It seems as though in today's society, we are seeing more and more movies and television shows that are either remakes of long ago films, adaptations from cartoon to live-action, or ideas that look new, but upon further investigation are just wearing a new mask.
In the earlier days of television, we had shows like "Mary Tyler Moore," "Bob Newhart," and "Cheers." Each of these shows inspired spin-offs, and yet somehow they were still different from the original show. Writers were able to come up with enough different situations to keep people interested.
The movies were similar: they inspired sequels upon sequels but did not copy other films in content. Today's movies and tv shows all seem to be remakes, sequels that come 10 years later, or television shows that just never end.
Current state of movies
In the past ten or so years, the movie industry has seemed to struggle with finding new ideas to put on the big screen. The "Die Hard" movie franchise, which seemed to have ended in the mid-90s with the third movie in the series ("Die Hard with a Vengeance"), came to life again in 2007 with the fourth movie ("Live Free or Die Hard") and then again in 2013 with the fifth movie ("A Good Day to Die Hard"). Similarly, the "Star Wars" franchise stopped and started multiple times.
The first three episodes came between 1977 and 1983. Episodes four - six came out between 1999 and 2005. The newest three episodes started in 2015 and will finish up in 2019. Though the writers on "Star Wars" are constantly coming up with new things to show, it is almost as though they had finished and then ten years later they decided to write something new.
These aren't horrible ideas, it just seems rather odd to wait so long for new content to be shown.
Then, there's the problem of recreating movies from old ones. There have been numerous Disney movies that have been adapted to live-action in the past ten years: "Alice in Wonderland," "The Jungle Book," "101 Dalmatians," "Beauty and the Beast," "Cinderella," and soon there will be a live-action version of "The Lion King." These have been such controversial films; many people have expressed their concerns over changing a classic cartoon movie into a live-action.
Despite the concerns, these movies have come out on top and made millions upon millions of dollars. While it's great to have these movies resurface for the younger generations to see (and for the older generations to be nostalgic for), it is as though they had no new ideas for movies, so they took and old one and tried to improve upon it.
Then you have actual remakes: "Ocean's Eleven," remake of the 1960 version with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin; "The Longest Yard," remake of the 1974 version with Burt Reynolds; "The Magnificent Seven," remake of the 1960 version with Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen; "Carrie," remake of the 1976 version with Sissy Spacek; and most recently "IT," remake of the 1990 version with Richard Thomas.
Each of the original movies were good in their own right, but apparently, someone thought they needed some updating - thus creating the same movie over again with their own vision.
Television Has its own Plight
The television industry has not been spared when it comes to this issue. Shows have been remade, or the premise copied to get people watching again. There have also been shows that just continue making season after season, hoping there might be a new problem to solve.
"Grey's Anatomy" is one of the shows that continually tries to find new problems to solve. Currently in its thirteenth season, with season fourteen already having been ordered, Shonda Rhimes must find new and creative story lines.
She is constantly adding and removing characters, but the stories are always along the same line: someone has a personal problem (love, family, self) and they must also fix someone else's medical problem while trying to fix their own; in the end, they always learn something, regardless of whether the situation ends in their favor or not. Pretty Little Liars is currently having the same problem, though the show is finally coming to an end this year.
Shows like "Hawaii Five-0" have been remade with the same premises. "Law & Order," "CSI," and "NCIS" have all created multiple versions of the same show in different cities, but still with the same premise. It is as though we don't have enough crime shows, that there needs to be more created in new cities so that we understand that crime is everywhere.
And then there's "How I Met Your Mother." "HIMYM" is a total script rip-off of "Friends." Unless you're paying close attention and are a devoted "Friends" fan, you may not notice this until you watch the season a second time around. "Friends" is a show about a group of friends living in New York that go through their own set of problems over the course of ten seasons. "HIMYM" is a show about a group of friends living in New York that go through their own set of problems over the course of nine seasons. The characters even line up: Barney and Joey (the players), Marshall and Chandler (the funny guys), Ted and Ross (the hopeless romantics), Lily and Rachel (the sweethearts), & Robin and Monica (the career-driven women).
The only character from "Friends" who doesn't have a match is Phoebe, though you could argue that once Ted meets his future bride, she is like Phoebe (the quirky ones).
Though it takes a bit of watching and paying close attention, it is evident that the premise of the two shows is the same, the characters are much the same, and the only thing that changed is the specificity of the story lines and the time period.
Is there something else that we could write about? So many things have happened in the past ten years. Have we really just run out of things to write good film and television about? With all of these remakes and long overdue sequels, it sure seems like it. Maybe the key is new writers. You be the judge.
