10 Decisions That Have Already Doomed Upcoming TV Shows
8. Recasting Arnold Schwarzenegger & Jamie Lee Curtis - True Lies
It was just a matter of time before James Cameron's hit 1994 spy action-thriller True Lies got adapted into a TV show, but beyond touting a budget that can't hold a candle to the $120 million Cameron movie, the series has made one majorly fatal mistake.
Rather than use the True Lies branding to tell a similar-but-different story about a spy who keeps his job secret from his suburban housewife, the CBS show has literally positioned itself as a reimagining of the film, recasting the roles of Harry and Helen Tasker as played so brilliantly by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.
As such, fans of the movie are immediately called to compare the performances of Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga to Schwarzenegger and Curtis, and to the surprise of nobody they just don't seem to measure up.
That the uninspired trailer also shows the pair literally reenacting sequences from the Cameron movie only further suggests it's going to listlessly coast off what came before rather than try to fashion its own identity with an identifiable name.
Don't be shocked if True Lies is cancelled long before its first season is even over.