This is not always a bad thing.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with …<\/p>\n
Some good rebootsBattlestar Galactica<\/p>\n
Ronald D Moore\u2019s 2000s remake of the 1970s Star Wars-inspired series by Glen A Larson took Larson\u2019s slightly hokey religious allegory about the human race being pursued across the galaxy by killer robots and turned it into an epic exploration of contemporary politics, spirituality and moral philosophy.<\/p>\n
This is fascinating in retrospect, because this was a remarkably apolitical era in loads of ways. Perhaps by hiding his story\u2019s complex ethical questions about political violence, governmental repression and moral injury in sci-fi, Moore was tricking his audience into political engagement. Or, more likely, people ended up thinking, \u201cNow, if the president was doing this in space maybe I\u2019d do something about it, much like these space people. However, I am on Earth, so meh.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Den![\"Feelgood](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P5UJI2LTYYYS2Q5FXO23KAO3RU.jpg\")
Feelgood anarchy: The Den returns. Photograph: RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n
The return of Ray D\u2019Arcy<\/a> and Zig and Zag to RT\u00c9 television in a short-lived reboot of the chaotic children\u2019s show The Den<\/a>, at the height of Covid, was perhaps less politically charged than Battlestar Galactica (though Zig and Zag, puppeteered by forces outside their control, clearly represent the lot of the worker under capitalism), but it certainly helped me regress to childhood at a moment of national difficulty. I said at the time that they should have put this on instead of the news. I stand by this.<\/p>\n The Muppet Show It\u2019s easier to reboot shows like The Den and The Muppets because, to be blunt about it, Muppets can\u2019t die. That should be the terrifying slogan for any Muppets-related spin-off. Because while Seth Rogen can pull Fozzie and Gonzo and company out of a crate<\/a> and stick them on the stage once more, you can\u2019t do the same with human vaudevillians. Take the Three Stooges out of their boxes for a Weekend at Bernie\u2019s-style romp and you\u2019d certainly be arrested.<\/p>\n Endeavour<\/p>\n A preboot, really, in which John Thaw\u2019s Inspector Morse is reimagined by Shaun Evans as a melancholy, investigative dreamboat who must solve the many murders of 1960s Oxford. There aren\u2019t half as many murders in today\u2019s university environment thanks to helicopter parenting and woke.<\/p>\n Fargo One of my least favourite Coen brothers films became one of my favourite TV programmes after it was remixed by Noah Hawley into five strange, gripping, stylish crime series with an array of excellent actors and a plethora of Coen brothers tropes. Irish national treasure and Oscar winner Jessie Buckley stars in series four, which means we can probably get away with using a picture of her for this article.<\/p>\n Gladiators<\/p>\n Big men and big women in skin-tight Lycra knock members of the public from high platforms using padded sticks while children bay for blood. I think this is part of the criminal justice system now. It\u2019s strangely cathartic in both its 1990s and its contemporary iterations. The new version is overseen by Bradley Walsh and his son, Barney, who slaves down the television mines like his father and grandfather before him. (He secretly dreams of being an accountant.)<\/p>\n Some less successful rebootsMagnum PI No moustache. No short shorts. No little man in a safari suit. (They made Magnum\u2019s sidekick Higgins a woman for the reboot.) Do not speak to me of the False Magnum. Indeed, do not talk to me of the False MacGyver or the False Matlock or, indeed, the False A-Team. Do not let these servants of evil deceive you.<\/p>\n House of Cards There\u2019s a whole subcategory of reboots that remake UK classics. Sometimes this works out well (The Office) and sometimes it means disgraced human ham Kevin Spacey<\/a> doing a honking Foghorn Leghorn impersonation. The House of Cards<\/a> shtick also doesn\u2019t work so well in the context of contemporary American politicians who confess their crimes directly down the camera lens instead of soliloquising nefariously but quaintly into the fourth wall.<\/p>\n Gossip Girl\/90210\/Saved by the Bell<\/p>\n When the algorithmic executive class reboot teen dramas they tend to take a \u201cnext generation\u201d approach, with a whole new cast of teenagers. It\u2019d be better to just put the original actors back in a high-school setting. I don\u2019t think anyone really thinks of television \u201cteenagers\u201d as young adults in a real sense. Television teenagers are mythical creatures, like ewoks or smurfs or hobbits or Galwegians. Just reverse-Bugsy Malone it, that\u2019s what I say. Think Brendan Grace as Bottler. That\u2019s how we should do teen dramas from now on.<\/p>\n Some reboots apparently on the wayMalcolm in the Middle: Life\u2019s Still Unfair<\/p>\n![\"Sabrina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NPRGM7CBEJFUFBEHUWHM5PBLUA.jpg\")
Sabrina Carpenter with the Muppets. Photograph: Mitch Haaseth\/Disney <\/p>\n![\"Fargo:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/7O6IDPCL6JAWBIP27QVLAYXCIY.jpg\")
Fargo: Jessie Buckley in season four <\/p>\n![\"Look,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CQZU6WZ56FF7XC6UAW4G5AGWLM.jpg\")
Look, no shorts: Jay Hernandez in the reboot of Magnum PI. Photograph: Karen Neal\/CBS <\/p>\n![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/XHFRHJKJKDL56Y7BKGHJTIVJRM.jpg\")
Kevin Spcecy and Robin Wright in House of Cards <\/p>\n