Anghus Houvouras on ‘Zombie Culture’ and the return of The Tick…
I’ve been writing about our ‘Zombie Culture’ for a few years now. For those of you who haven’t read my previous columns, here’s the textbook definition.
Zombie Culture: A world where all forms of entertainment (TV Shows, Movies, Comic Books) are eventually resuscitated and brought back to life.
Nothing stays dead anymore. In the entertainment industry anyway. Eventually every TV show will be brought back as a movie, or as another TV show. Everything will be rebooted or relaunched. Just this past week I heard of a few examples. Like the directors of The LEGO Movie bringing back the old TV series The Greatest American Hero. But the biggest example of Zombie Culture came in the form of Amazon resuscitating a cult classic TV series in the form of Patrick Warburton and The Tick. Yes, that’s right. The Tick is strongly rumored to be making its way back into existence.
Last year, Netflix resuscitated another low rated, critical darling, Arrested Development for a fourth season. Some fans enjoyed the new installment, but the vast majority felt like the spark just wasn’t there. This is something that plagues Zombie Culture: the inability to capture lightning in a bottle a second time.
Like Arrested Development, The Tick was ahead of the curve. It was clever, amusing, and worked well as satire for comic book storytelling that hadn’t quite conquered the world yet. Now, with Marvel movies consistently delivering superhero stories with a license to print cash, the world of The Tick feels ripe for a comeback. However, the problem with resuscitating shows that were ahead of the curve is that the curve is always moving forward. The Tick was novel when it came out. An anomaly that seemed almost too weird for network television. The on-demand, binge watching world might be perfectly suited for The Tick, but is the show going to be all that novel anymore?
Arrested Development suffered a similar fate. The show was cutting edge when it first languished on Fox. There were passionate fans and critics who devoted a lot of articles pondering why this funny show with a great ensemble cast couldn’t get any traction. After its cancellation, the show found new life as more and more people were exposed to the show via Netflix. On paper, the concept of bringing these shows back to life seems to make sense. The reality is usually more sobering.
Now, some 10 years later, we’re all in on the gag that was The Tick. The show has amassed passionate fans. Do we really need more of it?
There is always something odd about TV shows that are given a new lease on life. It’s less jarring with shows like The Killing or Scrubs that are cancelled and then immediately picked up by another outlet. Shows that are brought back from the dead after a long period of cancellation always seem a little off. Maybe it’s the difficulty of reestablishing chemistry or hitting a creative stride so long after the original run.
Zombie Culture is spreading my friends. As networks and content providers look for the next show or film to resuscitate, we can expect a landscape of more shows being brought back from the dead. But just remember; like a zombie, they never come back the same. They’re not how you remember them. And if we’re not careful, they’ll overrun all of us until there’s nothing left but new versions of old stuff. And that, my friends, is frightening.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published September 2, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
