struggle session.
There is no attempt to make any production look or feel like it is from the past in any of these new shows. What used to be a joke and a jarring moment (Keanu in Dracula) is now the entire theme. Cheap doesn't describe it, there is actual money thrown at all these productions. There is just nothing authentic here, it feels completely out of place.
Why? Are they afraid of trying? Is everything licensed to the point they can't use even a passing reference? Laziness? Or is it our old friend "we want to evoke nostalgia in people who never lived it, so nothing offensive, ever."
The MacGyver reboot was a take on this, it wasn't even wink-wink nod-nod at the original. Just a total stripping of any character or charisma from the original and turned into bland white man with super power to create explosions and kick ass. But it still had a white man as the lead, something I found shocking.
Because it was developed before the rise of the Orange Man when George Floyd was taking less than lethal doses of fentanyl.
By the current standards of reboots and remakes, the 2016 MacGyver was a high quality TV show.
I watched the pilot and then 1 other ep because an actor I really liked was guest starring, it was watchable at least- just nothing I felt like committing to.
Reboots problem is they have him a support group and had that be the focus. The whole bit is that Mac was the guy they called in when a team wasn't viable.
Exactly! And most of the reoccurring characters were there because they got in trouble and needed his help, and then dragged him into trouble to. Like Jack.
Yea their procedural ensemble formula was trash.
Remember the episode where Mac was mountain climbing with his girlfriend, they slipped and only his tether held them on. She was injured and their combined weight was causing the anchor to pull out, so she sliced through her tether, sacrificing herself to save him?
Holy fuck was that a jarring episode for a kid to watch, but damn did it make an impression. Richard Dean Anderson knew how to sell that plot. That's not something you'll see today.
Don’t forget that at the end of the series Sam met God himself and was given a choice to go back home or continue doing good works through time and space. He continued on but not before stopping off and fixing Al’s life.
It was a rushed-as-fuck ending due to NBC's sudden cancellation due to low ratings, but that was totally something Sam would do.
The show never got the credit or ratings it deserved when it was airing. Neither did Star Trek TOS.
I have the entire original series on disc, having watched it a ton as a kid.
There was an episode from the first season where he leaps into an old black man in the 1950s South.
Sam hates racism (yes, that was in the original), and wants to fight every instance of it he finds in that time. Sometimes fighting physically.
But he can't.
Why?
Because the episode takes place a few months before the Montgomery bus boycott, which set into motion the events leading to Dr. King's speech and the end of these prejudices.
So he has to let them slide, against his better judgment, because he can't risk preventing the actual major historical events from occurring. Violence at that point would just ruin public perception of blacks even further, and all the good that would come would never happen.
This sort of dynamic happened in a lot of episodes. That's what made the series such a cult classic--and myself into a Scott Bakula fan.
This new one? "Who cares? Orange Man Bad."
Now that depiction is endorsement, the kinds of stories you can tell are a lot more limited. Also the people who write TV and movies are much, much less talented than they were 20-30 years ago.
I'm sorry but writing teams are now more diverse, they all must have a black woman at the very least, and everyone on the team must follow her lead no matter what or risk alienation, and because diversity is our strength, it just goes to reason that the people who write TV and movies are much, much MORE talented than they were 20-30 years ago.
Leftism defines history at its ever-changing present whim. No memory is permitted here in 1984. History is erased. Only the Wokeness exists.
Year Zero
This post had me thinking of reboots and the Hawaii 5-0 remake lasted ten fucking seasons.
The "we didn't build the wall" remake of Magnum P.I. was cancelled then revived for some reason, scheduled to have 6 seasons (4 completed)
Tom Selleck is the only Magnum.
Magnum TA would like a word
One of the biggest what-ifs in wrestling history. Stupid car accident.
I didn't mind the first couple of seasons, but I was only watching it for Grace Park. No idea it had lasted that long.
While I agree the original series was superior, did they really say "we didn't build the wall" in the new one?
No (well maybe, I haven't watched), it's my brilliant & hilarious joke (my joke identifies as brilliant & hilarious- use it's prefered adjectives, bigot) to reference they made Magnum a wetback.
I've found it particularly notable how many fantasy worlds recently have some form of "magic slate" that functions exactly like a smart phone. Way too many people apparently can't even conceptualize a world without constant Internet connections.
WTF???
Scifi, I get, but fantasy? World building must cost extra.
Strange, in the past it was said to be difficult for fiction writers to adapt to cellphones. Even for a long time after everyone had phones, stories were still coming out that made no sense unless you assume nobody has a phone on them.
Why would you want too though? Isn't part of the allure of fantasy that it's notably different from the modern world?
No, it take place 30 years after the conclusion of the original series ie current year.
The first episode goes to 1985.
The scene I am talking about in the trailer has not-Sam jump back to a robbery in 1985 as the getaway driver and some anorexic egg-predator dinosaur with cheekbones as his not-Al.
I'm gonna miss Al. He was a character that added to everything. Always in flashy clothes talking about the women he'd been with and smacking the shit out of the Ziggy terminal he carried. To thst Ziggy was a character too. A scatterbrian AI that had some troubles with the quantum.
And the lost love of his life, until the last. Lisa.
Which Sam fixed before vanishing into the quantum.
Well, he didn't vanish, he just never returned home, choosing to continue on doing what he had before.
"Egg-predator?" Is that a new term for a dead-egger?
And if so, is there a list of these terms I can use for future reference?
It was 1999. A 1999 that looked much more futuristic than even today, but still.
It was almost never mentioned, so I don't blame you for missing it.
Post Reported for: Rule 15 - Slurs
Post Approved: I don't see any.
Maybe they're mad he didn't commit and call it Qrantum Reap?