With a focus on the tentative new Prison Break reboot, this article would discuss the effective and ineffective aspects of television reboots and when and where the line should be drawn and the show should be over.
There are good and bad aspects of rebooting franchises. The main beneficial point to rebooting a franchise is to provide a fresh retelling of the narrative, either through a modern time-period, a different genre/tone or simply from a new revisioning of the character in its respective universe. Good examples of reboots are Marvel's Spiderman: Homecoming and Chris Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Spiderman: Homecoming revisited the origins of the superhero, presenting the character at a much younger age than previously explored, his teens, and aligned his motivations with that of the already established Iron Man, so it was a natural fit. The Dark Knight trilogy bounced off the critical and commercial failure of George Clooney's Batman movies, and presented a much more gritty and realistic tone for the Batman character, unlike anything previously explored in cinema. The key point I am trying to make is, the restrictions on reboots should be a fresh vision of the character from a plot-perspective, in order to preserve their narrative integrity, not to update it for the current year or development of special effects. – Gliese436B7 years ago
I lover Prison Break and would love to see it go forward with more episodes. I think it depends on the series in terms of adaptations. In some ways reboots and great ways to update an original series. In other ways, everything is an adaptation. It can all be very derivative. – Munjeera7 years ago
I loved the first instalment of Prison Break so much but I am disappointed that they are rebooting it. I think a good aspect is to compare how other shows have rebooted themselves and if it has worked well. What I have found is that whenever a show or movie tries to do better then the original story-line, it always fails. Everything within the reboot will be criticised and deeply judged that it will seem hard for the show to continue with this. – Dana7 years ago