As the New York Times told us yesterday, only the olds use Twitter. Readers of Tuned In are uniformly young and beautiful, and so you have no idea that, over on Twitter, some of us elderly TV critics—breathing the stench of the grave with every tweet—have been debating how the new CW remake stands up to the original that aired on Fox.
My opinion is that it stands up pretty well, mainly because, despite whatever fond memories we have of MP, its first season (when it was intended as a quasi “realistic” show about how The Young People Live), it was pretty earnest and boring. (Cue Ms. Streisand: “What’s too painful to remember / We simply choose to forget…”)
But there’s no point my elaborating on that because you haven’t yet seen the new Melrose. My question is: are you looking forward to it? And if so, why?
This was something that puzzled me about last year’s remake of 90210. A fair chunk of the audience who might be nostalgic for the original are, arguably, too old for most CW shows. And The CW’s audience may want to watch a teen soap, but if they don’t have fond memories of the original, why would the remake have any more appeal? I guess there must be a sweet spot in between: viewers in their 20s or early 30s, say, who watched Melrose and 90210 early on, but is that enough?
Then again, 90210 is coming back this year, so it must have done something right. So I ask again: if you are looking forward to the remake of Melrose Place, who are you and why are you excited? Did you ever watch the original?
And speak up. My hearing aid’s not working.