I have been on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angle kick of late. Yes, I admit it, and I am proud to say, I love Buffy. If you scoff, you have not seen the show. It is well written and extremely entertaining. All of the episodes are currently available on Netflix.
Rewatching the episodes got me reminiscing about what was going on in my life the first time I watched them. I started watching BTVS a few years after it started. I was lucky to have found it after a less than stellar first season, and was hooked. In fact, for much of the first run of the episodes, I was out of the country or did not have cable. I had my parents record episodes on their VCR (it was before TiVo and DVRs) so I could watch them when I came home.
It is funny to think how technology has changed so much that all of these old television programs are readily available to us. We do not even have to worry about recording programs on our DVRs because they are available online or through sites like Netflix. When I first started watching Buffy, it was very difficult to find episodes for the first few seasons, so I could catch up. Eventually, DVD boxed sets were available, but now we only have to look online, and we can find them all.
How many of us are rewatching the shows of our youth? Quantum Leap, the original Knight Rider, Thirty Something and many more are on Netflix. If you have the time to spare, you can be thrown back to a period in your past, remembering when you first watched them.
It is not just TV shows that are online. I remember recording songs off of the radio when I was younger. I would wonder if I would be able to hear them again after a few months. That would be the reason to buy an album or a CD because you never knew when they would stop playing your favourite songs. Now, everything is available on iTunes, or at least online. I recreated mixed tapes as mixed CDs using mp3 files I found online. It is not even worth burning CDs nowadays, just make a playlist with your song files.
We are able to relive our lives through various forms of media. Whenever I hear "Venus" by Bananarama I have a vivid visual of getting reading for a Halloween dance. Thinking about episodes of Moonlighting always brings up memories of piano lessons and coaching gymnastics because the show aired on the day of the week I was busy with these activities.
We all must be hungry for nostalgia because of the increased availability of these forms of entertainment. On top of that, we see old themes revisited in new shows. Old songs are sampled for the latest top 40 hit. We look back on our pasts with a certain longing. Maybe we think of how we could change things with what we know now. Remembering is nice, but, fortunately there was enough forward thinking out there to create the means for us to be able to experience parts of our pasts, if for only a brief time.
I am having fun with Buffy. It's nice to see an "old friend". But, in a few days, I will get back to living my life in the present, and looking forward to my children's future. We can only reminisce for so long before we need to get back to reality. Still, if you've never seen Buffy or Angel, try it out. You may be surprised, and become hooked yourself.
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