You'd have to be living under a rock to not have noticed that the '90s are making a return in full force. "Full House," "The X-Files,' and "Will & Grace," are just a few examples of successful revivals recently released. In fact, the "Will & Grace" reboot was nominated for a Golden Globe this year and "Fuller House" is currently on its third season. It doesn't seem like the trend will end anytime soon with a revival of "Sister Sister" in the works and "Roseanne" airing later this year. It'd be foolish to doubt the commercial success of nostalgia-based television viewing but are these throwbacks to 20+ years ago actually good?
I understand the appeal of old favorites returning to TV. Although I was born in the late '90s, I grew up watching reruns of many of the shows that are returning. Just hearing their iconic theme songs reminds me of summers in elementary school spent absorbing the complete weekday ABC Family line-up. I like to think that when these shows return in any capacity, they'll catapult me back to simpler times in my life for half an hour. I imagine that this is how everyone feels, no matter how old they were when they watched them.
Despite the excitement that takes over when I hear of another revival, I have yet to watch one that I truly enjoyed. "Fuller House" included the beloved cheesiness of the original series but the cheesiness was much more cringe-worthy in 2016 than in 1990. "The X-Files" is my absolute favorite show but its return in 2016 showed that the show's specific brand of amazing creepiness and conspiracy is hard to recapture. If these shows are going for quality, they're not consistently succeeding. But I don't think quality is their goal.
The goal of this revival era is escapism. The '90s weren't perfect for anyone but the years between now and then make the '90s seem like a haven to many people. People choose to remember the good moments of that decade, like laughing in front of the TV, instead of the tense political climate or world tragedies. The '90s represent innocence, especially for those that were very young. They did not care who the president was or how the economy was faring. The real drama of the day was whether Steve Urkel would ever realize that he did, indeed, "do that."
There's a line at the end of one of The X-Files' most recent revival episodes. Mulder and Scully are sitting on a couch and Scully is holding a spoonful of Goop-o ABC, a Jell-o knockoff that she hasn't eaten since childhood but used to love. She goes to take a bite, then pauses. She turns to Mulder and says, "I want to remember how it all was," then sets the spoon down, allowing the sickly sweet taste of Goop-o ABC to live on in her memory as the greatest gelatin she's ever had.
That scene really stuck with me. Haven't we all watched a show that was perfect to us as children then re-watched it as an adult and counted its many faults? Revivals make those faults even more glaring. At least when I watch the original series, I can pretend that I'm seven years old again. That's all I really want.
