Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Star Trek: The Next Next Generation: Tiger King

The entertainment equivalent of an Ugly Christmas Sweater party

A gratifyingly episodic episode.
A gratifyingly episodic episode.

Dear Hipster:

As we all know, the coronavirus pandemic is nothing more than a consolidated effort by home delivery grocery apps and Netflix to keep us permanently combined in our homes. It’s actually sort of like that one Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where the citizens of one planet deceive the citizens of a neighboring planet into thinking they all suffer from an incurable plague, which gives the people from the first planet an excuse to sell expensive, addictive drugs to the second planet. Sure, maybe that episode of TV has been historically (and justifiably) panned for dropping a Nancy Reagan-inspired “Just Say No” lecture in the middle of an otherwise pointed critique of how dangerous information asymmetry can be if left to run amok, although you should maybe take that last point with a grain of salt because I’m an economist (in addition to a Trekkie) and I care about such things. Anyways, I’m obviously kidding with the loony conspiracy theory (so please don’t have me getting blown up on social media or anything), and I didn’t actually come here to talk shop. I’m more curious about the hipster obsession with vintage TV, especially when it’s often not very good, when you could just as easily be watching Tiger King?

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Wes

On the surface, vintage TV is often good for some ironic hipster laughs over fashion (“lol, sweet mullet, John Stamos”), language (“lol, they said ‘da bomb’”), and the irresistible tendency to moralize for the benefit of adolescent viewers (“lol, D.A.R.E. kids”). In that respect, it’s basically the entertainment equivalent of an Ugly Christmas Sweater party, and prime territory for ironic hipster “rediscovering.” However, if it’s really true that Millennials across the country can’t get enough of The Golden Girls, then I suspect the draw towards retro TV cannot be solely attributed to hipster cheek.

Perhaps the biggest attractant of older TV shows is the prevalence of episodic formats. For the most part, successful, modern television productions use a heavily serialized format. They spread a single story out over multiple seasons, and seem seldom to resolve any mini-arc over fewer than four episodes. In contrast, many of the most popular shows on television traded on an episodic format right up to the 1990s. At some point, people apparently decided heavily serialized TV was better, and that the episodic format is only appropriate in the context of comedies. But serialized shows don’t give out the kind of emotional catharsis you get from watching a single plotline unfold and resolve. Those who grew up in a world where the monotony of, say, The Walking Dead is the norm are starting to discover the value of such compressed storytelling, which lets you live out the entire emotional rollercoaster of a completed story in 22 or 44 minutes.

We hipsters are not immune to this charm. Moreover, we can enjoy old-school episodic TV on an even more meta level. If super-serious, complicated, conspiracy-theory-inducing television is the new normal, then tightly scripted episodic shows are borderline countercultural by comparison. Hipsters enjoy retro TV with a connoisseur’s appreciation for what has erroneously been labeled as an inferior art form. Like a smug hipster poo-pooing standoffish, labor-intensive craft beer in favor of the “simple purity” of a Miller High Life, hipsters can derive snobbish glee from appreciating the retro simplicity of episodic TV in a way mainstream people can’t.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will Trump’s Baja resort be built after all?

Long-stalled development sparks art exhibit, gets new life
Next Article

Colorado governor Polis’ days in La Jolla canyons

Why Kamala might not run for Calif. governor
A gratifyingly episodic episode.
A gratifyingly episodic episode.

Dear Hipster:

As we all know, the coronavirus pandemic is nothing more than a consolidated effort by home delivery grocery apps and Netflix to keep us permanently combined in our homes. It’s actually sort of like that one Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where the citizens of one planet deceive the citizens of a neighboring planet into thinking they all suffer from an incurable plague, which gives the people from the first planet an excuse to sell expensive, addictive drugs to the second planet. Sure, maybe that episode of TV has been historically (and justifiably) panned for dropping a Nancy Reagan-inspired “Just Say No” lecture in the middle of an otherwise pointed critique of how dangerous information asymmetry can be if left to run amok, although you should maybe take that last point with a grain of salt because I’m an economist (in addition to a Trekkie) and I care about such things. Anyways, I’m obviously kidding with the loony conspiracy theory (so please don’t have me getting blown up on social media or anything), and I didn’t actually come here to talk shop. I’m more curious about the hipster obsession with vintage TV, especially when it’s often not very good, when you could just as easily be watching Tiger King?

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Wes

On the surface, vintage TV is often good for some ironic hipster laughs over fashion (“lol, sweet mullet, John Stamos”), language (“lol, they said ‘da bomb’”), and the irresistible tendency to moralize for the benefit of adolescent viewers (“lol, D.A.R.E. kids”). In that respect, it’s basically the entertainment equivalent of an Ugly Christmas Sweater party, and prime territory for ironic hipster “rediscovering.” However, if it’s really true that Millennials across the country can’t get enough of The Golden Girls, then I suspect the draw towards retro TV cannot be solely attributed to hipster cheek.

Perhaps the biggest attractant of older TV shows is the prevalence of episodic formats. For the most part, successful, modern television productions use a heavily serialized format. They spread a single story out over multiple seasons, and seem seldom to resolve any mini-arc over fewer than four episodes. In contrast, many of the most popular shows on television traded on an episodic format right up to the 1990s. At some point, people apparently decided heavily serialized TV was better, and that the episodic format is only appropriate in the context of comedies. But serialized shows don’t give out the kind of emotional catharsis you get from watching a single plotline unfold and resolve. Those who grew up in a world where the monotony of, say, The Walking Dead is the norm are starting to discover the value of such compressed storytelling, which lets you live out the entire emotional rollercoaster of a completed story in 22 or 44 minutes.

We hipsters are not immune to this charm. Moreover, we can enjoy old-school episodic TV on an even more meta level. If super-serious, complicated, conspiracy-theory-inducing television is the new normal, then tightly scripted episodic shows are borderline countercultural by comparison. Hipsters enjoy retro TV with a connoisseur’s appreciation for what has erroneously been labeled as an inferior art form. Like a smug hipster poo-pooing standoffish, labor-intensive craft beer in favor of the “simple purity” of a Miller High Life, hipsters can derive snobbish glee from appreciating the retro simplicity of episodic TV in a way mainstream people can’t.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Issa aide collaborates with Ukrainians

Carlsbad's Tracy Slepcevic, Warrior Mom, and her ties to RFK, Jr.
Next Article

Birdwatching bonanza, earliest sunset of the year, bulb planting time

Venus shines its brightest
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader