Unsolved Mysteries is the rare TV reboot that gets how to appeal to a contemporary audience

The Muse

"Very few beloved television shows that receive reboots successfully rejuvenate the format," says Maria Sherman of the Netflix revival of the classic true-crime series. "Instead of giving thoughtful consideration to what made them great—or even if they should exist in a modern era now sensitive to past inequalities and ignorances—they are made to scratch some nostalgic itch." That's why Sherman admits was cynical when Netflix announced it was rebooting Unsolved Mysteries. "Without the late Robert Stack, the admirable and stoic host from 1987 and 2002, surely it would be lackluster," says Sherman. "Who could fill his shoes, instilling fear in audiences nationwide with little more than his silhouette and the show’s infamous film noir title music? Without campy, low-budget re-enactments portrayed by mediocre actors to offer some lighthearted distraction from the brutality of the tale being told, what’s the point? And if they present those reenactments with glossy, high production value, like many Netflix reboots, they run the risk of re-traumatizing the very people whose stories they’ve chosen to tell. After binging the first six episodes of the new series last week, it became apparent that producers asked themselves those same questions and found innovative solutions. Finally, there is a reboot worthy of its existence—even when there is already an endless barrage of new true crime shows to select from. There are many striking differences between the new Unsolved Mysteries and the old, but certain similarities maintain the integrity of the original. For one, the theme song has only been slightly altered—it now carries the weight of past episodes and excitement for the new. Thematically, the shows are the same and cover a swath on unknowns: missing persons, murders, unexplained paranormal activity, and more. However, Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries has no host—the show is narrated from the perspective of the people who experienced the mystery, and any reenactments are limited to artful shots of someone exiting a car, or the location the crime was committed. So far, there have been no scenes of gratuitous violence against women—a welcomed improvement from the original show."

ALSO:

• Unsolved Mysteries' theme song is "f*cking terrifying" -- it's great that the reboot kept it: "For more than two decades, the theme to Unsolved Mysteries—the cult classic ’90s true crimeparanormal investigation TV show that was equal parts terrifying and mind-numbingly silly—has haunted my dreams: a chilling, synth-laden earworm that seeped into my subconscious," says Matt Cohen. "I thought I could escape, or expel, the parasite. But because no intellectual property is truly dead until it is also a Netflix show, Unsolved Mysteries is back. And so is the song...There’s one thing that both the original Unsolved Mysteries, and now its revival, have that no show in the genre does: A f*cking terrifying theme song."
• Co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer discusses the impact of social media and receiving 2,000 tips in the past week: "It didn’t exist when we did the original episodes," says Meurer. "The show would air on a certain day at a certain time on a network, and you could watch it once. You couldn’t rewind it. I guess you could tape it off the air. And then it would air again, usually in the summer, and that was it. Now the old episodes have been streaming, so people have an opportunity to look at those in more depth again if they want to. We didn’t have the kind of commentary, and the kind of armchair detectives who jump in and really do try and solve these cases and come up with theories. It’s been amazing to see the reaction on social media."