Nostalgia Stinks

I was a victim of nostalgia Sunday evening. I was raised in a slightly more innocent time regarding televisiol (which is to say the writers of TV and film wanted to say things but were prevented at that time, so they used more innuendo than I remember) and remember the TV show Knight Rider with David Hasselhoff. Well, somebody decided to recreate that episode of Americana and emotionally ensnare many people like myself. I saw commercials for the show and thought, "Wow, I wonder what new techniques they will use to make it even better." Boy was I a sucker!
In the first few moments of the show, a female FBI agent (who becomes crucial to the show a little later on) is seen leaving an overnight encounter with another woman (the lesbianism does not become crucial to the plot in any way) and the new driver of KITT (the car) is seen waking up to multiple female partners in his bed (also not incredibly crucial to the plot of the show). Why was this necessary? It wasn't. Why was it done? Because it can be.
I won't even get started on how we can't come up with our own shows anymore, we have to rob from the seventies, eightes, and even some fo the nineties to cme up with deent sitcoms or television dramas. Sure we pump it up with effects and sex and violence, but that doesn't make it any better.
Nostalgia is an emotion that ties us to a past event. It is stronger than mere memory. I think it is memory with excessive good feelings. All this is very technical, I know. I think we are getting to the point where nostalgia is under regular attack by advetisers and media groups. They want us to feel the way we felt when we were 14 or 21 so we will take this vacation or buy this toy for our kids. It has worked on me to some extent. I buy transformers for my kids even though they aren't as well made as when I got the (there are even some of mine from childhood stilla round and they still outlast the new ones). And, of course, I wasted time Sunday evening watching the new and improved Knight Rider.
We have to fight against this kind of attack and it is hard. I think I'll pick up a Chesterton book next Sunday evening instead.