The nWo – What Was and What Could’ve Been
One of my early loves used to be pro-wrestling. People might roll their eyes. Wrestling isn’t a sport! might be the complaint. No, it’s not. It doesn’t even pretend to be anymore. It’s entertainment – no different than watching an action movie or television show. The plotting is scripted to culminate in a staged battle. We know movies and television shows are fiction, but we still invest in them, we still care for or loathe characters. Pro-wrestling is the same. The great wrestlers also told stories inside the ring through their bouts. It’s a lot like the fights in the Rocky movie series. If you only watched the boxing matches,…
The Grim Reboot: ALF
Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog about the dark, bleak treatment that reboots get nowadays. As an example, I rebooted Gilligan’s Island, applying my own spin. A friend requested that I reboot the sitcom ALF (1986 – 1990). ALF was about a furry little alien, Gordon Shumway (aka ‘ALF’ – which stands for Alien Life Form) from the planet Melmac. ALF follows an amateur radio signal back to Earth and crash lands in a suburban family’s garage. The family, the Tanners, hide him from an Alien Task Force (a part of the US military that focuses on aliens) and the good-natured but busybody neighbours, the Ochmoneks. ALF is a traditional…