Another reason is to refresh outdated material for a contemporary audience. When we watch shows made in the '90s or the early 2000s, it can feel like they're from another world. The jokes tend to age badly, half of the stars have likely been swept up in scandal, and casting can often show an obvious lack of diversity. The world looks different in 2022, and reboots aim to serve up the same show for a new audience.
Reason number three: The way we watch TV shows has changed. If you were born pre-2000, you likely grew up watching shows when they were on TV, not when you wanted to. Now we have thousands of choices at our fingertips on countless streaming services. Reboots can help bridge that gap between the TV generation and the Netflix generation.
But the problem with trying to refresh old material for a new audience is that it never quite works. Attempts to diversify the cast verge on tokenism and depictions of how times have changed often come across a little clunky. The characters feel and act out of place, as if they've been asleep since the original show ended and have woken up wondering where they are.
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This disconnect between old and new is often used as a device for humour. In the Gilmore Girls revival A Year in the Life, Rory Gilmore struggles to get cellphone reception in Stars Hollow when she's home for the holidays, clambering over the cabbages in Doose's Market. But is it really that funny - or realistic? Wouldn't Stars Hollow have had reliable cellphone service in its grocery store by 2016?
The show was also widely criticised as "disappointing" with its infamous "regressive" ending.
The 2021 Gossip Girl reboot, taking place eight years after the original with a whole new cast centred around an anonymous Instagram account instead of the infamous website, was named a "stunning failure", "tedious", and "clumsy".
And the currently streaming Sex And The City reboot And Just Like That, which reintroduces its stars in middle age, is "awkward" and "missing the funk and the spunk" of the original, according to the critics.
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Reboots have been tanking since the 90s and 2000s. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remake and That '80s Show, an obviously titled spinoff of That '70s Show, each lasted for only one season before being canned. The Top Gear remake with Matt LeBlanc ended abruptly in 2019 after a couple of seasons. The Hills: New Beginnings has also recently come to an end after just two seasons.
Instead of making a reboot, why not follow in the footsteps of the makers of Friends and Harry Potter and opt for a warm and fuzzy cast reunion instead? We still got our nostalgia fix watching all our favourite cast members reunite and we got to look back lovingly on key moments from the series.
Better yet, why not make something original? I don't know about you, but I don't want to watch yet another reboot, I'd rather watch something new and fresh.
Yeah, the bees are dying and the economy stinks - so leave us and our old comfort shows alone. If New Girl ever gets a reboot, I won't be watching.
