The TV thread

Hellbound on Netflix

South Korea is fucking nuts.

 

Seriously, look for the animated original. I love the cast, but this is a pale shadow of the original.

I love that show!

See?

 

Just watched the Facts of Life half of this year's Live in Front of a Studio Audience. They seem to work best when the casts interpret the script rather than try to imitate the original actors. Probably one of the best of the bunch was Woody Harrellson's Archie Bunker in All in the Family. When the casting is not age-appropriate or the point is to try to imitate the originals, it seems cartoonish. Facts of Life had both of those things going against it. Or maybe for it? Kathryn Hahn and Ann Dowd disappeared into Jo and Mrs. Garrett. Dink, Carl, and Whatever His Name Was, played by Justin Bateman, Jon Stewart, and Wil Arnet, simpered, mugged and broke character. Guys, it wasn't cute when Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman did it. It isn't cute to see you dressed as 80s vintage teens doing the same thing.

Yeah, I KNOW Grease was originally presented this way because it was both a parody and a nostalgic romp or something. Maybe they should have updated it by having Jo run away with Blair. Ahdunno. I'm still trying to figure out who the audience for this is.

 

Part of it was those were not two great shows (or episodes) and the casts overperformed the material - Gary Coleman was fantastic as Arnold, The four girls from Facts of Life had good chemistry and the lack of it in the remake was quite apparent. Tootie was hilarious on the original episode, as was Jo - Beauvais didn't seemed disinterested, Hahn overacted and Aniston's hair did more acting than she did. Dowd was great as Mrs. Garrett. The other thing was "Rocky" was "rocky" because he had acne in the original, not braces.

Wonder if they could do Maude - Frances McDormand or Meryl Streep could do it justice.

 

I think Hahn was on point sometimes and OTT others. Aniston was so dreary! She's a great straight man (Bruce Almighty) but really doesn't carry comedy well. (Along Came Polly) Whelchel was much livelier.

 

I questioned the episode choice. I remember some vividly, but I didn't remember that one at all. And plus the preaching of the '80s doesn't really convey well to the 2020s.

 

Aniston was much more Rachel Green than Blair Warner.

 

I know I watched FoL but don't remember that episode, either. The preachy episodes made my eyes glaze over back then. I think that's why I gave Diff'rent Strokes a hard pass long before it ended.

Durned skippeh. The final punchline almost sailed by on a cloud of vanilla...something. Which reminds me, I saw the final minute or two of Diff'rent Strokes and now want to see it for Snoop Dogg.

 

Why does the new Sex and the City exist?

Or the new Dexter?

 

As more outlets adopt their own streaming platforms, the new streamers reboot classics to regenerate interest from a new generation (and the old) hoping they go digging back into the old episodes that are already paid for. I'm guessing whatever Friends cost Netflix, it paid for itself. Weird that Peacock doesn't have Friends, Paramount Plus doesn't have Yellowstone.

 

Paramount Plus not locking up Yellowstone was apparently a bad "miss" on their part - The show was originally commissioned before they were going to do that service, so they sold the streaming rights to NBC (Peacock) for a pittance. They do eventually revert back to Paramount, though. Friends, though, was never owned by NBC.