Between The Squiggles

I have recently found myself watching Reba intermittently in between watching other shows. Stephanie once told me, “I think that’s something my grandma would watch. How about I hook you up to something else?” Well, no, thanks Steph.

I know a lot of people rewatch content because it is comforting for them. For me, however, it’s not about having watched it before but the fact that these shows are from a different time (the 90s or early 2000s). I probably sound like one but I assure you it’s not a 60 year old person speaking here.

For long, I have thought about what it is about old TV shows or movies that pulls me in so much. I think a lot of it has to do with nostalgia, ofcourse (shocker!). Growing up in a middle-class family, I didn’t have access to a lot of the things I saw on screen. The warm-toned kitchens (not that I wanted one as a child), low-rise jeans, thick headbands, soft lighting, floral couches, and those very specific home interiors — I feel that familiar longing I had as a child. The longing of wanting that life filled with some hubbub of sort, to be inside that world.

Part of it is emotional, too. These old feel-good shows almost always end with everything being okay — the family comes together, problems get resolved. And somehow, everything is okay. Watching that feels like being told, “You’ll be okay too.” And because it speaks to the part of me that first believed in happy endings — the child who hadn’t yet been let down — it still works.

But more than anything, I think I watch them because they make me feel like I’m still in that time. And if I’m in that time, it means that I still HAVE time. That maybe I haven’t missed my chance.