I loved the cartoon series ReBoot when it came out in the early 90s and it’s third season was one of the best seasons of any television show anywhere. The show started using continuity and call backs the eventually crafted a very detailed universe filled with interesting characters that grew– sometimes at an accelerated rate.

Rainmaker (which bought the original Mainframe studio that produced the series) has been trying to revive the series for years as a film or television show that never panned out. They finally got their act together and are producing a new series called ReBoot: The Guardian Code. Here’s the synopsis they where they revealed the plot of the new series:

ReBoot: the Guardian Code is an adventure-comedy series about four teens (Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra) who discover that they’re next-gen Guardians with a mission to save the world, by defending it in cyberspace. The Internet revolutionized the world, but it also left it vulnerable to attack. With the help of VERA, the last surviving cyberbeing from the original Guardian Program, our heroes stream into cyberspace where they use their awesome code-based powers to battle viruses that have been unleashed by a ruthless hacker. Known only as the Sourcerer, he seeks to rule the world by controlling cyberspace. Original fans of the show will be happy to hear that Megabyte will be back and he’s getting a major upgrade. ReBoot will showcase leading edge technologies and bring coding into the mainstream for kids.

When Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra are not trying to stop viruses from overloading a nuclear power station, or remotely opening a dam to flood a city, or playing Criss Cross Crash Hour with a city’s transportation grid, our heroes are being typical teens: arguing with their parents over curfews; dealing with crushes; or trying to avoid getting suspended for skipping class when they’re really on a cyber mission to save the world!

Fuck. Off.

I absolutely hate that they’re using kids who can transport into the computer world– this is ReBoot not fucking TRON! And adding fighting their parents over curfews or dealing with crushes… the original show didn’t need any of that so why does this one?

The light spot in this whole fiasco is that they’re bringing back Megabyte however Tony Jay who voiced him passed away a decade ago and unless they can find an English actor to replicate that voice then original fans won’t be happy. I’m still annoyed by who they got to voice Bob in the third season of the original show which is the only blemish on that fantastic season.

Sure, I know that I’m not the target audience for this but it sounds like they just took a major shit on the whole concept of the show which took place entirely inside of a computer. Unless part of the concept is that Bob finally found out that “The User” did, in fact, live outside of the net and VERA used that to contact some useless teens to become the new guardians. She’d be far more intelligent if instead of contacting a bunch of hormonal and awkward teenagers she recruited, say, a group of Navy Seals.

And they’re called Binomes, for fuck’s sake, not “cyberbeings”.