Reality TV, you either love it or you hate it. The key is in the name, in that the genre is meant to best portray the reality of people and the situations they’re involved in. However the ‘reality’ of Reality TV is that, more often than not, it’s just as scripted as any other TV show. It’s all an act and everyone plays their part. Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” It’s a quote that rings true, but one thing out of everyone’s control is how you are perceived by others, no matter how good an actor you are.
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Being perfectly honest, HBO’s latest series The Idol is a massive mess. That’s not to say it’s devoid of any merit, there are elements of true talent hidden within, but in just a 5 episode run The Idol ultimately has no idea what it’s doing, what it wants to say and how to say it. It is literally and figuratively a ‘trainwreck’. You hate seeing it and it’s awful, but you can’t help but keep looking back as you drive past. It’s a morbid curiosity that kept me coming back and honestly I wish I didn’t.
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When I think of live-action video-game adaptations, there are a few franchises that spring to mind. There’s Angelina Jolie’s sultry Lara Croft swaggering through a senseless plot line. Milla Jokovich going quite literally all guns blazing amidst a constant bombardment of zombie hordes, without any recollection of quite how she got there. Then there’s the painful horror/unintentional comedy of the 2000s Silent Hill films.
What do these all have in common? Well, aside from the Resident Evil franchise having a die hard base of guilty fans (myself included), the films named here are not likely to be cropping up on any critic’s top 10 list. Although the last few years have seen a sudden rise in highly successful animated video-game adaptations like Arcane and Castlevania, The Last of Us seems to be, in my opinion, the first to master a live-action adaptation of the platform: sorry Witcher.
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With the emergence of Disney’s own streaming service in Disney +, the once distant possibility of having a live-action Star Wars TV show has become a reality. First came The Mandalorian, a solid entry into the ever expanding Star Wars universe that while being slightly overrated by die-hard fans, is a welcome addition to the small screen, still possessing the fun, large-scale storytelling and world-building that we’ve come to expect from this franchise.
Next came The Book of Boba Fett, a disappointment in the eyes of many with a plodding narrative that seemed to care more for the other helmeted hero even side-lining the titular character for a couple episodes to effectively become The Mandalorian Season 2.5.
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Euphoria, first airing in 2019 and based on an Israeli series of the same name, seems to have become the latest TV series to tap into the cultural spirit of the moment, taking on a life of its own on social media, as viewers dissect and discuss each episode at length.
So the question is, is it worthy of the hype?
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Full of action, violence and comedy, Reacher takes the story back to its roots by opting to convey the events from the founding novel in what became Lee Child’s international hit; The Killing Floor. The show stars Alan Ritchson (Titans, Ghosts of War, TMNT 2014) as the titular character, with Willa Fitzgerald (Beach House, Dare Me, Blood Money) and Malcolm Goodwin (iZombie, Mississippi Damned, The Lazarus Project) co-starring as Roscoe and Detective Finlay respectively.
Adapting the founding novel works in the series’ favour as it prevents the show from being comparable to previous screen renditions. The show start from the beginning means a fresh start, assuring audiences that no prior knowledge of the character is necessary in order to enjoy this show. The clean slate also provides the show with the opportunity to potentially adapt a lot, if not all, of the novels in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. This would be a realistic and smart move judging from the overwhelmingly positive support garnered by the show’s premier season.
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