Hollywood leftists exist in an echo chamber.
That’s how truly bad ideas slip through the cracks.
And Netflix is in big trouble as their reboot of one classic TV show has everyone enraged.
The 1970s sitcom Good Times was celebrated for showing a glimpse of inner-city life.
Fifty years later, that story has been told incessantly, so it has become difficult to find a fresh take.
But Netflix is not even trying to be original.
Another reboot
Instead, the streaming service is remaking Good Times as an animated series with Seth MacFarlane serving as one of the executive producers.
And it is not good.
The trailer packed in as many stereotypes as possible while also desperately attempting to be social commentary.
Thus far, nobody seems to be too fond of the upcoming series.
Longtime Philadelphia radio host Patty Jackson said, “I was offended, surprised, and extremely disappointed. . .Especially knowing such great actors as J.B. [Smoove], Yvette [Nicole Brown] and Jay [Pharaoh]. . .It was a poor presentation and it’s something that should have been done a whole lot better.”
Yvette Nicole Brown, so-star on the sitcom Community, pushed back against criticism and said that the reboot “is edgier and more irreverent than the Good Times of our childhood, but it’s still a show about family, fighting the system and working to make things better despite where you start out in the world.”
Fans displeased
Brown defended the show in separate social media posts, writing, “I’ve spent my whole life shining a light on the things that matter & calling out the systems that keep a boot on our necks. . .At times, I take parts in projects that do the same — even if they are irreverent or risky. Coming for me as if that’s wrong is a fool’s errand.”
“You don’t have to like the projects I choose, agree with my decision to do them or support me now or going forward,” she added. “But your displeasure will not stop me from doing the projects I think have merit despite them being tough to swallow for some, at first. Now get out there & write your screeds about a show you’ve seen just a two-minute trailer for. Go off as if you know the fullness of the journey or the message we’re trying to share about the systemic barriers WE still face no matter our station in life.”
However, some of the people who were not terribly thrilled by the reboot were original cast members John Amos and BerNadette Stanis.
Amos, who played patriarch James Evans in the original, said, “I really can’t form an opinion, as I’ve not seen any of the episodes yet. Norman [Lear] — and the entire cast and company — set the bar pretty high. They’ll have a hard time reaching that level of entertainment [and] education. I wish them the best. I see people aspiring to that, but I don’t see anybody reaching that goal, especially in an animated version.”
Stanis, who played daughter Thelma, was less charitable, saying, “I did a little voice for them, but I did not know it was going to be the way it is. I thought it was going to be different. It’s just a little here and there. But I think that they did that because they knew what their show was going to be like. So I guess they figured, if you put us in there, it wouldn’t look so bad or whatever.”
Good Times has not even premiered yet, and it’s already off to a bad start.
