My So-Called '90s Nostalgia

Lately, I have been pretty obsessed with the TV show “My So-Called Life.”  I always knew it had a cult following, but now I understand why.

What is it about all those shows from the ‘90s?  I find myself yearning for the “good ol’ days” of TV.  I love this show because it’s supposed to be about an average American teenager dealing with the trevails of adolescence, except she’s not an average teenager - she’s Claire Danes.  She lives in a giant house in a happy nuclear family in the burbs.  Unlike Anne of Green Gables (who REALLY struggled with adolescence), Danes’ character Angela colors her hair red and looks ridiculously beautiful.  Her version of a bad day is that she gets a zit.  ONE ZIT.  Angela, being an angst-ridden but basically good person, thinks this may be the end of her life.  No fooling.  The episode is called “The Zit."  She gets to make out with Jared Leto (the first in what many would consider an illustrious career of onscreen face-sucking partners, including but not limited to Leonardo DiCaprio – not too shabby) instead of an actually normal high school boy.  Though there are close calls with illicit substances (one of her friends attempts to drink one beer at her house after school) and brushes with functional illiteracy, nothing bad ever really happens.  The gay kid gets bullied but finds laughter and acceptance in the girls’ bathroom; the dad almost has an affair but then realizes that his family is too important to him.  Everybody has problems, but they never reach critical mass, and are generally solved with hugs.  This show is the television equivalent of a fuzzy blanket and a cup of hot cocoa. 

Contrast this with today’s programming.  Have you SEEN Breaking Bad?  Holy shitballs!  Critics are calling this the best show that is currently on TV.  I get it, the show is really well done...and incredibly horrifying and disturbing.  Breaking Bad is like a skydiving accident you need to keep staring at, or a nasty scab you just can’t help picking.  I am addicted to Breaking Bad, but it’s not a pleasant feeling.  In fact, I imagine it’s similar to the relationships that are commonly depicted on the show between people and their meth.  I know it’s awful but JUST ONE MORE EPISODE AND THEN I’LL STOP, I SWEAR.  Of course I don’t want to watch a junkie get his head crushed by an ATM.  Of COURSE I don’t want to see a very unlikable main character make a hobby and a giant profit of lying to his pregnant wife and disabled child.  Yet, I keep watching.  Sometimes I have to take breaks.

I miss the '90s.