^ Christopher, I'm a little surprised by your comments there, for the simple reason that in other threads dealing with other remakes/ reboots/ adaptations etc, you've said things to the effect of 'This is an adaptation, why do you expect it to be exactly the same as the source material?'
As with most things in life, it's a matter of degree, not black-and-white extremes. No, an adaptation isn't supposed to be an exact copy of the original. But it should try to capture the essence, the core sensibilities and meaning of the story. If you have to change the details and specifics of presentation in order to translate that essence and meaning for a new medium, that's fine. That's the nature of adaptation.
But if you keep exactly two details -- the title and the main character's name -- and change
everything else so profoundly that nothing of the essence of the original is preserved, then that doesn't constitute an adaptation. It's a separate concept, a separate character, with only the (literally) nominal pretense of commonality.
I haven't seen TBW remake so I can't comment on its quality, but why do you object to the retention of the name of the character and the show, given that it was, after all, a new version?
It's not so much that I object to it as that I'm saying it was pointless. Why even bother to keep the same character name if it's a 100 percent different character? I have the same question about the current
Human Target series. This is another show where they've kept exactly two things from the original -- the title and the main character's name -- and changed literally everything else. Indeed, HT goes even farther than
Bionic Woman, in that it's changed the core premise so much that the title no longer even
applies. DC Comics' Human Target was a master of disguise who protected people from assassination by taking over their identities, making himself the target. The guy in the show is just a bodyguard. Some people refer to the show as
Human (Standing Next to the) Target. It has so little in common with the thing it's allegedly based on that one seriously has to wonder why they even bothered to pay a license fee for the use of the title and main character name rather simply change those two things and market it as an original show.
Although on one level I do object to calling Ryan's thoroughly obnoxious character "Jaime Sommers," because I think that does a disservice to the original Jaime Sommers, who was a delightful character. But that's strictly a personal reaction.
