I want this back

It's no secret that I have grown into a massive boomer when it comes to culture and entertainment. I pretty much have absconded from partaking in television and most video games anymore. I know it probably goes without saying but the 80s to early 00s is the prime window for me depending on what it is and God help you if you catch me drinking and bring up anything modern.

It's literally me.

Now I am sure my tastes in various things have shown via this site's aesthetics but what might be surprising (or not surprising at all) is my love for those "low budget" syndicated sci-fi/fantasy shows that used to play during the afternoon. The effects were jank, the CGI primitive, the majority of actors little to no accolades and very few survived cancellation and end on massive cliffhangers.

Looking at you Lost World, you dream shatterer.

I have an extremely hard time believing we could ever hope to receive a product like theseshowsin "current year".There are just too many factors poisoning the well for such projects to exist it seems. Which is an absolute shame since online streaming services seem practically tailor made for such endeavors. You'd think the relatively low costs of such episodic fiction (in TV money anyway) would be the ideal for a "CORPOTAINMENT Original Series".If thekingofthelow budget series(the OG Star Trek) taught us anything, it's that you don't need a colossal Hollywood budget, A-list name recognition or hyper realistic VFX, just a fun idea with equally fun characters and writing that is good enough to overcome any shortcomings (perceived or otherwise) caused bythebudget."But Rad!" I hear you cry, "A lot of these shows were down right silly sometimes. There's a limit on what good writing can do!" Yes I am aware but I know it can work. I mean hell, one of my favorites was a mini series titled"Neverwhere"by Neil Gaiman and that thing looked like it was recorded on analog home videoand used a literal fucking cow for what was supposed to be one of the scariest creatures in the setting.

You thought I was fucking kidding didn't you?

Iknow I'm beginning to ramble a bit butif streaming services want to start emulating all the negatives of legacy media then they should at least try to emulate it's positives. Stop blowing so much money on reboots that crap all over it's own fans and take some risks on something fun. People don't need a massive hit each and every time, we just want something entertaining. Sure you might lose out on a few million if 1 of your 3 shows flop, but it's a damn sight better than a few hundred million on a bad reboot nobody asked for. If you can reorient your productions towards this model you might end up failing as with any business, but you might end up with the next Star Trek or SG-1 and I feel the market is sorely lacking in anything one can actually call entertainment and it is sorely missed.

Much like with most things in life I wish we could go back or at least recapture it.

It's getting a bit ridiculous how much I look back on the past and want pieces of it back. I know it's just part of growing older and that the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia block out a lot of the bad, but it would be hard to deny that within this niche of the entertainment world that these shows had a lot of love and effort put into them and they really do (in my humble opinion) stand up on their own merits and dunk on pretty much everything being released and rebooted nowadays. I would love if someone brought this form of serial back and I think they would make money hand over fist if they did. I'd do it if I could, but alas I lack the skill and capital (if not original ideas) to do so. Maybe someday we will get this bit of magic back but until then I suppose we are relegated to old reruns and wistful ideas. Until next time, stay safe out there.