I remember the Jurassic Park franchise from when I was a kid.  My dad took one of my friends and I to the theater, and sat a few rows back.  I remember screaming at parts of it, terrified.  The idea that was rebooted might make sense; the technology exists now to take the fright factor up a few notches.

Rebooting a franchise is a trend that isn’t going away.  Sometimes it works; a rebooted Batman trilogy from Christopher Nolan being one of them.  Batman is also among the worst with Ben Affleck in the first Justice League movie, and Superman vs. Batman.

It’s a concept that has jumped to television.  Roseanne, 24, Hawaii Five-Oh, and Star Trek have all been made with different results.  24 failed to duplicate the success of its first incarnation, and was cancelled after one season.  Roseanne stands to be rebooted a second time following Roseanne Barr’s controversial comments. Hawaii Five-Oh, and Star Trek: Discovery are two of the more successful ones.

Due to land on our screens over the next few years are reboots of Charmed, Murphy Brown, and apparently Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I came late to both Charmed, and Buffy but I’ve got to say both are of their time.  Buffy was practically the alpha of all the Supernatural fantasy shows.  Since then we’ve had spin-off Angel, Vampire Diaries, and the Originals.

I love all the nostalgia of these ideas.  But what about the originality? Buffy worked because nobody had ever thought of something like that before.  It’s got a reputation to uphold as quirky, funny, show.  What if doesn’t live up to the original? 24 didn’t.  The original series ran for eight years.  It was like capturing lightening in a bottle- something revolutionary with the perfect cast, for the perfect circumstances.  It couldn’t happen again.

There has to be someone with original ideas out there.  But where are they? The answer more often than not is Netflix where producers have more creative control, and there are fewer restrictions on content.  It’s also where people can re-live their favourite shows without having them rebooted.