Love Actually and our ‘endless nostalgia loop’

The cast of Love Actually are reuniting to mark the rom-com’s 20th anniversary as viewers worldwide take trips back in time with their favourite films and TV shows.

The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, which airs in the US tonight on ABC, is the latest sign that we are living in an “endless nostalgia loop”, said GQ. Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy and other stars of the 2003 movie will join TV anchor Diane Sawyer “to celebrate” and chat about how Richard Curtis created what became “a defining icon in the canon of British cinema”, the magazine added.

But while millions of fans are expected to tune in, some experts question whether such nostalgia can come at a cost.

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‘Familiar comforts’

The Covid crisis is believed to have been a key factor in triggering the ongoing wave of nostalgia. Viewers “stuck in lockdown looked to the past for the familiar comforts of old TV favourites”, said the BBC’s entertainment reporter Alex Taylor. A survey of Radio Times readers in February last year found that 43% had turned to tried-and-trusted old TV series for comfort.

“To cope with psychological discomfort, people often resort to nostalgia,” said Constantine Sedikides, a psychology professor specialising in nostalgia at Southampton University. Indulging this “sentimental longing for one’s meaningful past” can act “as a corrective, reducing discomfort such as loneliness, and restoring psychological balance”, he told the BBC.

The Guardian’s Yomi Adegoke pointed to the “rise” of reunions for sitcoms including Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Parks and Recreation, and for reality shows such as Real Housewives and Love Is Blind. Follow-up specials might seem like “an attempt to squeeze the last drops of relevance from a show”, she wrote, but “increasingly, they’re where much of the all-important action happens”.

In fact, Adegoke predicted, “we will probably end up more focused on what happens after our favourite reality shows than what happens on them”.

‘Cheapening beloved series’

Some experts argue that sometimes it’s better to just leave the past in the past. LA-based TV producer and entertainment journalist Simon Thompson told the BBC that “shows are associated with a moment in time, in pop culture, in careers and in lives – theirs and ours – and sometimes going back isn't such a great idea”.

Questioning the wisdom of reunion specials, Thompson argued that “as a producer, there is also a responsibility, almost a duty of care, to protect the heritage of the show”.

Concerns have also been raised about the flood of reboots hitting TV screens.

Recent rumours of the possible revival of US sitcom New Girl, which wrapped in 2018, were met with dismay by cast member Max Greenfield. He told E! News that “the writers worked really hard on wrapping it all up in a way that was hopefully satisfying to the audience and satisfying to these characters”.

“If you go back into it, it means you got to undo that, and that to me is argument enough to really question whether to go back or not,” Greenfield said.

Jezebel’s Kylie Cheung agreed that rebooting shows too soon can be a turn-off. “Perhaps it cheapens a beloved, iconic TV series to not let people miss it for long enough to be able to appreciate it in a new form,” she wrote.