Final 12 months, I checked out some movie-to-TV diversifications that did not fairly work; we have all erased 2023’s True Lies and Deadly Attraction sequence from reminiscence, I presume. This time round, I am highlighting some that not solely labored, but in addition surpassed the unique movie—and most of them premiered simply inside the previous 12 months. (It is value noting that none of those are from Paramount+, the Temu of streaming knockoffs.)
Ted (2024; Peacock): Seth MacFarlane’s Ted (2012) deftly bought the funny story of a foul-mouthed Teddy bear come to life, however Ted 2 (2015) flopped. Ted the sequence sidesteps that fail by going again to John’s (Max Burkholder as a teen Mark Wahlberg) Nineteen Nineties highschool days with Ted (voiced by MacFarlane). Between the over-the-top Boston accents, ’90s pop-cultural stingers and the absence of Wahlberg, the prequel is definitely higher than the unique film. So is the supporting forged: Alanna Ubach, Scott Grimes and Giorgia Whigham flesh out Ted delightfully.
Fargo (2014–2023; Hulu): Particularly, the latest fifth season of Fargo starring Jon Hamm and Juno Temple—whoa. Noah Hawley’s anthology sequence has been hit-and-miss since season 1 (the pitfall of an ideal debut), however 2023’s comeback story was as humorous, terrifying, and measured as TV or films can dream to be. Christo-psycho Sheriff Roy’s (Hamm) dogged pursuit of “housewife” Dot (Temple) is wildly unpredictable from episode to episode, with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Dave Foley offering hysterically arch reinforcement alongside the way in which.
Lifeless Ringers (2023; Prime Video): If Emmy awards meant something, Rachel Weisz would have gained all of them for her twin function within the gender-flipped Lifeless Ringers, a miniseries that topped the unique 1988 film. Twin OBGYNs Beverly and Elliot Mantle (each Weisz) are devoted to furthering the science of fertility and childbirth, however from completely different angles: Compassionate Beverly needs to make the method simpler for her sufferers, whereas the audacious Elliot would somewhat simply burn the system down. Lifeless Ringers is a tense however rewarding watch … should you’re cool with blood.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023; Netflix): The animated Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is an adaptation of each the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels and the 2010 cult-classic film, which might be extra Scott Pilgrim than most normies can deal with. Crucially, Takes Off wrangled all the movie’s actors again to voice the sequence: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman, Alison Tablet, Brie Larson, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh and Ellen Wong. Even extra crucially, the sequence deviates from the beforehand established tales.
A League of Their Personal (2022; Prime Video): Broad Metropolis‘s Abbi Jacobson reimagined the 1992 film A League of Their Personal as a extra inclusive and topical (for 1943 and now) eight-episode sequence; Prime Video finally reimagined it as canceled. The rise of professional ladies’s baseball workforce the Rockford Peaches will get equal time alongside a number of private tales on this setting, which additionally takes the faintly homosexual subtext of the film and blows it up into full-on supertext. A League of Their Personal works effortlessly as a comedy, a drama and a sports activities time capsule.
Irma Vep (2022; Max): French director Olivier Assayas remade his personal 1996 film Irma Vep into an eight-episode miniseries for HBO, which itself chronicles the taking pictures of a TV remake of a silent French movie, Les Vampires—comply with? American actress Mira Harberg (Alicia Vikander) has been forged as Les Vampires lead Irma Vep, and shortly finds her life and her vampiric function mixing into one. Irma Vep‘s darkish, stressed dreamscape is balanced with comedian aid from characters like Zelda (Carrie Brownstein), Mira’s agent who’d somewhat she simply do a Marvel film than French art-house fare (so meta).
La Femme Nikita, Nikita (1997–2001, 2010–2013; Roku Channel, Tubi): These go additional again, however they’re value searching for out. After Luc Besson’s 1990 French movie La Femme Nikita, a few teen criminal-turned-assassin, and 1993’s Americanized clone Level of No Return, the premise appeared drained. Then got here La Femme Nikita in 1997, an icy Canadian TV sequence that grew to become U.S. cable’s hottest property and made Aussie Peta Wilson a star in a single day. The deadly-serious drama impressed The CW’s Nikita in 2010, which launched Maggie Q, extra humor and occasional blinking.