Revivals Versus Reboots: The Born-Again Series Taking Over TV

The television landscape is seeing a surge in revival and reboot series. Four beloved shows have been brought back into the television realm just in the past year. With teenage favorites like Gossip Girl and iCarly getting a second life, and And Just Like That… and How I Met Your Father bringing fans back into their dream New-York-friend-dynamics, revivals and reboots are taking over.

With the two terms often mixed up, it’s important to note that a series revival and series reboot are not the same. Stay tuned as the differences between the two types of second-life tropes are examined and the popularity of the media is put to the test.

Revivals

A show revival offers continuity to the original plot, bringing back (most of the) beloved characters from the original series and featuring them at a new stage in life. Recent television revivals are Paramount+’s iCarly which sees the once-teenage-web-icon reinvent her show after a devastating breakup with the help of new and returning characters.

Another example would be the once highly anticipated Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That… which started airing this past December. Following three of the core four, AJLT brings viewers back into Manhattan and the spinning relationships of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) as they navigate the complicated reality of their fifties.

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Fans were on pins waiting for the return of our favorite New Yorkers, LIM College senior Innara Gazizova included, but were somewhat disappointed by the show’s return.

“I’m one of the biggest fans of Sex and the City,” Gazizova starts, “but once I started watching, it felt like [...And Just Like That] was very forced and the show completely lost its spark.”

Even Time declared the sequel series “dead on arrival” in their final season review, having found the content to be “sparse, anticlimactic, and unfinished” from the very beginning.

The displeasure from fans on the show’s betrayal of their favorite characters and pre-viewing warnings offered in critics’ reviews did not stop AJLT from succeeding as the show quickly became HBO Max’s largest premiere and most-streamed series ever to date.

Rather than bringing back a show in revival form, Gazizova much prefers a reboot because there is less pressure on the shoulders of creators and fans in case of tarnishing an adored series. This trope follows the same general plot of an original show while reinventing it for new audiences.

reboots

Airing most recently is Hulu’s How I Met Your Father a new take on the series How I Met Your Mother, which offers a female perspective on the narrative while connecting dots to the original through friendship dynamics and leftover apartment decor.

Another beloved reboot would be the new Gossip Girl, an HBO Max original akin to the 2007 drama of the same name. GG sees a new class of students at Constance Billard & St. Jude schools as their lives get interrupted by the return of the anonymous gossip blog.

Both series saw major success upon premiering, with Gossip Girl previously holding HBO Max’s record for highest streamed launch, and HIMYF earning a season two renewal just six episodes in.

The revived Gossip Girl is indeed a product of its new time with much more diversity and queer representation than its predecessor. In an interview with Vulture celebrating the original series, producer Joshua Safron claims that he regrets not delving in more deeply when it came to gay storylines. The 2021 series features transgender and queer actors playing authentic characters in order to finally tell those stories at Constance Billard, with Out claiming it to be “the modern, LGBTQ-inclusive teen drama series this generation rightfully deserves”.

LIM College senior Sophia DeFonce however, doesn’t think this second-hand production deserves the hype. While admirable that shows like the newest Gossip Girl are working to include people of color and offer LGBTQ representation, it’s not enough.

“We deserve our own cool stories,” explains DeFonce on “reboot culture.”

Best of both worlds

Looking for a happy medium? Try Peacock’s series Saved By The Bell. The ‘reboot’ (and we use that term lightly) premiered in the fall of 2020 and features not only a new class of Bayside Tigers, but the old gang as well in new roles as parents and faculty. Holding the reigns as Peacock’s most-viewed original series, there are new stories being told with nostalgia packed in at every corner, offering something for both new and returning audiences, fans of reboots and revivals alike.

Whether you prefer to revisit the old or recreate with the new, revival and reboot series offer a whiff of nostalgia through a modern lens, allowing the show to grow along with those watching, and for that, there will always be an audience.

Which brought-back-to-life series are you watching? Leave a comment below.