Five Reasons Why The Expendables Should Not be a TV Show

There are bound to be arguments about this idea that a lot of people are going to jump on, but the fact that the idea is already in development is enough to make some of us shake our heads and wonder why such a thing is happening in the first place. Oh, we know why, but the point is that it sounds like a bad idea and is likely to BE a bad idea for a number of reasons, a few of which are listed below. The Expendables came on the scene years back as a way to bring together one of the greatest groups of action stars that people had ever seen, and it was great. They brought in some of the biggest names and made it work in a way that was great for a lot of people that wanted to revel in the nostalgia of it all, but then they kept making the movies since people were willing to keep paying. The only problem is that while the movies aren’t exactly tanking, they’re still not getting better since it keeps on looking like more of the same thing in a different location.  With that in mind, here are a few reasons why The Expendables shouldn’t be a TV show. 

5. How often is the roster going to change?

This is a pretty good question when you think about it since there were roster changes between each movie and while the core group stuck together for the most part there were a couple of characters that didn’t get to experience part 3 fully. How’s this going to work for a TV series? Are the big-name stars going to make a brief appearance and set up a group of TV action stars as another group of Expendables, or is there something else at play here? There are a lot of questions that don’t feel as though they’ll have a satisfactory answer when all is said and done. 

4. Everyone is getting old, and the replacements aren’t that popular.

It does take a while to become a well-known action star and while there are plenty in the mix at the moment, it’s fair to say that they still don’t have the same pedigree as those that have been in the movies. Plus, the guys that people tend to like are getting pretty old at this point and aren’t likely to stick around that much longer since whether people want to admit it or not, their bodies aren’t going to hold out for that much longer, even if they’re already in their advanced years and still looking pretty good. Action stars do have an expiration date, and new action stars do take a while to become big action stars. 

3. The action genre has changed, bringing in older actors doesn’t move it forward.

It’s true for the TV show that there could be a lot of different ideas that are being brought up in terms of who can be used and who will be asked to star in which roles. But if it goes the same route as the movies one can bet that we’re going to see a few aging stars that are starting to long in the tooth for this kind of work. Some might want to deny it as much as they can, but seeing the older stars make their way to a show that’s going to give them a chance to shine again isn’t always as uplifting as it might appear to be. If it works then so be it, but if it doesn’t you can bet a lot of people will comment on it. 

2. The movies were getting worse with a huge budget, what does that mean for a TV budget?

This point kind of depends on where the show gets picked up and who’s willing to put a good amount of money on it since there have been a few TV shows that had tremendous budgets that allowed for a lot of great effects and big stars that were able to give the show a much better look. But the movies have been going slightly downhill despite their box office numbers since the quality has been slipping. What’s going to happen to a TV show that might not have the same budget? It’s going to look like a poor man’s Expendables, that’s what. 

1. It’s bound to become too much like a CW show. 

There’s a lot of hope that it would never reach the CW since it’s fair to think that it might get destroyed there considering that they might be limited to what they could do. But it’s also easy to think that an Expendable show is going to run out of gas eventually since the distance between the movies has been nice. Pushing too much too quickly sounds like it’s going to kind of ruin the experience by going overboard with it.  I could be wrong, but we’ll have to wait and see.