After the success that was Superman this summer, I was looking to get into other Superman related media. I had asked around my friends and family, and they recommended the tv show Smallville. It’s really good — in all its 2000s cringe and humor — but as I was going through it, I began to notice that many of the shows I stream are almost 20-years old. This is a trend I see amongst most of my friends as well. Most people are streaming shows like Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, and if we wanna get even older, Friends and One Tree Hill are still regularly streamed. You never hear people in real life talking about shows like Wednesday, despite them supposedly being the #1 show on their platform. How is it that older shows are more popular nowadays?
Older shows offer a nostalgia factor for many people — they remind us of our childhoods and offer a sense of comfort. The fact that many of these shows don’t feature smartphones or computers further appeals to many young people, as they bring us back to a simpler time where we weren’t constantly plugged in. They feel very timeless in a way. Who wouldn’t want to live in a world where you get to visit your friends every day and have funny dialogue while looking amazing while doing it?
With the resurgence in y2k and early 2010’s fashion, it’s no wonder that these older shows are starting to trend. They are excellent style guides to what people actually wore during that time period. They serve as great time capsules for aspiring fashionistas. The style we see in shows like Gilmore Girls and Lizzie Maguire are still commonly replicated every day. People want to look like the people they see on their screens, and the people they are looking to aren’t influencers, but Rory Gilmore and Blair Waldorf.
Above all else, these shows are timeless. They were written with quick dialogue and they had a full 20+ episodes to really develop the characters and the story they were trying to tell. Along with that, these shows have upwards of seven or eight seasons to spend with these characters we grow to love. The storytelling is very relatable, with storylines for people of all ages. Compare that to the average streaming show, which sits at around eight episodes a season — these shows move very fast, and there is very little time to get to know and be with the characters before the storyline takes hold and we have to move on. That, along with the fact that we now have to wait multiple years between filming means that many people have to fill in the gap years between shows. This is where older shows come in — you can stream them whenever and you don’t have to wait nearly as long for the next season. The episodes are focused on characters’ day to day lives, and you almost get to live with them while watching. The plot is slowly developed during the season, so it feels like less of a rush while watching.
Does this mean that newer shows are bad? Absolutely not! It just means that people are seeking something out that seems to be lacking in the modern television landscape. Rather than see this as a deficit, modern television writers should see this as a learning opportunity. Who knows? We’ve already seen the resurgence in weekly television shows made back to back, such as The Pitt proving that television can change for the better. What we need now is to actually see it on screen.