Paul Reiser and Rachel Bloom in the sitcom Reboot, streaming on Star on Disney+.
Paul Reiser and Rachel Bloom in the sitcom Reboot, streaming on Star on Disney+.
If Hollywood is afraid of anything, it's an original idea. Instead, they paved over our pop culture paradise and put up a parking lot of remakes, re-imaginings and reboots of any old thing that may have the barest whiff of familiarity about it.
Sometimes it works out; the 2000's rebootof the schlocky 70s sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica was astoundingly good, a darkly paranoid reflection of our post-9/11 world. The excellent Karate Kid reboot Cobra Kai is a more recent example of how an old classic can be completely shaken up and served to a modern audience while still respecting its legacy.
These two shows succeeded because they had ambitions beyond their source material. But for the most part, reboots generally feel pretty lazy. Seemingly content to either get the old gang back together or to just reheat the old formula and call it a day.
There's no shortage of examples, but to rattle off a few there's been Fuller House, Gilmore Girls, The Wonder Years, Quantum Leap, One Day at a Time and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. You can probably think of a handful of these nostalgia cash-ins yourself.
Showrunner Hannah (Rachel Bloom) is worried by the notes from exec Elaine (Krista Marie Yu) in Reboot.
In the opening scene of the new series Reboot, an old and out-of-touch TV exec is listening to Hannah, a young, edgy writer, pitch for a series.
"I like this idea," he says after listening to her, before leaning back in his chair and asking his cadre of assistants, "but are people still doing reboots?"
This is the sort of meta-humour Reboot specialises in. Lots of winking nods to the audience and sly, insider jokes about the television industry.
A successful table read of Step Right Up, the sitcom at the heart of Reboot.
Following in the grand tradition of classic shows-about-making-a-show like The Larry Sanders Show, This Time with Alan Partridge, The Muppets and the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm which followed co-creator Larry David rebooting Seinfeld, this series takes us behind the scenes of the reboot of a cheesy 2000s-era sitcom called Step Right Up.
This fictional sitcom was a groan-inducing, yet popular, show that was very much in the zany-yet-saccharine style of sitcoms like Full House, where no gag is too broad, no lesson goes unlearnt and no sentiment proves too sweet to stomach.
The show, which is streaming on the adult-orientated Star hub on Disney+, is about what goes on behind the scenes of the reboot of a cheesy 2000s-era sitcom called Step Right Up.
Millennial ideas clash with boomer tradition in Reboot.
There's clueless execs butting in and insisting on changes, like hiring a reality TV star famous from a show called F***buddy Mountain in a pivotal part. There's the original cast, happy to be working again while navigating their personal relationships which are estranged from more than 15 years apart. And there's Hannah, the hotshot showrunner whose critically acclaimed film has a title too offensive for us to dare publish, who discovers that the powers-that-be have brought in the sitcom's original creator to also steer the project.
While the zeitgeist-aware Hannah wants to flip Step Right Up upside down, the classic boomer Gordon wants to keep it broad and hammy and to cut all of Hannah's political posturing.
"People need comfort. They don't want kale salad," he says to an outraged Hannah as way of explanation. "Let's give 'em mac and cheese."
Clueless TV Exec Elaine (Krista Marie Yu) meets the stars of fictional sitcom Step Right Up in Reboot.
As the relationships between all the players get more fraught with jealousies, insecurities and relationship entanglements all mixing together the show had the opportunity to veer into cynicism. Easy when your premise is so mocking.
Reboot doesn't go down this path. Yes, it pokes fun but it's never mean-spirited, although it is very adult-orientated humour with plenty of F-bombs and sex jokes dropping.
Somewhat ironically, the series also has its own share of sitcom-style heartwarming moments. Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising as the show was created by Steven Levitan, whose previous show Modern Family reinvented the family-friendly sitcom, injecting some much-needed realism into the zanier moments while still having everyone hug at the end of each episode. Back in the day Levitan also worked as a writer on The Larry Sanders Show so Reboot really is merging his two great successes.
Keegan-Michael Key and Paul Reiser on set in Reboot.
Here he's assembled a top-notch cast, with Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer and Johnny Knoxville starring as the returning sitcom cast while the fantastic Rachel Bloom plays Hannah and the ever-likable Paul Reiser brings humanity to Gordan, a character that could easily go wrong.
This all makes Reboot a breezy watch. The sort of show you put one episode on and find yourself binging all the way through. It's funny, with an edge and, critically, a heart.
"Let's remake something original!" the TV exec tells Hannah when he decides to greenlight the series. While it doesn't reinvent the formula, Reboot certainly rewards your time.
