Nostalgia Done Right is World Geekly News’ occasional look at the films and shows which trade in retro-goodness but don’t just use obvious era-appropriate music, fashion, props etc for a quick response of “Oh, I remember that…”. The callbacks they make to the bygone times and the beloved properties they reference come from a place of love:
- Cobra Kai is set in the modern-day but it employs nostalgia for the 1980s, not just as a reminder for what has gone before for fans of the films, but it’s also used as a means of looking at the motivations of its two main adult characters and why they turned out the way they did.
- Ashes To Ashes followed up Life On Mars with typical Eighties style and brought Gene Hunt’s story to a beautiful close with a circular twist. However, nostalgia in the adventures of DI Alex Drake doesn’t just act as a tool to remind us of the setting – nostalgia itself becomes an important clue to understanding what’s going on.
So far there have been two instalments, but I plan to expand on it with other retro-loving properties.