HOLLYWOOD—Look, I know I am not the only person thinking it, but I guess I am the first person to say it. Sometimes TV shows and movies must realize when they have run their course. It seems in Hollywood, some people don’t know when to take a clue. It feels like we’re seeing the same thing over and over, so much to the point that it becomes tiresome after a while. How so? I remember when “The Masked Singer” first came out I though the series was genius, but we’ve since had 13 seasons, because the series does like two seasons a year it feels, and it has reached a point to where it is no longer entertaining.
This concept of theme nights is the dumbest crap they have come up with and the rooster of celebrities which at the start of the series was so surprising it was fun to watch, has just become so predictable. The same thing happened with the singing competition shows “American Idol” and “The Voice.” The sad reality is the winners of those shows, never gain that stardom that you would expect them to have. Hate to say it, those shows are tiring and old at this point.
The same goes for a lot of those reality shows on Bravo like “The Real Housewives” franchise. Why? There is nothing real or authentic about those shows anymore. They ae so contrived and fake you’re watching trash that just doesn’t entertain anymore. When they first hit the airwaves, it was fresh because the ‘wives’ (let’s face it a vast majority are not married) were giving their real selves. What you see is what you get? Nowadays it’s fake storylines and this massive focus on coming up with a way to take a particular housewife down during the season. Most don’t showcase their real lives, they have fake boyfriends and some even make you pay for the truth on their own podcast.
Guess what ladies? That’s not fun to watch and the audience hates bullying and a pile on. The same can be said with many reality competition series like “Survivor” and “Big Brother” which have been airing for a quarter of a century at this point, but their constant desire to outdo the previous season is hurting them. You know what fans want. Just pure gameplay. Let the players play and stop throwing in countless twists that stifle gameplay. Sorry “Survivor” I’m looking at you.
We are also seeing what is old is new again. Yes, iconic TV shows of the past are seeing a return to the airwaves, and I would admit if a show disappeared 20 years ago and is getting a rebirth, I am ok with it. We all love a little nostalgia, but you must bring something fresh with that as well. You can’t just give us iconic characters, 5 or 10 years later and expect the audience to automatically buy into it. That doesn’t always work, especially if you have a weak story to begin with.
This brings us to Hollywood’s obsession with requels, sequels, remakes and rebirths. I’m sorry as much as I love the “Halloween” franchise it is guilty of this. Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis portrayed the iconic Laurie Strode in the 1978 classic. Her character was ‘killed off’ in the fourth installment for her to only return in the seventh film, and then to later be killed off in the next sequel. Fast-forward to 2018, and the franchise ret-conned previous films to bring the iconic character back yet again. Not to mention some consider that the third reiteration of John Carpenter’s iconic classic.
Unfortunately, you’re seeing this trend more in horror, but it is indeed spilling over to other genres like action and sci-fi. I mean we’re getting our seventh installment in the “Scream” franchise in 2026. I remember you only saw movies reach such a feat in the 80s or 90s with franchises like “Friday the 13th,” “Halloween” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” That has since changed because if you make money Hollywood is going to churn out a sequel, the problem is those sequels just don’t compare to the original and they just become excessive after a while.
Originality is lacking in Hollywood, and it has been doing so for a very long time. Familiarity matters when it comes to audiences, but I always make the argument if something is good people will watch it. There is so much stuff on TV nowadays it is difficult to pick and choose what to watch and you have to remember that time you might waste on a lackluster series, you cannot get back.
If you watch a bad movie or a bad TV show, you wasted your time, plain and simple. I guess this is my hope that Hollywood and the entertainment industry will get the message. You don’t have to keep beating a dead horse. If a TV series or movie franchise has run its course it has run its course, it is ok to move on to something new and fresh. Guess what you might surprise yourself in the process.
