Voyeur With a Camera

Getting back to that perplexing question of how best to approach the remaking or revamping of classic films and TV series, it occurred to me that sometimes the title of an old property can suggest the direction a new version could take.  (OK, I know that we haven't really been discussing this subject here of late, but the matter has been on my mind of late after having recently sat through that utterly dire 2022 The Munsters reboot).   Actually, it was one specific old TV show that started me on this line of thought: by chance I caught an episode of the fifties US TV series Man With a Camera, an early starring vehicle for Charles Bronson, about the exploits of a freelance press photographer covering everything from crime stories to human interest stories.  But while a title like that doubtless seemed perfectly innocuous back in the fifties, before 'Paparazzi' were reviled, but rather held up as heroes of the free press and possession of a camera was still a relative rarity, the mark of a professional, nowadays it would carry other connotations, namely that of the peeping Tom.  Now, to be perfectly fair, even back in the fifties, there were people doing nefarious things with cameras - unscrupulous photographers snatching furtive shots of film stars in flagrante to sell to the scandal rags, (or worse, to use for blackmail).  But this sort of invasion of people's privacy has long since moved out of the domain of professional photographers (or sleazy private eyes), with the increasing availability of cheap cameras and later digital camera technology, into the domain of everyday voyeurs and perverts.  The advent of the camera phone has undoubtedly been the greatest technology boost in history for the voyeur community, with the advent of the web giving them a platform to share all of their furtive photos with the like minded.  

Obviously, the increased availability of such technologies has also seen a shift in the nature of victims, from the great and the good, celebrities, politicians and the like, to ordinary people.  Because if there's one thing the average voyeur covets more than a candid topless shot of Sydney Sweeney (or whoever the current object of internet slavering might be), it is a nude shot of that pretty girl next door who always ignores them.  So, a contemporary rendering of a series entitled Man With a Camera would surely feature, as its protagonist, a voyeuristic man who obsessively and secretly photographs and films women.  Episodes could centre around just how he is going to get this week's prized nude shot without detection, highlighting his skills at climbing drainpipes to take pictures through open bathroom and bedroom windows, or his skill in creating telephoto lenses in order to get long range shots of nudist beaches, perhaps.  There's something quite amusing in imagining a stone-faced Charles Bronson busily snapping such pictures, then gazing at them in the privacy of his sad bedsit, his expression completely unchanging as he looks at them, maybe occasionally groaning slightly.  Obviously, Bronson himself is now long dead, but there's always digital technology, or even that Bronson lookalike beloved of low budget film makers.  If you wanted to take such a series to the next level, you could always introduce a story arc whereby he inadvertently films or takes a shot of a murder, identifying the killer.  Obviously, he can't go to the police for fear of his pervert activities being exposed, but the murderer has seen him and proceeds to stalk him for the next ten episodes, in a game of cat and voyeur.  There's all sorts of variations you could work in:  perhaps the killer could start knocking off all of the voyeur's targets, at the moment they are being secretly photograghed, or maybe the killer could try and frame the voyeur for killing one of them, or simply take secret photos of the voyeur spying on women and taunt him with them.  Hell, I should be trying to pitch this to a producer, shouldn't I?  It's miles better than most of the crap put out by streaming platforms!  Mind you, if I see anything looking remotely like this turn up, be warned, I'll be suing for royalties!