I'm a little stunned by all the praise for this show. I am ABSOLUTELY a fan of the original, maybe the biggest one around. I grew up on it; it was my escape from my miserable high-school existence in the late 70s and early 80s. And that's the whole point of a show like this: escape! I wanted to forget about real life for a while and just have a great time, and the premise was the perfect way to do that.
When I first heard about the remake I was interested, even though I was disappointed that Ricardo Montalbán wasn't going to be in it. (For the record, he was never approached, and he made it clear in a TV Guide snippet that he was hurt by this and would have appreciated at least being asked, even if he wasn't able to do it.) When the premiere aired, I tuned in...only to be bitterly disappointed. I shut off the set after McDowell surveyed his closetful of white suits and said, "Burn them." That implied a lack of respect for the original series that I didn't like at all. I tried watching one more episode a few weeks later, but things hadn't gotten any better, and I refused to touch it ever again.
Why did I hate it? For one thing, the above-mentioned lack of respect for the original series. For another, others have mentioned that Roarke and his cronies were very cold and mean-spirited, and I saw that myself in the parts I watched. This man clearly resented doing what he did, made no secret of it, and usually took great pleasure in seeing his guests suffer. He took even more pleasure in seeing -- and causing -- the suffering of his hapless assistants, Harry and Cal. That's not my idea of an enjoyable vacation. And then there was the travel agency. "Let's see, whom can we trick into having their most cherished secret dreams ridiculed and turned into something totally sinister?" The "guests" were forced to come to this island, and then were forced to live out those cherished dreams in the most humiliating way possible.
People keep sneering about how "fluffy" and "silly" the original series was. Excuse me, but what's the matter with that? Are happy endings suddenly taboo? I don't want a show that tells me I shouldn't hope for a happy resolution to my problems or that mocks my innermost dreams. We have more than enough real-life doses of shattered hopes and dreams, mean-spiritedness and general schadenfreude. I don't want it on the TV shows I watch. Seeing this "true-to-life" vision of having a fantasy come to fruition undermines the whole idea of escaping real life. Give me the original "Fantasy Island", with Ricardo Montalbán's benevolent, helpful Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize's cheerful, sympathetic Tattoo, any day over this misbegotten concept.
When I first heard about the remake I was interested, even though I was disappointed that Ricardo Montalbán wasn't going to be in it. (For the record, he was never approached, and he made it clear in a TV Guide snippet that he was hurt by this and would have appreciated at least being asked, even if he wasn't able to do it.) When the premiere aired, I tuned in...only to be bitterly disappointed. I shut off the set after McDowell surveyed his closetful of white suits and said, "Burn them." That implied a lack of respect for the original series that I didn't like at all. I tried watching one more episode a few weeks later, but things hadn't gotten any better, and I refused to touch it ever again.
Why did I hate it? For one thing, the above-mentioned lack of respect for the original series. For another, others have mentioned that Roarke and his cronies were very cold and mean-spirited, and I saw that myself in the parts I watched. This man clearly resented doing what he did, made no secret of it, and usually took great pleasure in seeing his guests suffer. He took even more pleasure in seeing -- and causing -- the suffering of his hapless assistants, Harry and Cal. That's not my idea of an enjoyable vacation. And then there was the travel agency. "Let's see, whom can we trick into having their most cherished secret dreams ridiculed and turned into something totally sinister?" The "guests" were forced to come to this island, and then were forced to live out those cherished dreams in the most humiliating way possible.
People keep sneering about how "fluffy" and "silly" the original series was. Excuse me, but what's the matter with that? Are happy endings suddenly taboo? I don't want a show that tells me I shouldn't hope for a happy resolution to my problems or that mocks my innermost dreams. We have more than enough real-life doses of shattered hopes and dreams, mean-spiritedness and general schadenfreude. I don't want it on the TV shows I watch. Seeing this "true-to-life" vision of having a fantasy come to fruition undermines the whole idea of escaping real life. Give me the original "Fantasy Island", with Ricardo Montalbán's benevolent, helpful Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize's cheerful, sympathetic Tattoo, any day over this misbegotten concept.