Is anyone else watching tonight? 
I’ve been looking forward to this for awhile in spite of the changes made to Rocky’s costume. 
I do like the songs so much, they’re a joy to hear. I’ve read an awful review, but only one. The new Riff Raff is kinda cute! And Tim Curry as Narrator seems to be doing well with his lines. It is missing the perverse vibe of the original, but it’s OK.
I tuned in for a few minutes after The Good Place and saw Brad’s seduction and “Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me”, but really was not impressed. I turned it off.
It’s better than I was expecting.
I’m still uncomfortable with Laverne Cox being cast as Frank, but…she’s been doing well.
The audience cutaways are a cute touch.
I don’t think this stuff can be perverse anymore. In addition to everything else that’s changed, subculture has been pop culture for decades now, and this is such an established part of the subculture it’s practically mainstream. Notice how this production is on broadcast television during prime time.
Plus, of course, the production values on this one are probably higher, which automatically moves something closer to the mainstream.
I do not understand the casting of a female to play the role that Tim Curry played. The whole point was that Curry was a transvestite, not transgender, hence the use of the word transvestite throughout the play/movie, including many of the songs.
How does a female fit into that role at all?
Bob
BTW, I have decided not to watch it for that reason and for the reason that there is no way they could have come up with something which would, in any way, equal the original.
Bob, again.
I was puzzled by the casting of Frank N. Furter, too, but since I’d never seen or heard of Laverne Cox, I wasn’t aware she was transgender. Made a bit more sense after that, and her vocal range is pretty impressive.
I thought it was a reasonably faithful recreation. I think I’d have to see one after the other to have a better opinion on how they stack up against each other. It’s been too long since I saw the original, and I’ve only seen it a couple of times, anyway.
Yes, the character is a transvestite, but from transsexual Transylvania, whihc would seem to allow a certain leeway for the role to be played by a man, a woman, be they trans- or birth-gendered.
Especially since it turns out that they’re not human: Transexual is the planet they’re from, and it’s in the galaxy of Transylvania. (Which I picture as past the Pices-Cetus Supercluster Complex, but that’s just me).
Cox was one of the few reasons I was interested in seeing it, and I love the idea of her in the role. I think she’d be great. Is the character still supposed to be a male transvestite or did they rewrite it?
I didn’t realize it was tonight, though, and have been watching baseball and football. I’ll have to see if it’s available on demand this weekend.
No, they changed Frank’s pronouns to “she” and “her”.
I’m sure I’ve seen a worse movie at some point in my life, but I’m having trouble remembering when. I thought it was really, really dreadful.
Good point; in there natural form they even be hermaphrodites. It did take me awhile to realize that this version of Frankfurter was actually female (not until I picked up on the pronouns). Granted it does make the seduction of Brad comes off differently than in the original (yet the seduction of Janet comes off exactly the way). Also were we supposed to recognize the Criminologist’s assistant? 
It felt like she might have been a cameo too, but I can’t place her.
I’m watching it right now. I’m rather enjoying it–no, it is not the original–but I’m liking the songs and the characters, and the cutaways to the audience.
Interestingly, something about the castle exterior looked familiar, so I checked IMDB. Turns out it’s Casa Loma in Toronto. When I was a kid in Toronto, we went on a school field trip there every year. Great choice to play the RHPS castle!
I saw a preview for it, and decided to avoid it like The Clap.
Sort of. She is Jayne Eastwood, a well-known Canadian character actress. You’ve seen her in any number of movies, often in small, but speaking, roles–in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” for example, she was the Annoyed Neighbour; in “Hairspray,” she was a teacher, and so on. Check out her Wikipedia entry for her filmography.
Isn’t that funny, my husband asked me how this program was, and I said it seemed kind of bright and cheery, not perverse or edgy. And he said back when the original came out, it was kind of shocking, but today it’s just ‘another parade down main street’. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if someone tried to make a tv series based on Rocky Horror!
Tried because my daughter watched it. Meh. Cox was fine, but what’s up with her selective Curry-ish accent? She drifted across a few accents which I found distracting. Some of the singing was a bit better and yeah, Reeve Spiderman Carney did a fine Riff Raff. But overall, it needs Curry’s…whatever he brought to the role. Authority? He came across as more credibly incredible, if that makes sense
It was fun and I enjoyed it. Cox was missing Curry’s smirky deviousness. Just a cock of his eyebrow and you felt his hypnotic smarm. But Cox is a way, waaaaaaay better singer. Loved Columbia and the old Rocky was much, much more muscular.
The biggest thing that bothered me was the interpretation of the “Time Warp” song. Clearly in the original, Meat Loaf’s voice is the dominant vocal melody when singing “Let’s do the time warp again” and as such should be the vocal line that should always be dominant. But countless tone deaf people over the years have dumbed it down to a set of four distinct note changes, rather than the actual five. It’s like they’re keying in on a descant. I cringe whenever I hear it sung that way by a drunken group in a bar or at a party, and this remake used that horrible alternate as well . I’m sure the crazies will attack me here for this but I don’t care.
Meat Loaf doesn’t sing Time Warp.
Wife and I watched it - we liked it. Not great, but it was fun to watch. I didn’t like Laverne Cox at all - seemed like she was trying to hard to sound like Tim Curry.
Best line (an inside joke that I think everyone missed):
The dinner scene, Columbia says, “oh I hope it’s not MEATLOAF again!!”
I burst out laughing, then had to explain to my wife why it was so clever and what it meant with regard to the original movie.