ReBoot: The Guardian Code

So I'd like to cover the big issue first: It's not Reboot.

To actually review this show in any real way, the first thing to toss aside is that this is somehow connected to the original show from 1994. It's not. There's a couple crossover episodes, some of the same imagery (like the icons), and the occasional reference (Hurricane Cecil for example), and a cameo by the original cast, but that's about as far as it goes. I grew up on the original reboot, and I loved it, and I still love the original. As soon as I saw episode 1, I knew this wasn't Reboot, but something new. Like most of the old fans, I was disappointed by how badly they missed the mark. That said, I want to put the old show aside for this review. This is something new, and the connection to the original is minimal at best, so I'll try to only compare it with current shows from this point out.

Premise/Concept - What we've got here is a basic monster of the week show. There's a group of teenagers who go to school, and between classes they use a machine to go into the internet and fight viruses controlled by an evil hacker named The Sourcerer (Hardy har har) who wants to send humanity back to the dark ages for some unknown reason. The premise is actually pretty cool. It's reminiscent of power rangers, with a modern twist. I won't say it hasn't been done before, because it has (Code Lyoko, Samurai Syber Squad, etc), but I think this boat has room for a few more, so I won't hold that against it. As to the studio's choice to use this premise, it seems strange since Rainmaker had already made a show with a nearly identical plot called Zixx back in 2004. Regardless of why they chose to do it, it's not automatically a bad concept for a show.

Characters - The characters are where this show really bombs. The heroes (called Guardians in the show) are four teenagers named Austin, Tamra, Parker, and Trey. These characters seem to be mainly based on a single characteristic, rather than being interesting and fleshed out characters. Leader, Girl, Nerd, Jock. Next we've got Vera, a computer program trapped in a human body, and our two villains: The Sourcerer (an evil hacker), and Megabyte (a computer virus).

Austin - Code named Vector, he's the leader of the group. He lives alone with his somewhat goofy but typical suburban mother, because his father died when he was young. He doesn't have any real personality traits beyond "Sad about dead father" and "Likes video games." He's been designed to be as bland and inoffensive as possible, and lacks any real depth to speak of. If you imagine 4 producers sitting down in a boardroom and brainstorming ideas for an easily relatable teen character, this is who they'd come up with. He plays videogames, he doesn't belong to any teams or clubs, he has a loving, but annoying mother, he does okay in school, but never makes any waves, and he dresses in nice clothes, but not TOO nice. If you think "Typical Teenage Boy," you'd get Austin. Nothing sets him out at all. Boring.

Tamra - Tamra (Codename Enigma) is a wannabe iCarly vlogger. She's the token girl of their group, and that's basically it. Her vlogging never comes up in the show, outside of the occasional mention, or clip of it used for exposition. This seems like a missed opportunity really, since they fight in the internet. Why not have a plot where megabyte attacks her vlog and they have to go save it? The showrunners seem to have been going for "Strong female protagonist" but instead, they landed on "Annoying and and vapid, somewhat pandering female protagonist." There's not much I can say about her, since she has no backstory to speak of, and basically just fights the Sourcerer, gives vera snarky fashion advice, and talks about her vlog. It sucks that this character was an obvious afterthought for the producers.

Parker - Parker, unfortunately nicknamed "Googz" (it sounds a LOT like a well known racial slur whenever they say it in the show) is the geek of the group. He's awkward around girls, he loves technology and he naturally crushes on Vera, the sentient computer program. That's it. He has no backstory, or other characteristics.

Trey - Nicknamed "Defrag," Trey is the jock of the group. He plays basketball, he struggles to balance sports, world-saving, and homework, and his father is disappointed in him because he spends too much time with videogames and friends. Like the other protagonists, Trey just feels like he was designed via focus group, to be as inoffensive and generic as possible-An easy character for a kid to imagine themselves as. What kid hasn't felt pressured to do well in school, or struggled with homework or tests? Boring character. Enough said.

Vera - Vera is actually pretty fun. She's a sentient computer program designed to help protect the internet by recruiting guardians to defend it. She gets trapped in a human body, and basically 7-of-9s around, being awkward and out of place in the human world. I actually enjoyed her quite a bit. She had some funny dialogue, she has lots of great scenes pretending to be a foreign exchange student to Austin's Mom, and some funny one-sided romantic tension, with her being totally clueless about it. Vera is the only likeable character in the show, and she's basically a soulless robot. Despite being a program, vera does occasionally display emotions (including an episode where she installs an emotion app and it wreaks a little havoc), and has a passion for protecting other artificial intelligences, such as the personal assistants in peoples' phones. She's really the shining light of this otherwise bland and unlikable cast.

The Sourcerer - I have no clue what to make of this character. He's some kind of greasy hacker, who lives in an abandoned warehouse full of computer parts, and hates the internet for some reason. He eats with his hands, and shouts at his computer when things go wrong. It seems like they might give him a backstory in the second half of season 2, so I'll hold judgment until I see it. He dresses like an edgy 17 year old, and works with the viruses inside the computers to attack targets, all with the goal of sending humanity back to the stone age. As villains go, he's just kind of lame, so it's really hard to care about him. It's pretty obvious that Megabyte is simply playing along until he can seize control. That betrayal can't come too soon. This guy sucks.

Megabyte - This is really tough to talk about without discussing the original show. In the original, Megabyte had 4 years of being a bad-ass villain to make you take him seriously. I see megabyte, and hear his voice, and I connect his character to the original show automatically. But kids watching won't have seen the original Reboot, so what is megabyte from their perspective? He's lame. He's a glowing guy who bumbles around, occasionally kills his faceless robot henchmen, and generally never poses a real threat to the Guardians, the world, or anything but my childhood. Compare him to villains in other modern kids shows (for example Emperor Zarkon in Voltron: Legendary Defenders), and he comes up pretty lacking. He's ineffective, he's bumbling, he's lacking firepower, and he doesn't have interesting henchmen. I still enjoy when he's on screen, since I can imagine him as the original megabyte, but the truth has to be said: This megabyte kind of sucks.

And that's it for the characters. And that's kind of the biggest problem of all. Besides the villains, and the protagonists, the entire world of Reboot: The Guardian Code feels empty and lifeless. None of the action feels important. The internet is populated entirely by soulless robot drones who slave away like cogs in a machine. None of them have personalities, or emotions, or anything to connect to, so when megabyte kills them, it feels meaningless. If megabyte destroys a system, it's not like anyone was living in it, and in real life the consequence is probably just that somebody's laptop breaks. Outside of the internet isn't much better either. Besides Austin's mom, there aren't any recurring characters to speak of. There's a fun teacher character who shows up, a mocking "basement dwelling reboot fanboy" character, and Tray's dad, but they basically just get one episode each, and are never heard from again. The kids don't have any other friends at school, and there's never anyone they need to hide their identities from. You have bland protagonists, bland villains, and no real supporting cast. It's hard to feel connected to the world of Reboot: TGC, because the heroes have nobody to protect that isn't annoying or a one off gag character. By the end of the show I found myself siding with The Sourcerer. This world is awful, and needs to go.

Overall - The show is honestly pretty harmless. It feels workshopped and lifeless, like a lot of low budget kids shows. It's not that it's bad, but it's cheaply made, and it's lazy. Nobody took any risks at any point in this show and it suffers because of that. The acting is mediocre, the plotlines are mediocre, and the characters are about as bland and one dimensional as you can get. The effects are somewhat dated looking, but passable. If they hadn't called the show Reboot, I doubt it would have more than a handful of reviews, because it's utterly forgettable.

If you're a reboot fan: Don't watch it. You won't like it. No need to endlessly hate on it, because it's not like it'll stick around in the cultural landscape very long. I doubt it'll be picked up for another season after all the bad press it got, and nobody's going to be cosplaying as Tamra or Austin in 20 years.