While this TV season has seen many great shows, one of the hardest and least successful ideas in television is remaking an old series. (This is almost as unsuccessful as TV series being made into theatrical features, but that's for another blog....).
TV shows are very emblematic of their times. The stories, the themes, the costumes, all need to speak to today's contemporary audiences. For example, right now, almost every TV show has acknowledged the recession and how it's effecting all of their characters. Flash forward 20 years later when we're in an economic upswing, and those recession stories just seem dated.
V has a very interesting history. It was originally conceived as "what if" story. What if the United States was invaded by the Nazi's? For obvious reasons, that plot was reconfigured as an alien invasion. Same story, just made for TV. After a successful 4 hour miniseries in 1983, V was followed up by an even more successful 6 hour miniseries in 1984. After a hit that big, the obligatory TV series followed. It was horrible and was cancelled after 1 season.
Now in 2009 comes another V series. And this series is good. Same premise, but with a terrorism slant that totally works. It's much harder than it looks to remake a TV series. Just look at 90210 or Melrose Place.
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