‘Party of Five’ Is Being Rebooted As A Donald Trump-Era Tragedy
New sad teens for a new sad era.
Iconic 90s teen drama Party of Five is coming back to our screens, but this time with a dramatic immigration policy twist to the tragic premise. Topical.
Party of Five was always a fairly misleading show, because folks, those sad teens were rarely having a party. But, I guess there were five of them, so we’ll take our wins where we can get them I suppose.
The original series ran from 1994 to the year 2000, a fairly dark era of teen television, and revolved around five young siblings who devastatingly lost their parents to a drunk driving incident. The “party” included various animal-men like Matthew Fox and Scott Wolf, and launched the careers of rising stars like Lacey Chabert, Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love-Hewitt, to name just a few.
It’s crazy to think we probably wouldn’t have such Love-Hewitt vehicles as Ghost Whisperer or certified banger “How Do I Deal” without this show. The plucky orphans spent their time running their parent’s restaurant, battling alcoholism, cancer, domestic abuse and other plots, and doing a bunch of crying. Also, there were a lot of weddings.
Wow. Party of Five, the '90s drama about a group of five siblings raising themselves after their parents died, will be rebooted for Freeform channel. New story features siblings raising each other after their parents are deported to Mexico. Talk about a topical subject… pic.twitter.com/dOmK0hJvh6
— Eric Deggans at NPR (@Deggans) January 18, 2018
Party of Five As long as there is an older brother who can never get his $@&* together and is constantly crying, it should feel the same. pic.twitter.com/rKftinxyt9
— Jinger Monroe (@MonroeMplus4t) January 18, 2018
Rebooting classic 90s shows is pretty widespread and successful at the moment, with series like Fuller House and Will and Grace re-delivering the goods to a new audience. However, the Party of Five reboot will not bring back any of the original cast as far as we know, and will even tweak the story of the show to make things a lot more relevant to today’s audience.
Party of Five redux follows the story of the Buendias siblings, who instead of losing their parents to death, are separated from them due to deportation. Immigration crackdowns are a daily issue in Trump’s America, and this show has the potential to show the very human consequences of these policies. It’s also particularly gratifying to see current-day America reflected through a non-white lens.
Does the new Party of Five reboot have Lacey Chabert is in? No? Then why should I care? pic.twitter.com/xt2IM29XUS
— P John Sullington (@PaddyOAwesome) January 18, 2018
New Party of Five reboot has a new twist…. Is it that they were all stuck on an island in an elaborate pergatory that ultimately leaves dedicated audience unsatisfied years after the fact?…. pic.twitter.com/iiGLiWSL1T
— Cody Decker (@Decker6) January 18, 2018
Party of Five will be rebooted by US network Freeform, with no dates currently announced for screening.