Reboots are an increasingly popular form of television because they appeal to nostalgia and familiarity while leaving space for originality and creativity. They are distinct from revivals, which star the same actors in the same roles years or — in some cases — decades later. In a reboot, a show or movie is reimagined, with timelines reset or discarded and an entirely new cast playing familiar characters. It's a tough trick to pull off, and relatively few TV shows have done it as successfully as those below.
'Battlestar Galactica' (2004-2009)
SYFY's (then called the Sci-Fi Channel) reboot of the cult classic 1978 space opera about genocidal robots called Cylons hunting down the remnants of the fleeing human race was both a commercial and critical success. While it was a "post-9/11 show in the way that so many great genre shows of that era were," the series is considered one of the best because its "weird blend of apocalypticism, science fiction and spirituality has grown only more resonant in the years since it aired," said Vox. (Prime)
'Doctor Who' (2005-2022)
BBC relaunched its iconic 1960s time travel series in 2005, and turned actors David Tennant and Matt Smith into stars with their portrayals of the lead "Time Lord." The reboot left the basic idea intact and follows interstellar time travelers who use a device called a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) with virtually infinite internal dimensions but the exterior of a blue British police box to prevent various time-travel-related catastrophes from occurring. The experience was like "watching a completely new programme but with enough references to the great tradition to make it authentic," said The Telegraph. (Max)
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'The Wonder Years' (2021-2023)
ABC's reworking of its own nostalgic sitcom that ran six seasons from 1988 to 1993 was daring and unexpected. While the original was a coming-of-age story that focused on a white, suburban family during the late 1960s, the reboot took the bones of the premise and transported them to Montgomery, Alabama, where we are introduced to Dean (Elisha Williams), a precocious 12-year-old boy in a middle class Black family. While some episodes "recycle storylines similar to the ones used the first time around," the show is notable for depicting the "layers of othering in American society and how it feels to be a minority," said Vulture. (Hulu)
'Queer Eye' (2018—)
The 2003 Bravo reality makeover series "Queer Eye For the Straight Guy" was a cultural phenomenon. In its 2018 reboot of the series that has now run for nine seasons and counting, Netflix borrowed the core concept — a "Fab Five" of gay men who offer fashion advice to badly dressed straight men. The reboot succeeded because it "evolved its cultural politics in response to the way pop thoughts about masculinity have changed since its first go-round," said The New Yorker, growing "more limber and less campy." (Netflix)
'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' (2018-2020)
Netflix took the wholesome 1990s sitcom "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," which starred Melissa Joan Hart, and gave it a darker, altogether less family-friendly reboot. Kiernan Shipka plays Sabrina Spellman, who discovers on her 16th birthday that she is half-witch, half-mortal and that the aunts who have raised her (played by Lucy Davis and Miranda Otto) expect her to pledge fealty to the Dark Lord. While the series "has the shadow of its sitcom predecessor to crawl out from underneath," it delivers a "bold and daring" reimagining that is "not for the weak of heart," said Den of Geek. (Netflix)
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