Spiritual Sequels

There have been a series of artistic projects that have been coming out lately that seem to me to be connected in interesting ways. And by artistic projects I mean television shows and movies.

For a long time, I have been holding the string that ABC's "Modern Family" is a sequel to Fox's "Married...With Children." Some people have argued with me on this, but seriously, if you're familiar with both shows, how can you not see the obvious similarities?

Now, I know that it isn't exactly a sequel/spinoff, but that's why I'm calling it a spiritual sequel.

"Married...With Children" starred Ed O'Neil as the sad-sack shoe-salesman who mostly despises his wife (but the feeling is mutual between them) and family (ditto on the mutual), with an older promiscuous daughter and younger son played as a loser.

In the spiritual sequel "Modern Family", Ed O'Neil plays essentially the same gruff working man mostly fed up with everything, only now he's older, left his crazy wife that made him miserable and married a hot Colombian lady, his promiscuous older daughter now has a family of her own and his younger loser son is out of the closet, married, and has started an adoptive family of his own.

For me, the Ed O'Neil character ties the two franchises together, and while he may not be the true focus of the show, I can't see it any other way.

Another project that I was having this thought about was another ABC program I've seen a few times, "Black-ish." In my estimation, "Black-ish" is the spiritual sequel to John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood."

Laurence Fishburne, an executive producer on "Black-ish," essentially reprises his role as Furious, Tre's father who spoke the angry truth and worked hard trying to keep his boy out of trouble and on track for college and life out of the 'hood. That boy, now called Dre, made good as an advertising executive, and houses both of his estranged parents in his upscale house in the wealthy white neighborhood.

How would an insecure and image-conscious Cuba Gooding Jr's Tre react to the regular slights that the corporate world throws at black men today? Just watch Anthony Anderson's Dre to find out...

The third pairing is the most direct of these since they were both made by the same director, Richard Linklater. 2016's "Everybody Wants Some" was well received by critics, and Corrie and I watched it and waited for something to happen for nearly all of its 100+ minutes, but generally liked it. It follows a kid who's just graduated from high school, a baseball pitcher on scholarship to a small Texan college, who needs to report for summer/fall training. He meets the players on the team, sees the frat-like house they all live in, and has general adventures for a few days before stuff gets serious. It takes place in 1980.

The kid is the spiritual progression of Mitch from Linklater's "Dazed and Confused." That film takes place on the last day of school in May of 1976, and Mitch is about to become a high school freshmen. He's a pitcher who takes a beating from the older "cool" kids, a beating that results in his own "coolness" getting defined.

In "Everybody Wants Some," Mitch has another name, but is essentially the same guy; earnest, cool, looking for a good time, not really willing to go whole hog on screwing over people.

I enjoyed "Dazed and Confused" far more, but this was a decent sequel effort, even if it was only a spiritual sequel.

I'm sure I missed plenty, but if you have any ideas, let me know.