Reruns, Rewatches, and Resurgance

I’m not one to rewatch things, including movies and TV shows.  After seeing it once, I moved on, even if I liked it. If it was great I’d share it. If not, whatever. There are a few exceptions, those movies that I call my favorites. You can see some of them here. Like I said, I generally see it once and move on. That all changed in 2024.

I don’t know what sparked it but I do know what contributed to it. It was all the remakes, reimaginings, and new sequels from classic movies and TV shows that I did indeed love. There were more than a few and they tended to open doors to nostalgia and I went down the rabbit hole…often. For example, the Eddie Murphy movie, Axel F. Before I saw it, I felt compelled to watch the original Beverly Hills Cop movies. After those, I went back to watch the 48 hours movies and even Trading Places. I couldn’t help myself and didn’t want to. It wasn’t that the older movies were amazing, though some of them were. It was the feelings they rekindled, the memories they evoked, and the eventual comparisons of the me then with the me now.

Rewatching all those Movies took a lot of hours but rewatching the TV shows was worse. Back in the day TV shows ran for 20-something episodes each season. Rewatching an entire series that say, went for seven seasons comes out to over 140 hours. Who has that kind of time pre-retirement? The good thing that came out of it was not being compelled to watch the latest thing or new shows that had you wait a week for each episode. Binging is definitely the way to go.

To manage my video consumption habit I’ve had to raise the bar. Gone are the days of having the TV on while I scroll on my phone or do something else. Why bother? I need a compelling TV show or movie that makes me watch it and doesn’t allow me to multitask. That level of attention reduces the hours watched because fewer shows meet that requirement. Otherwise, I’ll listen instead to an audiobook or some music.