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For those of you who don't have the privilege of living in a house that contains five televisions, at least two of which are constantly on, let me explain the show. According to the VH1 website, the show seeks to give "viewers…a '90s style dose of the music, movies, TV shows, products, fashions, fads, trends, scandals and major events that defined pop culture each year of the decade" (http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_the_90s/series_about.jhtml). The show gets B-list celebrities, television personalities and anyone else who will comment (Bill Simmons, are you trying to destroy your career?) to offer these observations. They try to be funny, but often are not.
The show relies on a strong sense of nostalgia, an emotion which is undeniably strong on any college campus. The walls of every dorm room in America contain countless memories from the past. Stores like Urban Outfitters make millions each year by selling products which can only be described as falling under this nostalgic category. From Seinfeld to Dawson's Creek, Pearl Jam to A Tribe Called Quest, each one of us has many aspects of the '90s which we hold dear.
The problem with "I Love the '90s" is that it attempts to create this nostalgia for us, yet we don't need help to do this. And we certainly don't need the assistance of a bad reality show. Anyone of college age can create their own sense of nostalgia about things which happened in the 90's without any outside help. We all remember living through the previous decade. I still remember when everything in the show happened. I have my own thoughts, sometimes witty remarks and observations about each subject. I don't need to watch Juliette Lewis struggle to say something amusing about the number one hit "Sex and Candy." I put Marcy Playground stickers on my wall while listening to that song over and over again.
"I Love the '80s," the predecessor to "I Love the '90s" worked because by definition there was a certain amount of critical distance between subject matter and television show. In another sense, because of this, I need help creating nostalgia surrounding the '80s. The observations of the people involved seem infinitely funnier because I don't have any comments of my own. I don't know how older people feel about "I Love the '80s" but I imagine they appreciate the show because their memories of 20 years ago are a little fuzzy. This cannot possibly be the case for the '90s, a decade which happened so recently.
I love the '90s but I don't need someone to tell me that. Now excuse me I have to go. If you need me, I'll be in my room listening to Stone Temple Pilots, wishing that Scott Weiland stayed in the '90s and Slash stayed in the '80s.