5 TV Show Reboots Made Necessary By Donald Trump

As soon as it became clear Donald Trump had won the 2016 presidential election, Hollywood folks began asking themselves "What do we do now?" Now while "passionately tweeting my unhappiness" is indeed a choice, it probably isn't the best use of anyone's celebrity. In fact, if this election taught us anything, it's that America isn't so interested in hearing Jay Z talk about why he thinks it's important to vote Democratic.

If Hollywood really wants to do something that could spark conversation and maybe even change a few minds, they should do what they do best: use their talents to scare the crap out of us.

For those in the television business, that means combining the industry's passion for rebooting old shows with the current need to inform viewers in an entertaining way. So here are five shows that deserve a reboot in 2017. Not just because they're great shows. But because they all touch on issues that we are going to spend a lot of time obsessing about in the coming year:

Nowhere Man (UPN, 1995-1996)
Created by the late Lawrence Hertzog, the show starred Bruce Greenwood as a well-known photojournalist named Thomas Veil who is successful and happily married. One night he walks into a restaurant bathroom and when he exits it's as if he never existed. His wife says she doesn't know him, his friends deny his existence and his mother has suffered a stroke and can't identify him. He begins to believe his erasure is connected with his best known photo, which seems to show several South American rebels who have been hung by American troops. As the season progresses, the show dealt with identity in a modern world, the encroachment of technology and the need for humans to connect one-on-one. By the final arc of season one, Veil learns that he is in fact a brainwashed FBI agent who had ran afoul of a mysterious Blackstone-type group and the photo in fact shows the hanging of several U.S. politicians. It's a great premise for a show and given the modern day political climate, it's a show that is even more relevant than it was in 1995.

The Immortal (ABC, 1970-1971)
Based on a James Gunn novel, Christopher George played Ben Richards, a 42-year-old race car driver who still looks 25. He donates a pint of blood and it ends up being used in the body of a frail billionaire, who almost immediately recovers from a serious illness. Doctors discover that Richards has rare antibodies in his blood that will extend his life to five or ten times the length of a normal human. The billionaire imprisons Richards to ensure access to his blood, but the driver escapes and spends the rest of the series on the run from the billionaire and eventually the government. While the original show spent as much time on the people Richards met on the run as on the chase itself, a reboot centered around power and money and the desire to live forever could be very compelling.

Millennium (Fox, 1996-1999)
Created by Chris Carter, the show initially seemed very similar in feel to the NBC series "Profiler," but eventually evolved into a complex mythology driven series that was can best be described as "Dan Brown on crack." Lance Henricksen played ex-FBI agent Frank Black, a profiler who worked for the mysterious Millennium Group. Season one was primarily a slightly more sophisticated procedural show, with Black tackling a procession of serial killers and murderers. But in season two the show spun off into a more demonic direction, adding elements of everything from the Knights Templar and secrets of the Crusades to demons and morally corrupted public officials. The season finale introduced a plague, which seem destined to kill of most of the world's population. Season three essentially treated the first two seasons as a dream sequence and like the last three seasons of "Heroes," is best forgotten. But television audiences deserve another great mythology-driven TV show and this is one of the best ones in recent history.

Edge Of Darkness (BBC1, 1985)
Bob Peck played policeman Ronald Craven, who has become obsessed with uncovering the true facts behind the mysterious murder of his daughter. His investigations lead him into a rabbit hole of corrupt and political corruption, nuclear threats and a conspiracy that could threaten the existence of the world as we know it. While the series was reworked into a mediocre Mel Gibson film in 2010, it's a story that isn't well known in the U.S., but which has every element necessary to make a great limited-run mini-series.

Max Headroom (ABC, 1987-1988)
Set in a future ruled by a group of omnipresent media companies, Matt Frewer played the role of crusading reporter Edison Carter, who was struck and killed by a motorcycle in a parking garage. A media mogul demands that his mind be downloaded into a computer and examined to determine how much he knew about a secretive network program. Carter's mind reemerged as "Max Headroom" and he began to wage a battle against the media and government while trying to highlight some of the injustices of the world. The show resonated with a 1980s public, but in this world of 24/7 media saturation and a growing consolidation of media power, the show's premise has a much deeper meaning and the ability to really connect with a disaffected digital audience.