The Best “Reboot”s Are Still the Cancelled Ones.
We’re in the era of peak reboots.
“Fuller House. Saved by the Bell. iCarly. Gilmore Girls. Gossip Girl. Party of Five. Party Down. One Day at a Time. Boy Meets World. How I Met Your Father. The Wonder Years. Battlestar Galactica. Doogie Howser. The Odd Couple. Perry Mason. Hawaii Five-0. Veronica Mars. Fraggle Rock.” These are just some of the reboots (and some of which I wasn’t evenaware of) that the Hulu executives rattle off in a pitch meeting for Step Right Up, the reboot in question at the centre of the meta Reboot also airing on — you guessed it — Hulu.
So it only makes sense that a show would come along to skewer the fact that there aren’t any new ideas anymore. “I fuck with it, but in a fun way,” writer Hannah (Rachel Bloom) contends. The only issue is, it’s been done before — and better.
Two of the shows Reboot is in conversation with are the self-referential and unfortunately seldom-watched BH90210 the (second) Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot, and the cancelled Saved by the Bell, which is named checked in the aforementioned opening scene of Reboot.
Saved by the Bell straddled the line Step Right Up would seemingly flirt with in Reboot, bringing back much of the core cast, specifically Elizabeth Berkley Lauren as Jessie Spano and Maria Lopez as AC Slater and affording their characters insight that wasn’t necessarily given in the original, while imbuing the show with an injection of fresh meat in the form of the Gen Z high schoolers at Bayside High. Created by Tracey Wigfield of The Mindy Project and Good News fame, the Saved by the Bell reboot’s comedy was of the moment while also calling back to some of the better aspects of the original.
BH90210 definitely had its work cut out for it when the reboot was announced in 2018 with the entire core cast, including Shannen Doherty, confirmed to return to the show that arguably wrote the blueprint for teen dramas. This was especially true when Luke Perry died several months before the show premiered in mid-2019. But BH90210 knew that it couldn’t just be like all of the other reboots and instead flipped the script — literally — so that the show chronicled the actors from Beverly Hills, 90210 trying to get a reboot made. And it paid off. Though only six episodes and quickly cancelled shortly thereafter, BH90210 was much smarter than it had any right to be.
It’s in these behind the scenes moments that Reboot shines brightest: Bloom is a revelation as showrunner Hannah, and her relationship with her estranged father and creator of the original Step Right Up, Gordon (Paul Reiser, himself familiar with the reboot treatment in 2019’s revival of Mad About You), who is brought back to co-showrun when Hulu gets cold feet about Hannah’s “edgy” rejig, is one of the best parts of the show, along with the original curmudgeonly writers room trying to get along with the Gen Z new brood.
But whereas Saved by the Bell made sure that the show we got to see as viewers was entertaining, we’re not privy to that when it comes to Step Right Up, the show within the show which was a family comedy involving the blended parenting of Cody by mum Josie, her new husband Lawrence, and drop-kick dad Jake. IRL (in Reboot life) Lawrence is played by Reed Sterling, who IRL (in real life) is played by Keegan-Michael Key. Ergo Cody→Zack Jackson→Calum Worthy; Jake→Clay Barber→Johnny Knoxville; Josie→Bree Marie Jensen→Judy Greer. Obviously, give Judy Greer all the things… but maybe not this.
The actors who play the actors are embroiled in immature drama that aren’t worthy of their skills (maybe that’s the real metatext of Reboot… 🤯): Reed and Bree Marie in a tiresome will-they-won’t-they relationship that blunts both Key and Greer so that they could be played by literally anyone and it wouldn’t make a difference. Meanwhile, I was legitimately interested to see how Knoxville would play in a traditional comedy, and his character does have glimpses of promise, but the hokey hijinks leave much to be desired.
Reboot was marketed as an “edgy,” gritty comedy that would upend the reboot as we know it. Instead it ends up being a middling comedy akin to its creator’s previous endeavour, Modern Family (let’s be thankful we didn’t get a reboot of that, at least). It remains to be seen whether it will make it past a first season and join the reboot wasteland of unwarranted renewals. Unfortunately, the best Reboots are still the cancelled ones.
