Strangest thing: ’80s ardor just keeps growing

Series are looking back fondly, and here’s the formula

Television is partying like it’s 1989. Or 1983. Or pretty much any time in the ’80s.

More than a dozen current and upcoming series are set in the decade of Ronald Reagan and shoulder pads, a time when actual music videos played on MTV.

There are plenty of reasons for that, and nostalgia tops the list. Many writers and producers came of age in that decade, as did many fortysomethings still in the prized young-adult demographic.

“Every generation looks back at another era nostalgically,” says Jason Mittell, a professor of film and media at Middlebury College in Vermont. “There are so many moments in Stranger Things, GLOW, Halt and Catch Fire where it’s just a sense of seeing an outfit, like legwarmers, or hearing a Pat Benatar song that creates a connection.”

It’s easier to comment on contentious current issues from a show set in another era, as M*A*S*H did, and more shows, thanks to cable and streaming services, are doing so now.

Some shows, such as Netflix’s Stranger Things and Amazon’s Red Oaks, reflect entertainment of the time, too, Mittell says.

“For Stranger Things, one of the big appeals is that it’s evocative of ’ 80s film. It’s more likely the Millennial audience would have seen E.T. and The Goonies rather than necessarily remembering the ’80s,” he says.

Eighties shows appear to fit into categories, including: