Over the past few years, there has been a resurgence of reboots in the television industry, but many have seen a complete makeover in style and tone. The recent release of Bel-Air on Peacock is the most recent show that’s gotten the gritty reboot treatment, turning a beloved sitcom show into a dark and dramatic story that crosses Riverdale with Dynasty. We’ve seen everything from Sabrina the Teenage Witch to Nancy Drew turning into dark dramas for a more mature audience for seemingly no reason besides shock factor and a cast of older, sexier actors.
So, what other beloved story might become the next reboot that nobody asked for? Let’s take a look at some possibilities, from adored animated shows to live-action series.
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Beloved Animated Shows
Netflix
The animated show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is full of potential for a live-action reboot, much like the upcoming production of The Powerpuff Girls. The show follows two young kids who befriend the Grim Reaper after beating him in a limbo contest and go on a series of adventures involving the strange and supernatural. It could easily be turned into a show where the actors are aged up to be teenagers set in a dark and haunted town plagued by strange evils. Not only would there be evils from the realm of the otherworldly, but also straight from the selfishly human hearts of their neighbors. The two friends would rely on their shadowy scythe-bearing companion to deal with all the threats to the town while also struggling with personal relationships and self-discoveries.
The strange and lovable show Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends is also a candidate for the next gritty reboot. The show centers around Mac, who stumbles upon a home for imaginary friends that have been forgotten or outgrown by the kids that created them. Combined with the right blend of edginess and histrionics, this premise would make an excellent dark adaptation. A story about monsters brought to life by lonely and desperate children only to be abandoned with nowhere to go would be a fascinating exploration into the dark corners of human minds and nature with great opportunities for unique and twisted monster designs.
Who could forget the light-hearted comedy of Ouran High School Host Club? This anime centers around Haruhi, a cool-headed scholarship student at an elite club full of aristocratic children who end up in debt to the illustrious host club of boys. To pay off her debt, she dresses as a boy to host and court the ladies of the school along with her other club members, who often get her into trouble with their hair-brained schemes and need for adventure and romance. Even though this anime was already developed into a live-action film in Japan, the movie kept much of the same style and comedic aspects that the anime and manga use. This show could easily be turned into something akin to Riverdale or Bel-Air, in which the characters are played by the sexiest young adults in Hollywood, and the plot of this show lends easily to the possibilities of romantic dramas. And with a host of characters who are often seen as queer-coded, a gritty reboot would be an opportunity for plenty of queer-centered drama as well.
Beloved Live-Action Shows
Warner Bros.
There’s also the possibility of completely revamping the beloved sitcom Friends. A show that exhibits the constant chaos of dynamics between close friends always makes for interesting TV, especially when this has the potential of being rewritten as taking place during the current era of the pandemic. A lot of cinema has been adjusted for or centered around the pandemic. A show about six friends quarantining together is ripe with prospects for a dark story about the nature of people trapped together, slowly revealing their worst natures as cabin fever sets in during the weeks of isolation. Throughout the course of a season, there would be drama brought up by secret relationships, differing politics, and betrayal as someone tries to break the quarantine and risk the safety of their friends.
Then there’s the beloved and underrated show Pushing Daisies, which has a surprisingly dark subject matter despite its Wes Anderson-esque design style and cheerful vibe. The main character Ned works as a pie maker but has the ability to touch something that has died and bring it back to life. However, after a minute, something or someone else dies as an equivalent exchange. In the show, he saves the life of his childhood crush, who was murdered, and in doing so falls in love with her again but can never touch her, lest she goes back to being dead permanently. This show involves crime, murder, death, betrayal – everything a gritty reboot needs, plus the twist of a bizarre undead element. With a change in colour scheme and a less lighthearted tone in the acting, this could easily become a dark and serious drama following a man who’s a pie maker by day and a private detective by night.
Although these are just a handful of the next possible victims for the dramatic gritty reboot craze, it’s impossible to know for sure what might come next. There are endless opportunities for beloved shows to be remade for the next generation, but do audiences want them to be remade? While it’s always interesting to see how a show gets redone, the tradeoff tends to be the loss of the charm and style that made them so beloved in the first place. No one is really asking for these reboots, yet audiences feed off the drama they bring. Only time will tell which beloved show will be the next in an undoubtedly long line of melodramatic remakes.
