7 Gen X Classics, Rebooted for 2026 and Beyond

Dearest Darlings of Dames Nation,

Following the first Two Bossy Dames x Whatever Nevermind collaboration breaking down 9 new takes on Masterpiece/PBS shows, Beloved Guest Dame Fawnia and I quickly agreed that a follow-up exploring adaptations, reboots, and re-imaginings of Gen X small-screen classics felt only natural. We were waist-deep in options when we realized just how fertile this ground is, so much so that this issue concludes with a round-up of what to look for well into 2027 (and maybe even 2028). Without further ado, here’s what to watch now, and some coming attractions!

The Forsytes and All Creatures Great and Small: Classics from Masterpiece’s First Era Are All Zhuzhed Up & Ready To Go

Both of these rebooted series have gotten quite a bit of press, but over 25+ years as a professional recommender, I keep re-learning that the most obvious recommendation is quite often the right one. As Masterpiece’s second reboot of their earliest smash hit, The Forsytes aims for generationally influential soapiness. Thanks to some pokey pacing and too much Instagram face from the male leads, it doesn’t quite hit the mark, but it’s still a fun watch – the kind of series you watch to enjoy yelling about with your friends, preferably after reading my costume rundown for the season at Telly Visions and Alice Burton’s zingy Vulture recaps.

I continue to hold out hope for bigger and bolder swings in the next two seasons as the anticipated messy love triangle of June/Bosinney/Irene takes shape, especially with all three gossipy branches of the family living in three side-by-side fancy row houses. The 2002 adaptation starring Damian Lewis as a desperately uncomfortable in his own skin Soames and Gina McKee as the ethereal, yet steely Irene walked a very thin line between soapiness (affairs! Deaths by horse-trampling! Forbidden marriages and scandalous separations!) and stiff upper lips (straight-laced conversations in drawing rooms, shunning the naughty boys of the family).

This adaptation has already made some unlikely tweaks that mostly work—Soames is actually appealing as a partner for Irene for two whole episodes; Irene’s artistic ambition is to take the stage as a shocking-for-the-time ballet dancer, rather than her skill as a pianist—and I’d like to see the writers lean into that strength by committing to a romance between Young Jolyon’s spurned wife Frances and her father-in-law, Old Jolyon. Tuppence Middleton and Stephen Moyer have the best chemistry in the entire cast, and it’d be criminal to let it go to waste when it could result in such a juicy storyline instead.

Dear writers, who are surely reading this and experiencing revelations as they do so, I implore you to get real weird. This is The Gilded Age, for goodness’ sake! Sprinkle some Julian Fellowes x Shonda Rhimes-style plotting maximalism fairy dust on those scripts! Let’s go!!

All Creatures Great and Small, by contrast, is an object lesson in how compelling on-screen human decency can be. It’s the right choice for a series set in the 1930s and 40s, of course, but in these rancid, cynical times, it’s a gutsy choice to create a world and group of characters whose whole deal is doing the best they can for others, as well as themselves. Worth noting as I rewatched the trailer for the first season: these are also a bunch of weirdos, and I love that.

Part of what makes the appeal of All Creatures so enduring is tied to when it came into our lives. We didn’t yet have Covid vaccines in late 2020; we were waiting, our nerves were frayed, we were anxiety-ridden. We needed a show with the lowest possible stakes. Were a baby calf and its mother going to survive the birthing process? Probably. Would a veterinarian in training have to do the difficult thing and euthanize a horse to save it from a slow and more painful death? Yes, and he’d learn something valuable about himself and his work in the process. Would we watch a grouchy senior veterinarian fail to realize that his housekeeper was in fact the love of his life? Yes, and we would continue to do so–quite happily for many more seasons to come. -SB (Both The Forsytes and All Creatures Great and Small are streaming on PBS Passport)

The Vampire Lestat: 80s Nostalgia With a Modern Bite

At first I was confused, if not a tiny bit bummed, that the rebranded third season of AMC’s excellent Interview with the Vampire series changed the Anne Rice book’s mid-80s setting to these current times. But, I never should have doubted writer-creator Rolin Jones—or Sam Reid as that 200-year-old magnetic agent of chaos, Lestat de Lioncourt.

Because in this modern age—full of overwhelming tech, unintelligible Gen Z speak, ubiquitous celebrity, and an extra 40 years of pop culture to send up (sorry to you, Richie Sambora)—provide rich fodder for Reid’s sharply bitchy delivery. (I watched that “no thank you!” to the Montreal bookstore Zoomers shilling memberships, so many times.)

With the story now told through The Brat Prince’s POV, his toxic, epic love, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), turns into a stabilizing and grounding, and still extremely hot, force. Eighties poster boy Eric Bogosian’s journo character, Daniel Molloy, becomes Lestat’s formidable counterpart filming a Truth or Dare-esque music documentary that’s gunning for Cannes.

Don’t worry—there are plenty of 80s nods in Lestat’s tight pants and open shirts-filled performance wardrobe by costume designer Lex Wood (with a touch of Jim Morrison via the 90s). Daniel Hart’s original music turns Lestat’s shattering journey—facing his at-times literal demons—into an explosive, electrifying, emotionally charged, self-reflective rock opera that recalls the era’s biggest anthems. (Teaser for an upcoming Whatever Nevermind ....)

And omg Sam Reid’s stage performances alone are worth it. Stay for that—but also for the sheer excellence of a show that insists on living in the moment. -FSH (The Vampire Lestat airs at 9pm EST on Sundays and streams on AMC+ at 3am on Sundays.)

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Little House on The Prairie: Half-Pint, Peril, and The Power of Friendship

I grew up watching the long-running TV adaptation starring Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon in weekday reruns after school, but never read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s series until my own child was in elementary school. I know, I know, shocking for a former children’s librarian. In fact, it was my husband who read the full series long after our kiddo and I abandoned them for a read-aloud of Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of NIMH (it holds up incredibly well, if you’re in the market for classic middle grade fantasy). He was, uh, not impressed. Every book brought some fresh horror—Ma and the girls fell desperately ill; Pa kept insisting on moving the family around various lands that the U.S. was stealing from its Indigenous population; Ma was super-racist; they all nearly starved to death.

How was a brand-new adaptation going to work? Based on the full-length trailer just released this week, Netflix’s new 8-episode adaptation preserves the better aspects of Wilder’s stories while whittling away the parts that simply won’t fly in a family tv series in 2026. Promisingly, there seems to be far less Manifest Destiny baked in and Indigenous characters look like they might be represented as fully human (never a guarantee in Westerns). We get a moment of Pa listening respectfully to a Black character who is a veteran of life on the prairie, and the actual villains appear to be grave illness, inclement weather, a prairie fire, and perhaps most dreadfully, a prissy, pinched-face woman. Perhaps she’ll turn out to have a heart of gold – watch this space (and the show) to find out! My one quibble so far is that, like the Forsyte lads, Pa looks too 2026-handsome to be believable, but maybe he’ll look more realistically weather-beaten after his time in Kansas. –SB (Little House on the Prairie’s first season arrives on Netflix on July 9, and it’s already been renewed for a second season.)

Tommy & Tuppence and Hercule: Mystery! 2.0 with Young Hot People

I recently had a conversation with fellow Substackers about how you’re always attached to the first actor you saw in an iconic role—like Roger Moore is my Bond, Joan Hickson my Miss Marple, Peter Ustinov my Hercule Poirot, and Francesca Annis my Tuppence, one half of Partners in Crime.

Well, BritBox is bringing back the detectives of my childhood Sunday nights with my dad and giving them the CW treatment, if you know what I mean, and which I’m a total sucker for. The previously Roaring Twenties-set partners in crime-and-love story timejumps to today’s London as Tommy & Tuppence. Josh Dylan, aka Dickie from The Buccaneers, plays the former, as a nerdy-hot author and The Good Doctor’s Antonia Thomas steps into Francesca’s formidable shoes. British national treasure Imelda Staunton plays Tommy’s aunt, who, based on the trailer, drops some wisdom and guidance on the budding sleuths.

I am a die-hard Poirot fan, and in the aughts I came to love David Suchet as the methodical, soft-boiled-egg–loving Belgian sleuth. I will never accept Kenneth Branagh (and couldn’t take John Malkovich or his bad Belgian accent seriously in that one attempt—I’m sorry!). But now the elegant crime-solver is getting the Inspector Morse/Endeavour treatment with Hercule, a Britbox prequel series set in between World War I and II. Edward Bluemel—whom I think of as smug MI6 agent Hugo in Killing Eve—plays baby Poirot.

Jon Farrar, BBC Chief Content Officer, calls the show an “opportunity to explore a fascinating new chapter in Hercule Poirot’s life” when he meets his allies Captain Hastings and junior police inspector Japp, plus an unnamed nemesis. Filming starts this summer and I’m dream-casting Nabhaan Rizwan, the House of Seven Dials alum, who looks great in ’20s suiting and deserved way more screen time, and, in a gender flip, Margo’s Got Money Trouble’s Thaddea Graham, who was an astute junior detective (and scene stealer) in Bad Sisters. -FSH (Tommy & Tuppence premieres on Britbox on September 15. Hercule TBD — we’ll keep you posted!)

A Different World 2.0: We Need This One To Be Good. Like, REALLY Good.

I have a confession to make: I’m kind of a reboots skeptic. I know! I get the safety appeal of existing IP, and I know the adaptors and rebooters wouldn’t go to the trouble of making the shows if they didn’t care about the material (deep care preferred). And of course I love having an opportunity to introduce new viewers to characters I already love in what could be their next favorite show. So why the skepticism? I think it only really kicks in when I have a strong emotional attachment to the original, and it’s hard to overstate how important both The Cosby Show and A Different World were to Little Sophie way back when. These were shows my entire family, from my grandmother to my youngest sister, watched together every week. They were my introduction to HBCUs, Black fraternities and sororities, stepping, and many more aspects of Black culture I had no access to in my extremely white home town. I didn’t realize just how tender my feelings about A Different World were until I heard about this reboot, and was both relieved and instantly won over upon seeing the teaser trailer. It’s so assured and cool, and it’s clear that the showrunners know how powerful Dwayne Wayne’s sunglasses are by how emphatically they make those shades the visual centerpiece of the teaser.

I’m so glad that a bunch of the original cast members are participating in the show, and I dare to hope for a scene or two with Marisa Tomei, too—remember how she was in the first season before heading off to become a comedic legend in My Cousin Vinny and elsewhere? -SB

Sharp-witted and endearingly snobby Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) and lovable, nerdy-cool Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) were always my favorite A Different World characters. So I’m totally here for a continuation series following their daughter Deborah (Maleah Joi Moon) to their alma mater and making a whole new set of friends. She’s described as “lovingly sheltered” and “a free spirit,” which sounds like the perfect blend of Whitley and Dwayne—and she’s clearly inherited their talent for accessorizing.

I loved the OG show so much. It made me excited to leave suburban Michigan, find my people, and explore my identity as an Asian American when I got to college. The fashion was on-point and still hits today. Plus, Whitley, Dwayne, Freddie (Cree Summer), and Ron Johnson (Darryl M. Bell) will be visiting their old stomping grounds in the new show. -FSH

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Now, our GenX culture is not anyone’s costume, but we always welcome everyone to create their own immersive, self-paced curriculum in GenXology through reboots of the many iconic tales of our formative years that are either already available or in some stage of production. We’ve got everything from teen vampires to silver fox private investigators to cops going undercover in high school, and even some cartoons making the jump to live action, so there’s something for everyone. Mark your calendars and don your best bright-red swimsuits!

• The Lost Boys are currently taking a bite out of Broadway.

• Baywatch will come in with the tide in January 2027 on Fox and Hulu.

• Rockford Files’s release date is TBD, but we’ll send out an APB the moment we get confirmation.

• Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion sequel is now filming (with costumes by Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy costume designer Molly Emma Rowe, no less!)

• Jem + the Holograms live-action series has just been announced – watch this space for details as they emerge. We wouldn’t tease you about this (because we only tease our pastel-colored wigs, of course)!

• 24 Jump Street reportedly in the works, and we’ll be keeping a sharp investigative eye out for new developments.

• Miami Vice: The 80s-set Joseph Kosinski reboot is set to premiere on Aug. 6, 2027. We’re anxiously awaiting paparazzi pics from the set featuring Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan in Ricardo Tubbs-trademark shiny gray suits and unbuttoned silk shirts and Austin Butler, as Sonny Crockett in mismatched pastels and espadrilles with no socks.