Classic movies are being remade as TV series, and with varying degrees of success. Creating new storylines to pad two-hour movies into much longer series is always a risky proposition, and only one of these new series pulls it off and actually improves on its source material.
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction (April 30 on Paramount+) is the best known because it was the highest-grossing movie of 1987. It became such a pop culture phenomenon, the term “bunny boiler” is now a well-known phrase.
Now that’s it an eight-hour TV series, there is an opportunity to be less problematic about Alex (originally played by Glenn Close and now being played by Lizzy Caplan) being a crazy bitch. Surely there could be some more backstory to give her some more depth, but after two episodes, she’s still just a wacko woman.
The original ending of the movie saw Alex killing herself and pinning the blame on the married man who spurned her (once Michael Douglas, now Joshua Jackson). But after initial test screenings, the ending was changed to give audiences a more bloodthirsty ending where the woman was graphically stabbed to death, and the traumatised family got to live happily ever after
Given the first scene of Fatal Attraction, it would appear that the TV series is now going back to that original ending. Dan is in jail for murdering Alex and he’s out to prove his innocence when he is paroled. I wish I cared more, but I don’t, because so far, Fatal Attraction is fatally boring.
Dead Ringers
Dead Ringers (April 21 on Prime) does a much better job of padding out the original movie storyline. Released in the same year as Fatal Attraction, the David Cronenberg movie grossed less than 5% in comparison, but the decidedly creepy flick has since gone on to become a cult favourite.
Dead Ringers is about two twins who work as gynaecologists. Originally played by Jeremy Irons, they have now had a gender switch and are played by Rachel Weisz, who may well be giving the performance of the year. She is so incredible, you can always tell which twin is which, even when they switch identities to pretend to be each other.
Both the movie and the series are not for the faint-hearted, and this new adaptation is about as graphic as it gets. If you can take it though, Dead Ringers is about as good as TV gets.
If only the same could be said about Obsession (Netflix), the new TV series based on another Jeremy Irons movie, 1992’s Damage. This sexual thriller is so laughably bad, it makes 50 Shades of Grey look good.
Read more Mercado on TV here.
Welcome to TV Gold: The almost all-new weekly TV podcast
Well, the name is new! So is the email address asking for feedback and question – [email protected].
Listen now on your favourite podcast platform for 30 minutes of TV reviews and recommendations every week from Mediaweek’s Andrew Mercado and James Manning.
In the latest episode, there are reviews of Jennifer Garner’s The Last Thing He Told Me, the erotic thriller Obsession and season five of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel. Follow the podcast to make sure you get new episodes when available. Next week Andrew let’s loose on Fatal Attraction and Dead Ringers.
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