In the age of streaming and modernized technology, millions gain access to iconic shows and movies that reigned supreme in previous decades. With this freedom comes a popular trend amongst the pop culture world: reboots. With the prominence of popular shows like Roseanne and Full House on the rise, the idea that the story can continue strikes concern and often ruins the original story. 

One common issue towards reboots relies on a lack of comedic or dramatic relief that once dominated the original show. An abundance of sitcoms produce jokes made to pander to existing standards, making these shows unpopular and, most of all, unfunny. With modern standards in mind, the cold and cruel systems along with media influence highlight themselves making once comedic sitcoms, dramatic, as well as dramatic shows less significant in appeal. Take the rebooted series Fuller House: although the pre-existing characters can muster up a chuckle, episodes generally portray a predictable plot following the traditional conflict resolution arc. This results in boring shows, lower ratings and often times ignores the possibility of an interesting plot twist or event.

“Rebooted shows often never become as big of a hit as the original show and can lack in being funny or as interesting as the original show,” freshman Victoria Sorrell said.

In addition, humor that back then never turned a head, today would not fly. 

“Much of the humor [in] these older sitcoms would not be accepted today, as many of their jokes were offensive and would be viewed negatively against the current progressive nature of our society.” Her Campus writer Lauren Serge said. 

Shows like Girl Meets World take the hilarious innuendos of the past and abandons them for a new generation that rejects these jokes in favor of more low brow humor. This showcases through child actors displaying comedic yet cheesy jokes based on modern standards that rid the show of maturity and adolescent appeal and shift the focus solely on child and adolescent presence.

Rebooted shows also bring various issues when they alter the original plot and characters in favor of a less interesting cast of characters. Fuller House perfectly depicts this once again, as it disregards the original characters in favor of newer characters. The point of rebooting a show relies on the continuation of the original story and seeing old characters grow, not to display the problems and issues of new characters.

“Viewers often feel upset when rebooted shows come out because they feel as though the original shows were amazing. And with that comes getting attached to the original characters, so when new characters are introduced viewers and originally loyal fans tend to get mad,” Sorrell said.

As reboots continue to pop up in pop culture, the essence of the original classic series slowly dies out. From altered casts to a lack of comedy, reboots come with more flaws than strengths, producing content with annoying, predictable plots and basic characters. As the next generation embarks into the media-driven world, the amounts of rebooted content will continue to ruin the entertainment industry and the presence that older shows showcase.