My guess is that the actors wanted to have their cake and eat it too. In other words, they want the “benefits” of having a reboot without actually doing a reboot and obviously it’s not working. The producers assumed (with this “play within a play” concept) that people care so much about the personal lives of these actors when really they just want some closure on the characters. This doesn’t feel at all like a reboot. As I just said, people just want to know what happened to the characters.

Yep. I've been reading some comments on FB and most people thought it was going to be a true reboot. Ratings would have been great if that was the case.

Yep. I've been reading some comments on FB and most people thought it was going to be a true reboot. Ratings would have been great if that was the case.

The producers and actors probably should've done a better job explaining the concept. I'm not sure that viewers were ready for some Curb Your Enthusiasm-like, pseudo-reality based, meta-textual type show. Plus, I'm willing to bet that viewers want to see more of Shannen Doherty (since Luke Perry, even had he not passed away, wasn't going to be apart of it due to his Riverdale schedule), and she has for the most part been kind of an enigma.

Come to think of it, remember that WB show Grosse Pointe (which was based on Darren Starr's experiences working behind the scenes on 90210), which arguably did a better job with other actors apparently spoofing the real life actors and their characters? Joe E. Tata and Jason Priestly even guest stared in case people did not understand the connection.