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1990s revivals

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully in The X-Files
  • Posted at 1:59pm
  • 01 August 2008
  • by DavidBrown-RT
  • 3 comments

In this climate of economic downturn and volatile stock markets, you wouldn't blame beleaguered PM Gordon Brown for looking back on the boom years of the 1990s with a certain amount of nostalgia. The Labour Party in government on a landslide majority, Tony Blair's Chancellor earning plaudits for giving the Bank of England the power to set interest rates, the Conservatives nose-diving towards political obscurity. Ah, heady days.

But if Gordon Brown were to have a night off from his troubles and enjoy a movie he could make a choice between Sex and the City and The X-Files. Watch TV and he could wave a foam finger in support of the Gladiators and look forward to the return of Beverly Hills 90210. If he tried hard enough, he could pretend the 90s never went away at all.

But are these revivals worth it? Are we facing a cultural as well as an economic recession if we're looking back fondly on stuff that we only got shot of five minutes ago? Is the prospect of a talking-heads nostalgia fest called I Love Last Week so hard to imagine?

So far the results have been mixed. Reaction to The X-Files: I Want to Believe has been so lukewarm that it makes us wonder whether the original TV series just had us hoodwinked back in the day. The truth was never really out there, was it? And there weren't many enjoying the This Life reunion over Christmas 2007. The only two stand-outs have been Sex and the City and Take That, whose built-in audiences turned out in force on principle. In fact, it was probably the same audience that went to both.

The problem with these makeovers of icons past is that we don't expect anything new; we just want our memories massaged. But in an age of DVD boxed sets and video streaming that allow us to access the archives in an instant, it seems that the only point in resurrecting the ghosts of scheduling past is to make more money for the fading stars.

Maybe we shouldn't begrudge a little rose-tinted wallow in an age of slumping house prices and rising inflation. But wouldn't it be more pertinent to have a Friends movie in which the dream's gone sour: nobody has the cash to eat at Monica's restaurant, the ad company Chandler works for has gone bust and Rachel's having to slave away at Primark.

But when the inevitable film happens - and let's face it, it's going to happen sometime - what's the betting they'll contrive to have them all drinking coffee at Central Perk with Joey having somehow relocated back to New York again. Please, leave us with the original episodes! We've all got E4. And this is coming from a die-hard Friends fan.

Instead, we get retread on top of makeover on top of revamp. More Terminator, Jurassic Park 4 (and that's not just the sight of Wolf on the Gladiators: Heroes Special) and a Boyzone concert. Just remember my words when watching Shooting Stars this Christmas. In the words of Vic and Bob themselves: "You just wouldn't let it lie."

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Comments

  • Posted on 13 August 2008
  • at 3:48pm
  • by MulderFan

Really disappointed by the new movie aswell. Such a shame.

  • Posted on 11 August 2008
  • at 5:23pm
  • by RichSmith

I wanted to like the new X Files movie but I feel that there wasn't anything X Files about it. It could have been an episode of Silent Witness to be honest. The first movie was such an event and was bigger in scale to anything on the TV series but this one didn't have the ambition of even that. I agree that they should have rested it permanantly.

  • Posted on 06 August 2008
  • at 1:09pm
  • by Awooga!

Are they bringing back the old Gladiators? Can't wait to see Wolf and the rest.

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