Funny is out, we need serious and gloomy. At least many decision-makers in series production seem to be of this opinion at the moment.
Remakes and reboots have been an integral part of the film industry for quite a while. In the case of series, the route to presenting old stories in a new guise is much more recent. An interesting trend can be observed: Not only is the plot being adapted to the present, the genre is also being changed more and more often.
Does it have to be that way?
The most recent example of such a paradigm shift is the announcement that the popular sitcom "The Prince of Bel-Air" from the 1990s will be turned into a drama series. The mostly carefree "Fish out of Water" comedy, which took the charming troublemaker Will (Will Smith, 51) from the streets of Philadelphia to the villa district of Bel-Air, is supposed to become a dark tale about gang crime and social injustice.
The question that inevitably arises is: "Does that have to be?" In the case of "The Prince of Bel-Air" in any case, the consideration is understandable, which should not have fallen by chance in the middle of the Black Lives Matter movement. Especially since it must not be forgotten that the original – with all the gossip about the pitiful Uncle Phil – occasionally sounded serious.
Whether the "Fresh Prince" will be successful as a drama is another matter. Examples from film and television have so far drawn a sobering conclusion. After the sitcom "Sabrina – Totally Bewitched", a dark horror variant was recently created with "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" – which was promptly canceled after the second season. Another example from the film sector: turning the dazzling comic book hero Superman into the "Man of Steel" plagued by remorse and self-doubt was not particularly well received by many fans.
Turn serious into "funny"
And attempts have also been made in the other direction, but similarly mixed. The series "Baywatch" (which can now of course be called "Guilty Pleasure") turned into a slapstick action film with Dwayne Johnson (48) in 2017. The basic tenor for this: nothing remains of the involuntarily comical charm of the original. Same game in the series "21 Jump Street", which also degenerated into a slapstick movie.
More and more often one has the feeling that the dream factory is running out of ideas. The proof that old series can benefit from the transition to another genre – whether as a film or a series remake – has not yet been provided. In any case, no one is waiting for the socially critical portrait "A terribly dramatic family" about an existence-threatened shoe seller who once dreamed of a great sports career but now has to feed his ungrateful family and slowly mutates from a loving father to a misanthropist. Which doesn't mean that it won't come anyway.