Remakes and reimaginings...

[DanaC]

See, now, I'm the other way around. Remaking movies, doesn't bother me. But TV is my world *smiles*.

I think it bothers me more when tv shows are remade whilst the original is still running. I am totally on board with bringing old shows into the modern era with remakes and reimaginings. Battlestar Galactica was a superb example of this. The Tomorrow People, I'm not so keen on, but I can see why the makers thought it would work as a modern retelling.

Simlarly with movie remakes - they are usually about bringing an old movie back with a modern twist. That to me, makes perfect sense. The new generation retells an old story in their own way.

But Being Human, whilst I love the remake, annoyed me in some ways. It seemed unnecessary. Likewise, Broadchurch. The second series is being made now in the UK and the remake of series 1 is about to go live in the US. Again, I don't see the point of remaking that. It would be like us remaking Dexter - why would we? When the original is so awesome? Does it matter that Miami is an exotic location for us? No, of course it doesn't. Does it matter that the shorthand and visual cues may get lost? No, of course it doesn't. The show makes perfect sense to us as is, because it is basically about the human experience.

Law and Order, on the other hand, is so grounded in the American legal and judicial system, that a remake made perfect sense (though I didn't like it).

I am looking forward to the remake of Utopia if it goes ahead. Because I think HBO will do something marvellous. But I don't think a remake is needed. Like Being Human, it is quintessentially British and that is part of its charm. The only way to remake it would be to do it very differently. In which case it might well be a very different show and stand in its own right.

Again, I just hope that some people will give the original a chance to stand on its own right.