The Movie Sleuth imagines five shows that could make a return to television.
The landscape of television is continually changing. Through the last couple decades, tv has made vast leaps and bounds and has also stumbled creatively with a large array of terrible reality programming. While cable is continuing to move in a positive direction with more and more interesting dramatic series, older shows like The X-Files, Prison Break, Twin Peaks and Heroes are all returning in some form or another with eager fans chomping at the bit to see their favorite characters again. There are a lot of shows that could do the same thing. Here are a certain few that could recharge their rabid fan base with another look at the characters they've loved for so long.
After the Carver season, the flame died out for Nip/Tuck. As the story lines got progressively darker, more confusing, and walked the fine line between straight perversion and total madness, viewership began to falter and the characters were lost in an abyss of troubled story lines that were never properly concluded. After five years of clarity and two main stars that haven't done anything worthwhile since the series ended, it could be an interesting twist to see where McNamara and Troy are at now. With a new writing staff and a reinvigorated Ryan Murphy still producing the highly popular American Horror Story series, this seems like high time to give fans a view into the current lives of the two morally questionable doctors and their taste for sexually influenced melodrama. After all, there's bound to be a Carver copycat out there somewhere.
OZ: Return to Emerald City
With the lackluster, rushed finale of the popular HBO series, a return to OZ could be an interesting take for their always changing original programming. With the loss of flagship shows like Boardwalk Empire, HBO could benefit from a new, modernized sentence in the maximum security prison. Some older characters would still be serving their prison term while new, younger inmates could be introduced to continue the realistic tone of the original show. With all the talk of our broken prison system in the U.S., now could be a great time to return to OZ for a current narrative on how politics and big money play a major part while also continuing its cyclical trend of realistic violence, drug use, and power hungry inmates with a taste for death.
My So-Called Life: My So Called Mid-Life Crisis
My So Called Life was a definitive but short lived series of the '90s that truly encompassed the feelings of that decades' youth. Despite the love of so many, My So-Called Life was given the ax after only twenty episodes. With low viewership and a network that was unwilling to hand out chances, a young Claire Danes was left jobless while teenage girls bitterly wept over the loss of their favorite heartthrob, Jordan Catalano (played by a then unknown Jared Leto). Knowing that there is absolutely no chance of this ever happening, it would be interesting to see an older Angela Chase dealing with the dramatics of mid-life as her former high school boyfriend goes on to sing in one of the world's biggest alt rock bands, Forty Minutes To Venus. See what I did there? Stupid. I know.
Dark Angel: Dark(er) Angel
Another show that bit the bullet due to terrible, rushed writing, budgetary constraints, and low ratings, the first season of Dark Angel remains one of the best things Jessica Alba has done in the span of her career. Yes, the show borrowed heavily from numerous other genre entries while never fully establishing its own personality. However, with a harder edged, more modern take on the characters and a much older, still physically fit Alba returning to the character of Max, FOX could make a limited run series that could re-establish some action cred for the actress while giving fans a proper continuity for the character. With the current market for more violent, hyper-active programming, a returning Dark Angel could definitely cut heads with any of the genre type shows that are in heavy rotation right now.
Jericho: World WarAfter cancellation status, then a shortened second season followed by secondary cancellation status, fans of Jericho would give their lives to see a continuation of the long lost series. The finale left too many questions unanswered as they tried to make a tidy exit from a show that was about nuclear war. Jericho was not perfect by any means. The acting was atrocious at times and the story veered off track far too often. With shows like The Walking Dead being so popular right now, Jericho seems ripe for some type of comeback that moves the characters into darker territory that shies away from the almost family friendly previous version of the show. Whether or not any of the actors would be available is certainly a concern. But I'm sure Skeet Ulrich could use the paycheck wherever he is. Netflix would be a prime target for Jericho. With less budgetary constraints and a binge worthy season, Jericho could be another hot property for the streaming service.
-CG
