Lost In Space

The original series, which started the year I was born, was ultra cheesy.  And I don't just mean the non-existent special effects, either.  The stories were ultra cheesy.  And the Robinson family was right out of the 50s/early-60s, to the point where Mrs. Robinson was doing laundry in one of the early episodes!

The 1998 "reboot" movie?  It wasn't cheesy.  It was just bad.  Matt LeBlanc played Major West.  His acting was so terrible, all I could see was Joey (from Friends) playing Major West.  Until that time I had thought LeBlanc a great actor for playing Joey's goofiness and bad acting so well; turns out, that was just his own bad acting!

But enough about LeBlanc, what was with that Robot?  When the Battlestar Galactica reboot hit the screens in 1998, just about everything had been changed except the Vipers.  The writers knew that if people remembered (and liked) one thing from the original series, it was the Vipers, so they kept those the same.  And it worked.  What's the one thing everyone liked about the original Lost In Space?  Robot!  Even today, more than 50 years after the show premiered, people still joke about "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!"  So what did the writers of the 1998 movie do?  They completely changed Robot.  It wasn't even an endearing character anymore.  There was nothing endearing about that movie, it was a disaster.  Even Mimi Rogers, William Hurt, Gary Oldman, and cameos by June Lockhart, Angela Cartwright, and Mark Goddard couldn't save that pile of steaming poo.

All of which brings us to today.  Premiering on Netflix today is a new reboot of Lost In Space.  Irwin Allen was involved in the 1998 movie, and he's involved in the new series.  Robot is still different.  But I have hopes that this series will be a good one, at least based on the trailers that have been released.  If nothing else, it can only be better than the movie!

I'll review the first episode or two in an update.

Update, 8:47 pm:  I've watched the first episode.  Interesting story, totally unlike the original.  Only at the very end do we see (Parker Posey as) Dr. Smith, and she's clearly a "bad guy".  Robot--nothing like the original; in fact, we don't even know its origins. The Robinsons are a "modern" family, which means instead of nuclear family bliss we have dissension and strife.  We start to learn the backstory through flashbacks, and I'm sure one of these flashbacks will explain why all the Robinsons are white except Judy.  Also, the Jupiter 2 is a total loss, so it appears the Robinsons, rather than roaming the heavens, are marooned on a Cinderella world with earth-like gravity, air, and vegetation.

Bottom line:  this Lost In Space is nothing like what came before--unless you count the cameo by Billy Mumy!  Only the names are the same.  Still, I enjoyed the first episode once I could keep track of what was happening, and I'll keep watching.  If you're expecting a remake of the old Lost In Space, you won't be happy.  If you're willing to accept a new story of humans stranded on another world, this could be a wildly entertaining show.

Update #2, 4/14/18:  I've binge-watched most of the first season.  That should give you an indication of how much I like this show.