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.
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.