This article could analyze the recent resurgence of 90s and early 2000s TV shows on streaming platforms, exploring why series like Friends, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Gilmore Girls—among others—continue to captivate both nostalgic fans and new viewers alike. It could analyze how the thematic elements of these shows—such as friendship, humor, and a focus on "simpler" times—resonate in today’s fast-paced world. You might also consider discussing how streaming enables a new level of accessibility, allowing these beloved series to find fresh audiences and establish intergenerational appeal. Examining how this nostalgic inclination affects modern media and the potential influence these shows may have on future releases would add another level of complexity.
Ps.: Just came to mind... There's actually a word for that feeling when you miss a time you never lived through—anemoia! It's that kind of bittersweet nostalgia some younger viewers feel for the 90s and early 2000s, even though they didn’t actually experience those years. It’s like an idealized version of the past, and streaming just makes it so easy to dive right in! – Beatrix Kondo2 weeks ago
Circa 2008, YouTube gained a new channel and star in Nostalgia Critic, AKA Doug Walker. Going by that name and the hfaandle ThatGuyWiththeGlasses, Doug Walker gave viewers scathing, humorous reviews of nostalgic movies, shows, and commercials from the '80s-'90s. "I remember it so you don't have to," he begins almost all of his (early) videos.
A while after the Nostalgia Critic came to fame, he held a contest to find a female counterpart. The result was the stardom of Lindsey Ellis, Nostalgia Chick. As her name implies, Nostalgia Chick covers content the Critic doesn't, mostly content aimed at a female base. She tends to focus her reviews on feminist criticism and the portrayal of female characters.
However, both critics' reams of views indicate their fans are not necessarily divided by sex or gender. Both sexes can enjoy both critics, so what, other than feminist or non-feminist content, distinguishes the two? Is one critic inherently "better" than the other, and if yes, why? Have changes in the videos' formats, such as Critic and Chick appearing together or with other characters, changed the conversation about their content? What kind of viewers do Chick and Critic cater to, regardless of gender (i.e., would you recommend a new viewer go to one person or the other for a certain type or "tone" of content)?
Interesting topic. While a part of me can appreciate the time capsule-esque approach of comparing Walker and Ellis's work as if it were still 2013 and they were both still affiliated with Channel Awesome -- there may be a nostalgic impulse at play here (so meta!) -- I cannot help but feeling that it would be a grave omission to disregard the career trajectories of both figures since Ellis's departure in 2014. Though his channel is still active, Walker has arguably experienced a slight fall from public grace based on reports of his mistreatment of former employees (including Ellis), and one need only look at the reception of his recent video on Pink Floyd's The Wall to see what little respect his industry peers still have for his critical prowess. Ellis, on the other hand, now independently runs one of the leading video essay channels on the site (nearly eclipsing Channel Awesome in terms of subscribers), works for PBS, and has become a New York Times Bestselling novelist. The complexities of their parallel career arc goes far beyond the simple male vs. female paradigm suggested by your prompt. This is not to say that that paradigm is not, itself, worth exploring, but it may be more generative as only the first act of an ongoing story. Just my two cents. – ProtoCanon3 years ago
Discuss and analyze how many tv series adapt a sense of nostalgia. Many hit tv shows present an underlying sense of nostalgia. For instance, Hulu's This is Us intertwines plot events that take place in not only the present but also the past. In Netflix's Stranger Things, the series takes place in the 1980s. Aside from these examples, there have also been many older shows that have gotten modern day spinoffs: Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World, Full House and Fuller House, and That's So Raven and Raven's House. How does nostalgia function in tv and what does it say about our society?
A fruitful avenue might be comparing our contemporary nostalgia for the 80's with the swell of nostalgia for the 50's in the late 70's and 80's (e.g., Grease, Back to the Future, Happy Days), maybe asking how and why three decades seem to be the magic number for these intense waves of nostalgia.
– Allie Dawson7 years ago
Nostalgia can be a way to understand change on a personal level. We all look back and the older you get the farther you look back. Looking back can include nostalgia as in not really seeing that past as it really was but in distorted ways. So being aware of nostalgia helps to provide a grounding that looking back and trying to draw some lessons or observations needs to be done with care because what we are basing our insight on may be a distorted image of the past. When people say "Kids today," or "In my day," then go off on a rant about what they don't like, they are often doing so based on a distorted or embellished image of the past. – Joseph Cernik6 years ago
Nostalgia's been widely regarded as a good thing, but when does it go too far? When does it become unhealthy for us to stick ourselves to the same ideas, the same properties, solely because we associate good things with them and they make us feel safe? It is necessary for us to be challenged, but how can we do that if we're constantly being given the same thing because that's what we like and what we're used to? With all these reboots, when is enough enough?
Interesting topic. Do you have any examples of nostalgia done right versus nostalgia done poorly? – JakeV7 years ago
Nostalgia and reboots can be considered separate entities. – m-cubed7 years ago
Too much is when the story hinges on it. It should be sprinkled throughout the story, and could conceivably work without the nostalgia. – AGMacdonald7 years ago
Already saw a page on face book called Clinton Obama, but running the wives in 2020. maybe American politics should be like a shriners convention, no wives allowed, try and find someone or something new instead of making George Lucas as Gore would say, Your Dante found. – Antonius8657 years ago
Analyse the trends and patterns of selling and marketing 'nostalgic' properties to the public. Is it an issue? Is it replacing the creation of new art, or is it simply a matter of adults celebrating the things they loved as children. Consider movie and television reboots and spin-offs.
Definitely a topic that never goes out of style. I saw a news report years ago about the 1950s music and fashion frenzy among teenage Japanese fans. There was a documentary not long after the Communist collapse in Russia where ardent followers of American Rock classics resurfaced onto the public domain after decades of underground existence. Need only point to the Star Trek phenomena that has ballooned into paraphernalia, conferences, movies, books, sequels, so on. There is much you can do with this subject. – lofreire7 years ago
Obsolesce, "slow" movements, craft culture, and many hipster aesthetics and ideologies -- add, and it's an interesting topic. A reaction to contemporary culture. The reboot phenomenon in the movie industry, in particular, seems less complicated and worthwhile. As does a question of "art." – Paul A. Crutcher7 years ago
It would be worthwhile to consider Star Trek, Limitless, Psycho and even, Baywatch. Are we running out of new original content? – Vishnu Unnithan7 years ago
First need is to clearly define the term or it becomes unmanageable. What is included? What is just an older look (a building, a community, a section in an antique mall that seems to reflect a previous time)? – Joseph Cernik6 years ago
It seems like every new release these days is either a reboot, a revival, or a sequel. That's all well and good for those of us who grew up with the original media and are now more than happy to see it return, but is this trend perpetrating the longevity of the series we love, or is it robbing the next generation of too many chances to form their own unique experiences with new media?
I think the question is less about the level of goodness for younger (what I assume you mean by "future") generations, and more about how the generation appreciating the original interacts with the new nostalgia. Media is like a time capsule. Social climate, humor trends, and so much more changes over time, so when we reboot media, how do people balance nostalgia/tradition with change and the present? I don't think that younger generations will care as much. Especially if they are unfamiliar with the older versions. – ASeriousLady8 years ago
I love this question. I was just talking about the book The Future of Nostalgia by Svetlana Boym, and I think she's on to something regarding cultural landmarks and landscapes that might be applicable to your developing analysis. Of course, I'm also thinking of the cable show Stranger Things, which was full of 80s references, but didn't advance the plot or make the characters more finely drawn. As a child of the 80s, I thought the references were a nostalgia "straw man" that distracted from problems and gaps in the narrative. – pfurnish8 years ago
We need new media. I want to see what Millennials and their successors can come up with on their own, because we really are the generation of reboots and superheroes. No more "Stranger Things" style homages. At the very least, go the "Rick and Morty" route and bastardize a respected property until you imbue it with a new thematic significance, elevating the work to new levels of art. Anyway, yeah, someone needs to write this topic, if only to speculate what a landscape with more unique properties would even look like coming from our specific concerns and fixations. – demogorgonzola8 years ago
I've always believed old and new things have their place, but that we've lost out on enjoying some older things because pre-nostalgia, our generation was exposed to so many new and trendy things. Example: Sometimes my parents or grandmother (my only living grandparent) will talk to me about the things they watched or read or experienced, and while I can appreciate they loved these things, I can't actually relate. I'd like to see more of a mix of nostalgia and new media, especially since each generation has its own experiences to feel nostalgic about. I mean, one of these days our kids and grandkids are going to be nostalgic about iPhones, Netflix, and online pizza orders. Scary. :) – Stephanie M.8 years ago
In the three days after its Netflix release, "Stranger Things" rocketed to number 26 IMDB's top 250 shows. Marketed across the internet as a well-casted, spooky, nostalgia-perfect program, the description inspired a cross-internet search for movies, television shows, and assorted media that has been marketed for its "nostalgic" value and their close ties to the 80s and 90s. The majority of the hits were produced in the past 20-30 years (Clueless, Grease), but many instead are recent productions taking place in that time period (It Follows, Stranger Things), falling into decades not old enough to be considered "period pieces" but also clearly not modern age.
Examine this category of film and television, its cultural appeal, its widespread success across the western world, and determine whether or not "nostalgia" is being appropriately applied to these very specific decades, or how media of these categories might be alternatively described.
Excellent topic! You allow for a multitude of avenues to be explored. I also appreciate your own inquiry into the use of the word "nostalgia" when referring to works from these decades, and the categorization of such titles. Who is to say what is and what is not able to conjure up feelings of nostalgia? Great choice...I look forward to reading this, as I believe someone will pick up this topic. – danielle5778 years ago
This is a great topic and I think many readers will be able to relate to it. I myself find that I am a part of the nostalgia generation and I think it's because there are too many sitcoms out there today. Back in the 90s and early 2000s there were only a handful of sitcoms. You watched Friends, Party of 5, 90210, and you felt a connection with the characters. The shows were simple and offered viewers a place to go and just enjoy the story lines. I think this topic can be picked up with ease and I look forward to commenting on it. – iwrite8 years ago
Love this topic as a fan of "Stranger Things" and the 80s iconography it pays tribute to. Part of the appeal of nostalgia stems from those who grew up during those specific periods as well as those who just have a fondness for those eras in general. I do wonder if younger audiences for "Stranger Things" enjoyed it as much as I know older millennials did. If they did, I suppose the appeal for them is that it has elements they can relate to, i.e. the group of kids and their adventures with Eleven. For teenagers, it had the Nancy, Jonathan and Steve storylines; Gen-Xers have Joyce and Hopper. I thought nostalgia was cleverly applied to "Stranger Things," because, while the show is bursting with 80s love, it also flips 80s tropes on their head at the same time, such as the Final Girl trope and the love triangle twist. Thus, it is upgraded to modern times while still remaining nostalgic. I think nostalgia has such crossover appeal because older people may introduce kids to the things popular in their era, and it gets passed on. I think its appeal is also in part due to an ironic yearning for the pre-Internet life. Interesting questions you have; hope your topic gets picked! – cebalo8 years ago
It's interesting as someone born mid-90's to see such a resurgence of classic "80's" nostalgia. I'm faintly aware, as an observer and less as one who's experience ATARI or the other trials of the 80's, and it's interesting to see how the Duffer brothers brought back to life a world so naturally, despite the ever-changing time and our own modern aesthetic of conscious dystopia. I think this is a very keen topic! – bbartonshaw8 years ago
Analyze and describe the techniques used by major studios (like Disney) with hot-button intellectual property (like Star Wars) in a variety of film marketing, including but not limited to exposés, interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and the hype surrounding trailers and the leakage of any footage/spoilers in general.
Look no further than Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the use of nostalgia in marketing. The entire campaign was based on the idea that Star Wars is reintroducing classic characters like Han, Leia, and Luke. The marketing for the film trumpeted the return of classic Star Wars elements like the Millennium Falcon, X-Wings, TIE fighters, stormtroopers and aliens. Disney used all of these elements well to bring fans back in. The trailers all spoke of how each generation has a story and how this was the next chapter in that story. I think they did a very good job of bringing in all of these elements that fans have been asking for for so long, and the crowning moment was in the first full trailer for the film. At the last second, Han Solo and Chewbacca stepped onto the screen for the first time in over 30 years and uttered one simple but effective line. "Chewie, we're home." – Sjdeliman8 years ago
Stranger Things is another example; many viewers from the 80s really like the show because of its nostalgic references. – seouljustice8 years ago
On the surface it would appear that people buy games simply because they are interested, but there are deeper seated reasons why they are willing to buy certain games. Analyze how someone's expectations, interest, and ultimately choice in games is affected by their loyalty to a series or nostalgia for a previous game. Do people buy games simply because they enjoyed the previous one or because they enjoy a certain series?
I can safely say I have a whole bunch of games that I am generally quite nostalgic toward, and I understand that some of them haven't exactly aged well. When it comes to buying modern games from a classic franchise, or perhaps "HD remasters/remakes," I think it's common for someone to think back to their experiences with a franchise at a young age. I would suggest looking into the idea of "nostalgia blindness" as well, which is when a person ignores or outright denies any flaws in something they have a of nostalgia towards. This could have a profound effect on how they determine which games to buy. – Filippo9 years ago
No matter how corny and outrageous the Resident Evil series gets I still play every game. I also enjoy playing every one (that includes Resident Evil 6 which wasn't well received). So, yeah, I defiantly think loyalty and nostalgia play into choosing games.
I think it would also be interesting to not just look at series of games, but also individual games and see how nostalgia plays into choosing to play a new IP. – Lexzie9 years ago
I actually think that a lot of the nostalgia towards games aren't actually directed towards story or universe, but rather, mechanics. For example, Final Fantasy isn't set in the same universe at all, but each addition to the series includes a variation of the typical turn-based fighting style. Other examples include the Tales of Series, Fire Emblem, and arguably Legend of Zelda. – ChristelleMarie Chua9 years ago
It's certainly something to factor in. One thing to be careful of is letting those things be used against you. It's one thing to try to bring the games you loved as a kid into the present, but it's quite another to take an old and venerated game and use it's rotting corpse to make money. Nostalgia can just as easily get us a Grim Fandango remaster as it can get us Dungeon Keeper Mobile. – Seakibble9 years ago
As Filippo mentioned, nostalgia certainly plays a part in me buying HD Remakes. The original version of FFX on the PS2 came out when I was only 11, and since then it has been one of my favorite games. Naturally, when it was remastered for the PS4, I immediately dished out my $40 for it. Was it stupid to spend that money on a game I already have? Maybe. But I like remastered graphics and I love the game, so it was worth it to me. And when the PS22 comes out and they re-release it for the hundredth time, I'll probably buy it again because it is one of the best games I've ever played. – Christina Legler9 years ago
