So, I clicked the ‘music’ button on the 10 Things I Hate About You website, and somehow that took me to the forums, where more than half of the posts are people just hating on the series, without even having seen it.  Here is the basic argument:

They’re just reusing the old plotline, which was actually based off of the Taming of the Shrew (that’s Shakespeare, chickadees, and for any haters, yes, I already had seen the movie a couple, few years ago, and I yes, I knew it was based off Taming of the Shrew, and yes, I knew that was Shakespeare, so don’t use any of that ‘you’re an idiot who doesn’t know anything’ crap on me, m’kay?) so they’re basically re-making a re-make.  What an unoriginal, cheap  money-maker.

And my response:

Yes, yes, they are reusing a plotline, and yes, that is extremely cheap and shows a huge lack of creativity, but they’re not claiming to be doing anything original with it.  Besides, the main point of a remake is to, if you’ll pardon my redudancy, remake it for another generation.  Since I kind of straddle the two generations here, I can say the remake does appeal to me (partially because I love the actress who plays Kat), even though the movie was amazing and can’t be replaced.  People just have to learn to accept things as different but still good.  Just stop being so narrow-minded and… hateful.  Over a television show.

There was one interesting post on the forum that said that in the promo picture, the senior master sergeant insignia on the person’s armsleeve was upside down, and that that was very disrespectful as that honor is one you have to work very hard to obtain.  And, while I must agree, let’s pause real quick here:

T.V. gets things wrong.  A lot.  It’s because some people are too lazy to do proper and thorough research.  I encourage any movie person (or author of books – I see some appalling slip-ups in literature) who reads this to think of that the next time they are responsible for something that will become public.  And as for the arm thing, it probably was an honest mistake and not an “attempt to be cool” as the poster suggests.  After all, children who’ve seen swastikas before and don’t know what they are or what they mean end up drawing them.  Okay, back to the post:

And then this person went on to say that because of this they are not watching the show, and they are not letting their family watch it.  I sort of stopped nodding when I got there and stared blankly at the screen for a minute or two thinking, “Really?“

I mean, I honestly see how disrespectful this is.  But can’t you just get past it? It seems like an honest mistake.  Be an adult, as adults always say to my peers.

Stop the hatred, people.  Accept some things as bad, but live with them anyways.  I dislike rap quite a bit, but I acknowledge it as a genuine and valid form of music and self-expression, and I don’t post comments on rap artists’ myspaces saying, “Your music sucks and is an affront to [insert something here]“  Just… AGH!  This is very frustrating for me…

By the way, I’ve seen the premiere episode, and it looks like they might really be trying to make it a little different from the movie, not exactly the same.  So quit your wining already.