Rebooting Television Shows: Between Nostalgia And Making Profits
Rugrats (Paramount)

JAKARTA - Thursday, February 25th, ViacomCBS announced the arrival of Paramount+, a platform that is the branding of CBS All Access. This means that Paramount is ready to participate in the competition for streaming services.

Cited from Deadline, Friday, February 26, Viacom gave an update on the content available on Paramount+. This time, they are following in the footsteps of Warner Bros. who released a movie in theaters simultaneously streaming HBO Max.

Actually, the presence of Paramount+ is not a surprise considering that Paramount announced some time ago that they were making a series about making The Godfather for streaming service.

ViacomCBS also houses several television stations, so it is certain that shows from MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, and Comedy Central will be available here. Among the announced programs, there were several series titles that were familiar to the audience.

ViacomCBS will reboot and create new versions of some of their flagship shows such as Dora the Explorer, Fairly Odd Parents, Rugrats, iCarly, Frasier, Grease, and SpongeBob Squarepants.

Those of you who were born and raised in the 80s-' 90s are certainly familiar with a number of the titles above. They are shows that were present on television at a time when there was no streaming sophistication as it is today.

Along with the announcement, various pros and cons emerged. Not a few fans feel a reboot is unnecessary. Take Rugrats for example.

Judging by the first teaser released last Thursday, the cons among netizens were scattered. They did not accept Paramount's new concept, which changed the art style in Rugrats to 3D.

In addition, Rugrats, which is a children's series, was also questioned. If this is made for a streaming service, is it targeting adults or still children?

Paramount+ has not explained the reason for their reboot, especially for children's series, but netizens have asked that the original series be released via streaming instead of creating a new show.

Why Reboot?

Rebooting is a marker of a new period for a series. Rebooting is also an option where the production team continues the characters, stories, and backgrounds. The use of the word 'reboot' also comes from the term 'intentionally or intentionally restarting the computer'.

When a series gets rebooted, nothing has changed from the series but the audience who watched has changed.

The reboot series served as an antidote to nostalgia for 90s-era audiences who did not have access to the series. In the past, we couldn't re-watch the shows we saw on television. It's different now where we don't need to be bothered with that.

Apart from access, the reboot series also shares a nostalgia for its viewers by developing something that the audience already likes. "With a lot of television nowadays, it would be easier if (the spectacle) was familiar to the audience", Adweek's Jason Lynch told ABC News.

Adjustments

Gossip Girl, for example. The story of teenagers in one school was famous in the 2000s. This series is the starting point for a story about teenagers in a school who have love and friendship problems.

HBO Max made a number of changes to the reboot of Gossip Girl. Call it new characters and characters and stories. The only thing that is the same is their uniform.

HBO Max said, they made adjustments to the present. They put black actors in the main role and offered social issues that were much discussed in contrast to the original version which emphasized wealth and love.

Yes, it can be said that the reboot makes up for the mistakes of the series in the past whether it's the story or details related to racism or someone's identity.

With this series of tweaks and fixes, the reboot series is an interesting spectacle. The social issues that are presented as well as the various characters that are displayed make the reboot a second chance. But this point of view returns to the audience, do they really feel nostalgic or does the concept of rebooting be the way for the production team to reap profits?


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