The Unimpressive Reliance on Nostalgia

I recently saw the new Spider-Man movie… and I was completely underwhelmed. (Beware of spoilers!) We’ll call it Spider-Man: Unending Nostalgia.

Now, I like Marvel movies. I think they’re doing an excellent job. They have so many people in the palm of their hands, and they’re providing value. Quite a lot of it, in fact.

And I was very excited about this movie. I love the Spider-Man franchise and I have for a very long time. And I think Tom Holland is a great actor and is doing a bang-up job. This coming from someone who grew up with the Tobey Maguire movies and for the longest time couldn’t fathom anyone else in the role.

Applauding the Inanimate

Now, I’ve never been a big fan of clapping at movies. I don’t really see the point. There’s no one there to feel rewarded by your excitement. And it’s very disruptive to the film. Since the actors obviously cannot hear the applause, they can’t pause and wait for it to stop.

But this time was a complete exaggeration. Every once in a while audiences will have a reason to go nuts. They might even feel a certain level of inspiration to cheer, since something so phenomenal happened, they can’t control themselves. And that’s OK. So long as it’s seldom, and comes from the right place.

But during Spider-Man: No Way Home, the applause were not seldom. It felt like it was every 15 minutes. Why? Because the movie kept introducing characters from the past, or making an allusion to one of the previous films. And every time it would happen, people would go absolutely bananas.

But here’s the problem.

The Problem with Nostalgia

The movie was only OK. Objectively. The dialogues were non-remarkable. The action scenes were chaotic and disappointing. Multiple aspects of the plot ranged from bizarre to inexplicably inane. In short, if you remove all the nostalgia, you have a highly forgettable film.

And that’s really what I want to speak about today. I think TV shows and movies are progressively relying way too much on nostalgia. And it’s extremely unimpressive.

It’s not that I don’t love nostalgia. I most certainly do. In all its forms.

I love sitting around with friends and chatting about the “good ole days”. I love the way certain food, songs, or settings bring me back to a positive moment from many years ago. And I love when TV shows reference other shows or movies that give me positive and happy associations.

But nostalgia is just one aspect of creating a positive experience, and by itself it’s empty and disappointing. Recently Friends did a reunion show. I didn’t watch it. I just wasn’t all that interested. But every report I heard was the same. Vapid, unnecessary money grab. They knew that people loved Friends, and would tune in regardless of whether or not they were putting together an amazing show.

Relying too much on nostalgia is lazy. It’s what you do when you lack creativity and energy, and you just want to make people smile like happy robots, but you don’t want to put in the effort to get them there.

What Have You Done For Me This Season?

I even see TV shows do this when they get to the later seasons. In the earlier seasons, there was character development. Great and intelligent writing. New gimmicks all the time trying to dazzle the viewers and transform them into loyal fans. But then they get to the later seasons, and it’s all recycled trash. The jokes are the same, the characters are doing what they’ve always done, and we’re all way too wrapped up to even notice that it’s happening.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is by no means the only thing I’ve been exposed to recently that seems to be doing this.

We recently watched the third season Titans, possibly one of the dullest television seasons I have ever witnessed. But it’s got Batman and Robin. And other famous superheroes or versions of classic superheroes who people love. How could it not be great? How could people not watch with rapt attention?

How? Fill it with endless dry, lengthy, uninteresting dialogues. Like a badass superhero show is supposed to be!

The problem seems to be inserting itself into everything I’m watching these days, and it’s more than a tad disheartening. We’re in the very late seasons of How I Met Your Mother, and at this point I feel like I’m simply going through the motions, excited to just finish and get the show out of the way. They spent many seasons dazzling us with inventive writing and creative gimmicks. But now we’re just supposed to enjoy recycled plots and humor, and they’re just relying on us already loving to watch the characters. It’s Barney! How could it not be funny?

How? Because if it’s just no longer funny. It doesn’t matter what happened beforehand or how great Neil Patrick Harris is. Give me something new, or punch out and move on. Stop resting on your laurels. There’s no good reason to keep a show going if it’s no longer entertaining.

Well, I guess there is one reason. Good, old-fashioned cash.

Et Tu Cobra Kai?

I’m even sitting terribly disappointed with the fourth season of Cobra Kai, a show I have called the best show currently on TV. A show that should never have been made. And if made, should never have been watchable let alone great. Yet it was amazing! It was so refreshing, comical, and entertaining, with just enough nostalgia to keep my generation beaming.

But what about now? The writing has become crappy. And the show is just hoping to rely on the nostalgia of the third Karate Kid movie. The third! No one cares about third movies of any franchise. And we’re supposed to get excited for the completely banal return of the enchanting Terry Silver. For the overwhelming star power of Thomas Ian Griffith. Sorry, it’s not enough to make a show good. You’re still going to have to do some work.

But you didn’t.

We Deserve Better

So whether it be Spider-Man trying to dazzle us with villains of the past, Barney Stinson trying to make us giggle with the same jokes as two seasons earlier, or Game of Thrones just trying to pretend like everyone will love whatever crap they throw on the screen, simply because the earlier moments were so epic, it’s just not enough. You can’t rely on nostalgia alone to erase bad writing. We deserve better than that.

If you remove the nostalgia and your show can’t stand on its own, you’ve wronged us. We want more!