Is Nostalgia The "Lowest Form Of Entertainment?"

There is a bit of spoilers in this article for certain movies and television shows, so if there's anything you've been waiting to see, I would avoid reading this article. Of course, I would love for you to come back and finish reading it. (;

Now then, on with it. Nostalgia. You don't have to be a fan of the biggest entertainment to have an understanding that in entertainment today we've done numerous amounts of reboots for canceled tv shows, remakes of older movies to fit a modern-day story, and even brought back characters from their previous installments to join the new developments of the latest characters story.

While a buddy and I were discussing all of this happening in entertainment he made a comment that made me think about how I feel watching todays content. While discussing a new movie in which we see two previous characters reprise their role and how much we loved seeing it, he said "I loved the movie and it's definitely the best one, but nostalgia is the lowest form of entertainment." I wasn't sure how he could enjoy it so much, yet, believe it's the worst way of enjoyment.

I'm genuinly a nolstalgic person. I'm one of those unfortunate people who believes they were born into a time they didn't belong. With that being said, I do enjoy the original over anything new that's been (re)made. I don't believe though that it's the lowest form of entertainment. For those who never got to finish their respective roles in film or tv that get to come back and kind of get a completion for their characters is a nice thing, especially for an entertainer.

Imagine being a musician working to get their album and then having it either stopped during production or being released without being fully completed. As creators, which they are, they wouldn't feel as if they were really truly given an opportunity to do their best with their work, and as consumers we don't enjoy when we get the beginning of something and not the end of it (I'm still mad at STARZ for canceling Counterpart).

The other thing about being able to consume content today is that we get to watch shows and movies from 30 years ago and that can get a whole new generation of people interested in seeing what today's rendition would be like. The biggest example of that would be Star Wars. There's numerous Animated shows as well as Live Action being produced or already out for consumption.

When I think about that statement I think it's more about being able to get new content from those characters as opposed to getting what everyone wants from them. Some actors would love the chance to bring back their character they played years earlier while other actors want to move on from their previous roles and create new art, and I'm all for seeing new ideas come to life.

There's no denying that seeing a piece of our childhood brought back to life either on the big or small screen is a bittersweet experience. You feel you've recaptured a little bit of that feeling you did in your youth while realizing there's a whole new audience of younger people who will get to enjoy this same feeling a different way. So I don't believe nostalgia entertainment is a low form of entertainment, it's quite the opposite. I just hope we get to see a jump in brand new stories that we can fall in love with come out at the same time.

Nostolgia entertainment isn't going anywhere though, so there's no need to worry. There's more Star Wars to come as well as the highly anticipated Amazon series Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is also set for Fall 2022, and I know all of us will be engulfed in that same fairytale magical feeling the original movies gave us all those years ago.