Prison Break, Heroes and The X-Files are all being rebooted. What else deserves a second chance? Five Herald entertainment writers name the TV shows they'd most like to make a comeback.
Freaks and Geeks
Freaks and Geeks helped launch the careers of people like Seth Rogen and James Franco
Freaks and Geeks was a tall glass of water during the plastic teen landscape of the repressive late '90s. Like an anti-Dawson's Creek, the characters on the show talked like real teenagers and looked like real teenagers - even though some of the actors actually weren't. Freaks and Geeks was set in a vague late 70s/early 80s time period, but it wasn't really about That 70s Show-style nostalgia. The writing was perfect, the characters immensely relatable and the situations portrayed realistic, funny and emotional. I still cringe (in a good way) thinking about Sam's last trick or treating experience, Neil's discovery that his dad's a cheater and Kim Kelly's complicated home life. Tragically, the show was cancelled after one series and talks of a reboot have been shot down by creator Paul Feig. Bring it back. - Eli Orzessek
A show featuring Simon Barnett, then contractually obligated to host every programme on air in New Zealand, Clash of the Codes was an early pioneer in the 'get people to do something they're bad at on TV' genre, which now dominates the world. The people were famous New Zealand athletes, and the thing they were bad at was sports other than the one they'd found fame and fortune in.
Simon Barnett in Clash of the Codes.
They competed against one another, in trios created by their various sports, and as a teenage cyclist I supported the cyclists with a fervour I've never found since. The show transfixed a nation, and was a New Zealand original. Surely MediaWorks can find it in their wallets to roll it around so a new generation can attach deep and abiding meaning to this manifestly meaningless spectacle? - Duncan Greive
The Jaquie Brown Diaries
Jaquie Brown starred as Jaquie Brown in The Jaquie Brown Diaries
If any local show is ripe for a revival, it's this one. The Jaquie Brown Diaries is a delightful gem that ran for two seasons back in 2008 and 2009. Jaquie Brown starred as a fictionalised version of herself struggling to stay relevant on her Campbell Live-esque news show as a rival fluff news reporter in Serita Singh (Madeline Sami) emerges. It was two seasons of ridiculous and inappropriate comedy, with a revolving door of spot cameos from New Zealand's (then) finest. The final season ended on a cliffhanger, when Jaquie finally worked out Serita really was psychotic after all, and the two challenged each other to a reality show face off. A third season has never come to pass, and I say now is the time for a reprisal. With the rise of crappy reality shows and the style of soft news that sparked Jaquie and Serita's rivalry, there is plenty of material to inspire at least a few more episodes and wrap the story up. The real Brown needs to put the gravy making on hold for a while and give us the conclusion to one of NZ television's greatest unsolved mysteries. - Ethan Sills
The Tribe
A scene from the TV show The Tribe.
In 1999, just as everyone was freaking about the Y2K bug, post-apocalyptic show The Tribe hit TV screens. The show was shot in New Zealand and starred a predominantly Kiwi cast, including Outrageous Fortunes star Antonia Prebble. It was centred around Mad Max-esque gangs of reckless youths, left free to run wild, trying survive after all the adults in the world were whipped out by a mysterious virus. It gets marvelously melodramatic. If done right a reboot could be truly awesome. Yes, Netflix had a season of Between, which follows a similar story line (except it's a quarantined town where everyone over 21 drops dead) and ended up being so-so. But the potential for greatness is there with that kind of base story, it could go anywhere and imagine how cool it would be against a New Zealand back drop, launching a bunch of new young Kiwi actors into the limelight. It'd be our own TV version of The Hunger Games, Divergent or The Maze Runner - definitely something I'd like to see. - Rachel Bache
Deadwood
Ian McShane starred as Al Swearengen in the cancelled-too-soon Deadwood
No one swears like Al Swearengen. For three seasons, Ian McShane chewed up every scene he was in as Deadwood's resident brothel owner, delivering expletives like it was Shakespeare filtered through a Quentin Tarantino film. With the massively underrated Timothy Olyphant as Swearengen's nemesis sheriff Seth Bullock, Deadwood mined dramatic gold out of the hunt for gold and delivered the best TV western since, well, forever. But the show's high costs saw it cut after three seasons, with creator David Milch declining a shortened fourth season. Rumours of a movie have never eventuated. Surely it's worth another shot, just to hear McShane spit lines like, "I will profane your f***ing remains" again. -Chris Schulz
