Looking mod

Old can become gold with the right makeover – check out these rebooted series on Showmax.

- CRAIG FALCK

If you think that coming up with a new show from scratch is tough, you ain’t seen nothing – yet! Rebooting a franchise that did well decades ago and pulling it off is often trickier thanks to nostalgia and ultra-fans not being happy with their “precious” being meddled with. But sometimes the rebooted version is just as good as the original. Here are some of the best you can stream right now on Showmax…

PERRY MASON (2020-NOW)

Based on the original series that ran in the mid ’50s, soldier-turned-private investigator Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys from The Americans, 2013-2018) scours Depression-era Los Angeles to solve the case that will change his fortune. But while a famous child kidnapping keeps his body busy running down leads around the city of angels, Perry’s demons (including undiagnosed and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder) are eating him alive in his mind. It’s a prequel series, building up to how Perry became the attorney character from the original series (played by Raymond Burr). It’s also the third reboot, with two previous versions in the mid ’70s and ’80s having been based on the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner.

WILL & GRACE (1998-2019)