In one of the final scenes of the premiere, the twentysomething former webcaster Carly Shay, a role reprised by a now 28-year-old Miranda Cosgrove, once again stands in front of the camera – this time, an iPhone, filming the intro to her rebooted web series iCarly, which drew thousands of fictional young teenage fans on a show which once attracted 11.2 million live viewers.
The new iCarly’s first live stream, in which she smothers a faux skincare routine on her adult brother’s face while he’s dressed as an infant, applies a sheen of late 2010s content to a bit from the original show without any update to its humor whose shticks, comic rhythms and two-gear caricatures remain stuck in bland PG-13 territory.
Only last year’s Saved By the Bell spin-off on Peacock, helmed by the longtime 30 Rock writer Tracey Wigfield, achieved the rare self-awareness to poke fun at its original stock characters while shifting the show’s focus and humor to a younger generation.
The murkily aimed but well-financed revivals of 80s and 90s TV staples is now, predictably, coming for the beloved favorites of 2000s preteens – fans probably not old enough to have kids of their own, thus making decisions to keep the content PG even more baffling.
The Gen Z-wrapped Gossip Girl appears, judging from promos and significant hype, to approach the ideal for a recent revival – a familiar, enticing hook that caters to matured sensibilities with the openness to court new, underserved audiences.
But the old seams of the original – the laugh track, the corny lessons, bits and gags masquerading as characters – do not translate to a character who is supposed to be a 26-year-old woman, let alone one savvy enough to carry a following online.