First off, let’s address the obvious. Netflix, along with Dreamworks TV, are producing a reboot of Richie Rich, but instead of a film, it’s gonna be a TV series. I know. I didn’t know about it either.
On paper, revisiting Macaulay Culkin‘s best work seems like a fool’s errand. And in practice, it looks far worse than you could ever imagine.
Whilst the cutesy kids sitcom format does – and has – worked in the past, particularly exemplified by the swathe of super successful Disney Channel shows like iCarly or That’s So Raven, this just looks bemusing at best, and totally terrifying at worst.
It’s kind of hard to believe that someone actually made this in 2015, given how hard everything bites from the pie of 1995. Shoddy special effects, extremely hokey dialogue and scene settings, and for whatever reason a stereotypically sexualised teen robot maid. All there needs to be now is a rival kid whose attempted pranks always backfire so he can look down the barrel of the camera with a head covered in green slime with a “Why me?” look on his face as we give a blast of the old “WHOMP WHOMP” muted trombone and then throw to the tenth Australia’s Wonderland commercial for the hour.
But it’s not that I’m saying that this is going to be a bad show, or anything like that. All I’m saying is that if you get, I don’t know, a broom, say, and dip one end in brake fluid, put the other end up my arse, and stick me on a trampoline in a moving lift, I would write a better show on the walls. That’s all I’m saying.
If you feel like torturing yourself, the Richie Rich series is available on Netflix from tomorrow. You could also go outside and shoot yourself into the sun instead.
The choice is yours.
