Rebooting the past

As I’ve ranted about before, it seems that Hollywood are so completely out of original ideas that they need to keep rehashing old ones to try and maintain a grip on their audience. This seems to be especially prevalent in television at the moment.

It’s not always bad. The new Battlestar Galactica was a well constructed, multi-layed series, with complex characters and gripping storylines. To my mind one of the best television shows of the last ten years. But for every Battlestar Galactica there’s a V or a Bionic Woman or a Hawaii Five-O.

Actually, I’m being harsh. I quite enjoy the new Hawaii Five-O, and consider it one of my guilty pleasures. What I like about it is that it’s trash, that knows it’s trash. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. Which is my problem with shows like Blue Bloods, which pretends to be high brow but is really just trash.

The other thing Hawaii Five-O has going for it is the cast. Despite Alex O’Loughlin being the world’s least expressive human, the show has Scott Caan who’s entertaining, Grace Park who seems to have the Midas Touch for reboots (see BSG again) and Daniel Dae Kim who, after Lost, must have instructed his agent that he only wanted jobs that were based in Hawaii.

I don’t have anything against reboots per-se. Hawaii Five-O, V, BSG et al were all decades old by the time they got rebooted. It’s when they start tossing around ideas like rebooting Buffy (which is apparently on the cards) that I get a bit twitchy.

Which brings me to the hideous trailer I saw the other day for the new Teen Wolf reboot. Now they’re p*ssing me off. Taking a beloved film from my childhood (my God it’s got Michael J Fox in it…the gold standard of eighties fare) and Twilight-ing it to appeal to a tweenie audience. The thought of it makes me physically sick. OK maybe mot physically sick, but close.

I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt though and won’t pass judgement until I’ve seen the first episode myself.

Expect a rant though.

Absolutely the best thing on TV

I’ve been quite vocal about the fact that I think “Game of Thrones” is the best thing on television. Despite a slightly anticlimactic season finale, one the whole the series was consistently excellent, with complex characters and dense storylines.

Part of what let the final episode down was that they’d set so much up throughout the series that there was no way that everything was going to get resolved. I would have liked at least a few more loose ends tied up, however in the long run I think it’s probably a really good move, as season two is surely already the most anticipated television event of 2012?

It’s so rare that there’s an intelligent show where genuinely anyone could die at any point. Even in The Wire there were some characters (i.e. McNulty) that remained untouchable throughout. Add to this some excellent performances from the entire ensemble cast, with special mentions having to go to Aidan Gillen as the scheming Little Finger, and Sean Bean and the heroic, if not somewhat naïve Stark. The young actors are all brilliant, especially Maisie Williams who plays Arya (you she’s going to be a big part of future seasons) and Jack Gleeson who does a great job of making Joffrey the most detestable character in the whole thing. And whilst everyone gives solid performances, the true star of the show has to be Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, whose dry sarcasm provides the majority of the show’s laugh-out-loud moments.

The end of episode 9 was truly jaw-dropping (it actually made me start as I was so sure they weren’t going to go through with it), and the cliffhangers at the end of the season have left lots open for season 2. My early predictions are a Lannister/Stark war throughout the early episodes, before they’re forced to put their differences aside to deal with the White Walkers and what Jon Snow’s got going on up north. I doubt there’ll be any confrontation with Daenerys and her brood until season 3. On that note, a great ending to her story…I thought it was coming but it was nice to see them not shy away from such a “fantasy” twist.

It’s the show I’m recommending to everyone that they watch. I won’t hear anyone saying that they can’t deal with the “fantasy” side of it – the show could easily have been about warring affluent families in America – as it’s not about the setting it’s about the story. Much like Battlestar, the medieval backdrop just adds texture to watching the stories of these incredibly layered characters unfold.

Not sure if I can discipline myself to wait until 2012 for the new series…think I might have to start reading the books…

“Stick them with the pointy end.”