Nostalgia Hour: Bingeworthy Animated y2k Shows
By: Dara Udobong ‘23
Way back in the 80’s, the Buggles sang The Video Killed the Radio Star. In an iconic move, MTV decided to air the song’s music video as the first ever video on its channel. Over 30 years later, Netflix would kill cable TV.
Amid a pandemic, with nothing but time on our hands to spend, stay-at-home orders have forced us to dig through our what-I-do-for-fun boxes in hopes of finding something that’ll make the passage of time less…painful. Once a welcomed break to hit the reset button on our lives and take a much-needed break, the pandemic-induced lockdown has now proven that even bottomless wells like Netflix run dry. Quite unlike the on-demand nature of the streaming giants, 90s and y2k shows survived off anticipation, exemplified in your favourite Saturday morning show or after-school program. Remember staying up till late so you could catch the season finale of that show, or waking up super early so you could catch the season’s marathon? Now, cable TV sits stagnant, consigned to show sports, news, soap operas and endless reruns of Paw Patrol (nothing personal).
But with the revival y2k aesthetics, it looks like cable TV is making a comeback—or something like that. The years leading up to 2020 till date have featured the re-entrance of y2k fashion, style and cinematography into pop culture. This might not come as a surprise to you, as pop culture nostalgia runs on a 20-to-30-year cycle, hence why a lot of 90s and y2k reboots are making their periodic rounds. From a recent Avatar the Last Airbender social media craze to the revival of Boondocks, nostalgic shows straight from cable are coming to a streaming platform near you.
It doesn’t help that the nostalgia is so easy to trigger, as 90’s and y2k shows make up the bulk of internet meme pages and discussion forums like Reddit. Sometimes, it isn’t enough to just get the reference or joke—memories from these shows suddenly demand deeper context: something more than a vague backstory. Whether you’re on holiday or just taking a break from class, this series will take you through the best throwbacks (that you can actually binge from start to finish) and where you can find them online.
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