Every time a movie or TV show is rebooted or remade, many of you – the fans – get angry. It's inevitable. "Ghostbusters" and "Annie" are two examples, and next in line is eighties primetime soap opera "Dynasty", one of my personal favourites. But what seems to anger you the most is that some characters are being cast by black and latino actors. I think you should ask yourself why that bothers you so much.Don't get me wrong, it's totally fine to dislike the "Dynasty" reboot – even though you haven't seen one single episode yet – and the casting choices, but please leave race out of it. And before you start shouting: "I'm not racist, you PC troll", stop, take a deep breath and think about how the things you write online might come across.
I'm not saying that you are racist just because you criticise the reboot or the casting choice. But ask yourself: Would you have complained as much if the character was recast by a white actor? Probably not. Many of you have even written things like: "The PC catering has gone too far", "They are turning everyone black" and "Sammy Jo will be a man", which suggests to me that there is something more than just change bothering you.
I would like to think that "Dynasty" fans are open-minded, especially since many of us are LGBT, so we know what it feels like to be targeted simply for existing. But some of the online comments made by fans scare me. Have you forgotten how groundbreaking the original show was for having a gay main character?
I get that change can be tough, that you prefer things to stay exactly the same as they always have. But as much as we love the original show, this is a reboot, targeted at a younger audience – like most shows on The CW – who probably never heard of the original. Back when "Dynasty" originally aired, shows had at most one or two "token characters" of colour. But nowadays shows try to be more diverse, because that's what the world really looks like, it's not "all white". How is that a bad thing?
It's actually quite easy: If you don't like the reboot, don't watch it. I'm pretty sure they're not rebooting it for you anyway. Complain as much as you want about it being rebooted, but make sure you're not complaining because some of characters look different from the original, because that's shallow. If you want the original, watch the DVD's of that show. No one is taking that away from you, I promise.
I'm gay and I watch shows featuring straight characters all the time, so it's not obligatory to have a gay character to please me. But whenever one of the characters turn out to be gay, it makes me feel included, since I can easily relate to him or her. How can wanting to include others be a bad thing?
Reboots usually don't go down well with the original fans and I totally understand if you are fed up with remakes in general. I'm not saying the reboot will be good, because it hasn't even aired yet. I just wish you would stop using personal attacks and racist remarks when criticising entertainment. Because yes, that actually does make you sound racist, no matter how much you say you're not.
