Heathers - A Failure of an 80's reboot

[Kroster]

The new Heathers show is going to be delayed because of the shooting in Florida.

And the world is rocked by the sounds of no one caring.

I only got halfway through the first episode. I was watching expecting it to be bad, but JD was so painfully bad I had to turn it off because I kept wincing at his awful writing and delivery. I wonder if they released it on streaming to gauge reaction and a lot of people stopped watching halfway through. Bad publicity is one thing: that can increase viewership. But an unwatchable show is better not to air at all.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

I only got halfway through the first episode. I was watching expecting it to be bad, but JD was so painfully bad I had to turn it off because I kept wincing at his awful writing and delivery. I wonder if they released it on streaming to gauge reaction and a lot of people stopped watching halfway through. Bad publicity is one thing: that can increase viewership. But an unwatchable show is better not to air at all.

I can't help but wonder whether they're just using the shooting as an excuse to not air a dumpster fire of a program. Which is a shame. I was looking to read the reviews.

 

[Henry Bemis]

But an unwatchable show is better not to air at all.

If Heil Honey I'm Home! could make it to air...

 

[Durenduren]

The first episode of the show has been released online on paramount's website.
http://www.paramountnetwork.com/episodes/cwmbrm/heathers-pilot-season-1-ep-1
Watched the first 17 minutes so far and:

Spoiler

- Within the first 10 minutes, HC publicly shames Ram for wearing a shirt featuring an american indian mascot and threatens to ruin his chances of getting a scholarship by posting it on instagram.
- It's insinuated that HM isn't actually lesbian and is faking it for "oppression" points.
- It's implied that Veronica was only accepted into the group because she's half Jewish, but as I predicted HC still points out that she's the "least oppressed" of the group and treats her like shit

So far, I like it. Could change depending on where they go with it (and whether it does enough original stuff to distinguish from the handful of other shows that have already nailed this topic), but it looks like my hopes of it becoming a clever satire of SJW politics could very well be fulfilled.

Super late on this :late:. Trying to watch the pilot, the links no longer works. Maybe there that regrettable of putting it there in public.

Also, the pilot episode is already causing some major salt from the SJW crowd
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/02/24/heathers-pilot-review-the-adults-arent-alright

Not surprised.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Super late on this :late:. Trying to watch the pilot, the links no longer works. Maybe there that regrettable of putting it there in public.

I wrote above that after the shooting in Florida they're delaying the show. To when, I don't know, but I'm not shedding any tears.

 

[Durenduren]

Yeah i know, I'm referring to the pilot not the whole show.

Just watched the pilot online, it's nothing more than people saying quippy snarky lines as an excuse to be quirky and cool. I feel no chemistry for the characters (the dialogue with JD and his dad are cringeworthy. No real people talk to each other when they have a guest in their house even if they hate each other) and the pacing is goes very fast when they tried to put plot points that's from the movie/musical for a one hour pilot. I swear it's like watching a higher budget parody on YouTube than a actual show.

 

[Grand Lunar]

Just checked, and this is actually coming out soon. The premiere date is set for July 10, 5 days from now.
I doubt that it'll be very good based on the pilot, but I do still want to watch it to see more of how they change the story.
https://deadline.com/2018/05/heathers-reboot-new-premiere-date-paramount-network-1202380244/

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

I thought they dropped it because of muh shootings.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

I thought they dropped it because of muh shootings.

They just delayed it. (Would that they be so kind as to realize what a shitty idea the whole thing is...)

At least the reviews will probably be entertaining.

 

[Grand Lunar]

They just delayed it. (Would that they be so kind as to realize what a shitty idea the whole thing is...)

At least the reviews will probably be entertaining.

There actually already are some reviews posted, due to it having been screened for critics before being delayed. This article for example is by someone who watched the first five episodes and gives a bit more information on the plot:
http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/01/heathers-tv-show-delay-gun-violence-ew-critic-essay/

In terms of the reviewer's opinions on the material, they're all pretty much the same shit about how it's offensive and "Trumpian" to have a show with fat/queer bullies and thin/straight bullying victims. I do still think that the concept of SJW Heathers did have the potential to work if it was done well, though I do acknowledge that this obviously wasn't and will almost definitely be idiotic crap.

 

[Y2K Baby]

There actually already are some reviews posted, due to it having been screened for critics before being delayed. This article for example is by someone who watched the first five episodes and gives a bit more information on the plot:
http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/01/heathers-tv-show-delay-gun-violence-ew-critic-essay/

In terms of the reviewer's opinions on the material, they're all pretty much the same shit about how it's offensive and "Trumpian" to have a show with fat/queer bullies and thin/straight bullying victims. I do still think that the concept of SJW Heathers did have the potential to work if it was done well, though I do acknowledge that this obviously wasn't and will almost definitely be idiotic crap.

St00pid liberal opinion piece.

Entertainment Weekly should just be "ew.com" to embody the teenage girl demographic.

And God, my posts are getting really stupid.

 

[Grand Lunar]

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/heathers/253825/heathers-tv-series-wont-move-forward-at-paramount
Okay, don't know how I missed this the first time, but it turns out I was wrong. Paramount has since scrapped the July 10 premiere date, and has said that they don't feel comfortable airing it. They are, however, attempting to sell it to other networks or streaming services to get some money back on their investment.

I know that this reboot looks extremely bad, and that I'm in the minority of people that are actually interested in seeing the rest of it, but I'll never understand this concept of networks delaying/canceling stuff out of "sensitivity." If it's that important, just put a warning before the show for anyone who might be offended, or even just scrap the tv airings and release it exclusively online. Why should everyone else have to suffer just because a small number of people, who can simply choose not to watch, might not like it? This isn't 1950 where there's only like 3 channels, no technology for recording shows, and no streaming. Anyone who doesn't like it has nearly infinite options as to what they could watch instead.

Also, terrible or not, the cast, crew, and writers worked hard on this. They at least deserve to have their work seen. Just like with any show, the network took a chance by greenlighting this, and should see it through for better or worse instead of pussing out at the last second. They knew that school shootings are more common in the US than elsewhere at the time of picking this up, so if that was going to be an issue, why did they waste everyone's time and their own money? Anyone who put work into this has a right to pissed at them for their incompetence.

 

[Doctor of Autism]

Honestly even though I am a huge fan of both the original film and the musical, I'd still like to see this only out of ironic amusement because it does have potential to be "So Bad, It's Good" based on the trailers and such.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/heathers/253825/heathers-tv-series-wont-move-forward-at-paramount
Okay, don't know how I missed this the first time, but it turns out I was wrong. Paramount has since scrapped the July 10 premiere date, and has said that they don't feel comfortable airing it. They are, however, attempting to sell it to other networks or streaming services to get some money back on their investment.

I know that this reboot looks extremely bad, and that I'm in the minority of people that are actually interested in seeing the rest of it, but I'll never understand this concept of networks delaying/canceling stuff out of "sensitivity." If it's that important, just put a warning before the show for anyone who might be offended, or even just scrap the tv airings and release it exclusively online. Why should everyone else have to suffer just because a small number of people, who can simply choose not to watch, might not like it? This isn't 1950 where there's only like 3 channels, no technology for recording shows, and no streaming. Anyone who doesn't like it has nearly infinite options as to what they could watch instead.

Also, terrible or not, the cast, crew, and writers worked hard on this. They at least deserve to have their work seen. Just like with any show, the network took a chance by greenlighting this, and should see it through for better or worse instead of pussing out at the last second. They knew that school shootings are more common in the US than elsewhere at the time of picking this up, so if that was going to be an issue, why did they waste everyone's time and their own money? Anyone who put work into this has a right to pissed at them for their incompetence.

 

[Grand Lunar]

Honestly even though I am a huge fan of both the original film and the musical, I'd still like to see this only out of ironic amusement because it does have potential to be "So Bad, It's Good" based on the trailers and such.

From what's been said in the reviews and articles about it, it sounds like it was supposed to be much more over the top in terms of violence and drama, and include a lot of surreal scenes (such as an elaborate croquet mallet fight, presumably taking place in Veronica's dreams, and a school shooting scene that turns out to be an fps on JD's phone). This actually does make it sound a bit more interesting to me, since an overdramatic soap opera with a ton of unrealistic&gratuitous violence thrown in has the potential to be really funny in a "so bad it'good" type of way.

Ironic that this was supposed to come out around the same time as the London production, which looks to be really good. I just hope that a video of it emerges eventually, and that it leads to a U.S. revival if the upcoming West End run does well.

 

[Grand Lunar]

Well, this is odd.

Apparently, the first two episodes of the show have already debuted on HBO GO, but only for those subscribed to HBO Europe (so it is only visible in the Czech Republic and about a dozen other Eastern European countries). The first two were released on July 11, and the streaming service will be releasing another two every Wednesday.
Haven't seen anything yet, but now that episode 2 has been released in many countries it should be posted elsewhere soon, along with the other episodes after they premier.

The synopses for the first six episodes can currently be read on the Wiki:
http://heatherstv.wikia.com/wiki/She's_Going_to_Cry

 

[Grand Lunar]

Update: The show has been released. It premiered on the Paramount Network over the course of 5 nights (yes, they rushed it out as quickly as possible to get it over with) and all episodes are available to be watched online.
https://www.paramountnetwork.com/shows/heathers
Will probably watch it soon, though my expectations still aren't great.

 

[Doctor of Autism]

Update: The show has been released. It premiered on the Paramount Network over the course of 5 nights (yes, they rushed it out as quickly as possible to get it over with) and all episodes are available to be watched online.
https://www.paramountnetwork.com/shows/heathers
Will probably watch it soon, though my expectations still aren't great.

Oh god make sure to torrent that because giving them money won't be good.

 

[Next Task]

Watched two thirds of it.

Spoiler: The story so far...

It's certainly cringey a lot. Everyone in it is terrible, and anything nice someone does is basically a sign things are going to go to shit for them. The parents are all awful, with the possible exception of Veronica's parents, whose seeming disinterest in their daughter's life later seems to be fear, because - double spoiler - about halfway through the series Veronica is shown to be as much as if not more of a psycho than JD, including having killed another girl when they were kids. Yeah, it diverts from the plot of the film substantially. It had to, though, but ten hours is also a very long time to try and sustain the original's tone, and they certainly don't succeed in that.

They don't lean into the SJW-bully side of things enough, to be honest - other than the pilot, they're really just the mean girls but more diverse, and the way actual SJWs bully people isn't the same as how the Heathers do it. Overall, they manage some successful moments of the black, campy satire they're apparently going for; Heather McNamara's parents and her subsequent suicide are done quite effectively, for example. But in general what it gets right, mostly from the first two episodes, it can't really sustain. There's some good lines, mostly from Heather Chandler, and Selma Blair and Casey Wilson are having fun with their bit parts, but other than that it's fairly forgettable. Supporting characters come and go, ideas aren't really well developed, and while some of the dialogue is fun it doesn't always work in the context of a conversation.

Changes from the original, besides the whole SJW aspect, include Kurt being openly gay and secretly hooking up with the genderqueer Heather Duke, with the realistic touch of Kurt being a dumb white male jock meaning that, to the SJW Heathers, he's not oppressed enough to treat well even though he's gay. Both Kurt and Ram can be nice, rather than being the perma-asshole rapists they basically are in the film, and only Ram has been murdered so far, purely because JD was jealous of Veronica paying attention to him. Heather Chandler survives the murder attempt, but Heather McNamara succeeds in her suicide. Betty Finn, now a stereotypical overachieving Asian, becomes popular for a while in the wake of Heather Chandler's 'death', and she naturally is just as self-obsessed when popular as the Heathers are.

There's more, but the worst thing about it is it makes numerous allusions to the original film, which stand out quite poorly considering the quality differential. If they'd tried to separate it more from the film, done their own spin and developed the whole SJW oppression stack as a source of bullying and control, even the way cults of personality can develop based on such things, they could have really modernised and been a truly subversive satire. Instead, there's a line of dialogue that also sums up the show - 'you're as deep as a college poster'. 'Everyone is horrible' can't really sustain a tv show without a lot more skill than this version of Heathers possesses.

 

[Grand Lunar]

Oh god make sure to torrent that because giving them money won't be good.

Paramounts website hasn't forced me to disable adblock, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Anyway, I did just watch the second episode and... wow, is it awful.
Seriously, I know we all thought that this was going to be bad and the pilot that was released months ago wasn't promising, but this was on another level. It's trying to copy the comedic sociopathy of the original, but it's so exaggerated that it can't be even remotely funny. This show doesn't even know the meaning of the word subtlety.

(Not bothering with a spoiler tab because I doubt anyone cares)
I mean, we see Betty Finn literally throw a "mourning party" for Heather at a Roller Rink. The original Heathers worked because the ways in which the students and teachers alike tried to exploit the "suicides" were actually kind of realistic, not some ridiculous nonsense that doesn't even make sense in context. There's even more bafflingly stupid things that have to be seen to be believed, such as a horrendous scene in which MacNamara's parents list all the reasons that she would have to commit suicide and end with "we just wanted to make sure that you're not thinking about it," and another with the school principal openly covering for a sex offender in front of a whole room. Then the episode ends with a ludicrous scene mirroring Heather M's near suicide from the original, except this time it's with a mirror shard and she bleeds gallons of blood out onto the roller rink, and she stays conscious through it all.

Though I have to admit, my huge fandom of the Heathers musical and my affinity for "so fucking dreadful that it's entertaining to see how awful it is" media has me interested to see how the rest of it turns out.