The rise of the gritty reboot
Why "doomer" reboots of TV shows rule the screens
Written by @KateMRedd, a journalist who, quite frankly, loves a little something Gritty.
7 minute read
THE GUIDING QUESTION
How—and why—did gritty reboots take over teen TV?
THE TEASER
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: that show/comic/whatever that you used to love is getting a reboot! Surely you can’t wait for a fresh, updated version of your favorite IP. Maybe they’ll even take out that one scene that’s getting a little… dated.
Only… when the reboot comes out, it’s dark, edgy, and risque—sexy adult actors are playing teens getting themselves into trouble. Sure, it might have been updated to get some brownie points for diversity and inclusion… or it might not.
Whether we’re into them or not, gritty reboots targeting Gen Z are quickly solidifying themselves as an economic force on streaming services, regardless of whether or not the reviews are any good.
A brief note: Media analysis is almost always subjective. If you like the angles in this pitch, they’re yours to use. If you hate them, they’re yours to destroy.
THE DEEP DIVE
When it comes to teen media, there are plenty of places to start, but the Big Bang of teen coming-of-age content is arguably the 1980s.
With Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), John Hughes might be the father of teen movies as we know them today. Plus, the 1980s gave moviegoers everywhere a heaping helping of the Brat Pack, the group of young actors who starred in Hughes’ movies, and also basically every other coming-of-age movie from the era.
The typical ‘80s teen movie isn’t hard to recall; the tropes are familiar by now. There are weird girls in need of makeovers, nerdy boys in want of a popular girlfriend, cliques of mean girls, and jock guys shoving geeks into lockers. In the end, there’s usually a slow dance and a kiss underscored by an absolute banger of an ‘80s song. We learn not to judge our high school classmates by their appearance, to give each other a chance—and that you can’t rewind an odometer by running a car in reverse.
It’s undeniable the influence that the popular teen movies of the 1980s have had on the coming-of-age genre.
The similarly iconic 2000s gave us Mean Girls (2004), which is so fetch, but you can see the marks of the 1980s all over the rest of the teen genre. They run through to movies like To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)—wholesome, sometimes-snarky, ultimately sweet.
But, like with anything popular, there always comes some pushback.
To prove our point, let’s do a case study.
HEATHERS
Heathers is a 1989 movie directed by David Waters that slots into a unique position in the world of teen-centric content.
High schooler Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) gets in good with the school’s queen bees: three girls all named Heather. Mysterious bad boy J.D. (Christian Slater) grabs Veronica’s attention at school by bringing a gun to the cafeteria, and suddenly the two of them are living the teen dream: faking suicides to cover up deaths they not-so-accidentally caused, staging fake gay love letters between murdered football stars, and building bombs to blow up their small-town Ohio school.
It’s a cult classic for a reason.
Heathers is a parody of the cheerful 1980s teen movie with its nerd-girl-gone-popular tropes and accept-your-fellow-students message. It remains so popular, in fact, that its 2014 Off-Broadway musical reimagining and the subsequent 2018 West End run in London remains a favorite of theater kids everywhere—especially on TikTok, where its songs have occasionally gone viral.
Note: the musical version of Heathers is not a reboot, as it really just adds music to the story without any significant, substantive changes to the plot or characters.
Heathers is a perfect starting point when looking at “gritty” teen content. As dark comedies go, it’s truly pitch-black, what with the murders, suicides, eating disorders, and school bombings. But there are characters who still have realistic responses to the chaos, and the plot still feels grounded in real things that teenagers experience. Plus, it shows us that teenage content is capable of reaching cult-classic status even when it gets dark.
But no good deed goes unpunished, for Heathers is the victim of a reboot itself. The Verge does a great job chronicling the rise and fall of the 2018 Heathers reboot, which hoped to brand itself through woke changes, though it ultimately never saw the light of day anywhere but an obscure online streaming service. The reboot recast the iconic “Heathers” from three perfect, thin, white, beautiful, rich girls—every inch the status quo—to three members of generally marginalized communities: one plus-size, one biracial, one nonbinary. The Verge also outlines how the entire concept falls apart in a post-Columbine era where school shootings are a grim and common reality.
Heathers, despite being a parody, gave teen movies—and coming-of-age stories as a whole—permission to have a little bite.
Again, take Mean Girls: Regina George does, indeed, get hit by a bus as her comeuppance. But in the end, she’s fine. And even when she’s in a back brace at the Spring Fling, you (as the audience) still sort of want to be her, just like you have for the whole movie. She’s pretty, she parties, she’s perfect… and now, maybe, she’ll be nice.
Rachel McAdams was 26 when she played Regina. That’s not a shocker—movies have been casting gorgeous Hollywood adults to play teens for what seems like forever, and no one really thinks teenagers look like that.
But, from the 2000s on, teens on screen have been getting more adult, and not just because of the actors.
Gossip Girl, which started its CW run in 2007, is a perfect example. Though they’re just high schoolers, the Upper East Siders party like college-students-slash-twentysomething-socialites. And Gossip Girl opened the door for a whole slew of shows where teens punch above their age bracket: think Glee and Pretty Little Liars. The teen shows of the 2000s run the gamut from “reasonable, though dramatic, situation for teenagers” to… absolutely not.
And now we’re here: teens drink cocktails and do cocaine, not just sip beer out of solo cups and smoke joints. And if that’s not enough, murder seems to be a prerequisite for nearly every storyline, not just within the “teen thriller” subgenre or on shows like MTV’s Teen Wolf, where it might actually fit.
And things get crazier with every reboot.
But you had probably already figured that out by now. Reboots, sequels, and remakes are run-of-the-mill these days, but it’s not hard to see why. A pre-existing franchise builds in a viewer base from day one, whether it’s “nostalgic adult who used to buy Archie comics at the store” or “former Sabrina the Teenage Witch aficionado who still harbors a love for Salem the cat.”
The grittiness factor, however, is what differentiates the new from the old.
Sex, drama, murder, even musical performances—there’s truly something for everyone. And gritty reboots don’t have to shy away from tough topics like a candy-coated John Hughes-esque show might.
Remember, these shows are being tailor-made for Gen Z.
Their TV-executive-crafted profile probably looks something like this overview from McKinsey that’s focused on consumer packaged goods.
Gen Z, as a generalized whole, wears “social justice warrior” like a badge of honor. They’re digital natives and some of the first people to grow up with social media.
And they’re coming of age in a global pandemic and an ever-growing climate crisis.
Suffice it to say, they’re not looking at the world through rose-colored glasses.
Thus, in a dramatic generational split, the “Doomer” is born—arguably a demographic that revels in, you guessed it, gritty reboots.
What seems to have been originally coined as a term for young people lacking optimism about the climate crisis has morphed into a relatable Gen Z meme. The Atlantic chronicles the rise of the memes, and the term, here.
Gritty reboots, boasting diverse recasts, pop-culture-reference-riddled dialogue, and unhappy endings, are tailor-made for some of today’s teenagers. And consequently, are tailor-made for today’s advertisers.
As those teenagers get older—often with a growing nostalgia for the IP of their childhoods or IP from before they were born—gritty reboots will be an increasing economic powerhouse.
Clear your binge-watching schedule: the grit’s not going anywhere.
WHY THIS STORY IS WORTH IT
Despite the older generations who scoff at them, Gen Z is coming of age—not just as young adults, but as a cohort with real purchasing power. Even when shows like Riverdale jump the shark, they still get hate-watchers. And when you hear a new reboot is coming out, you just might settle in to watch it, even if you’ll be watching with your hands over your eyes, groaning in shame.
Buzz is buzz, and that’s what the media industry is built on. So, even if it doesn’t hit home for you, go ahead and pop some popcorn.
I’m hoping they go for Strawberry Shortcake next.
PEOPLE WORTH INTERVIEWING
Timothy Shary is a professor at Eastern Florida State College who studies youth in media and is the co-editor of a collection on the films of John Hughes.
Petrana Radulovic is a Polygon writer who covers “internet and fandom culture,” with some great takes on Fate: The Winx Saga and beyond.
For a Gen Z perspective, why not ask someone from Gen Z Designs, an agency not just made up of Gen Zers, but working on marketing the whole generation to advertisers: Tulsi Patel and/or Maddie Boyer, the Head of Research and COO, respectively.
WHAT WE DON’T HAVE ANSWERS TO
As with our past culture pitches, this story is a game of angles. You’ll be reading a lot of reviews, and likely a lot of Twitter threads, to pull together the pieces.
Check out the fandom. Shows like Riverdale don’t have, well, the most critical acclaim. Who’s watching them and why? Are they serious viewers? Casual? Hate-watchers?
And I’m sure you’re already considering the data. It’s hard to compare John Hughes movies to Netflix originals when you’re comparing Nielsen data to streaming numbers. If you want to pick data, try going by one source, like a streaming service where the content lives now, and give yourself a generous timeframe to compare viewership and demographics.
WE’LL SEE YOU ON THE WIRE
Want another pitch in time for your next meeting?
Know someone who’d love this pitch?
Publishing this story? See a correction? Got a tip? Tell us and we’ll publish it!
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
Meet the Doomers: why some young US voters have given up hope on the climate
The Nostal-Gen: Gen Z, nostalgia and the rise of an old aesthetic