For a while now, the best new thing has really been the old thing. All across the big screen are endless sequels, prequels, spin-offs and extended franchises no one wanted. (Bye bye, Star Wars: Acolyte!) On streaming, it’s playing out in a different way: New titles are added to networks every day. And yet, the most watched shows seem to be older ones we’ve watched already.

We know what’s driving this. Some days, the screen is just background noise, something familiar, just enough of a distraction, without demanding all of our attention. Other days, it’s like a hug, delivering, once again, on the same happy feelings it did the last time around. Why else are comedies and romances the most popular genres for reruns?

It’s only now that we’re examining the old from the POV of the new. Abbas Momin, 36, a writer and podcaster, hosts an audio show titled, simply, Has It Aged Well? It breaks down why some films remain classics and others are cringe. It also looks at what we missed the first time. “Older dramas, in the American 24-episode season format, would have nine-10 episodes forming the main plot,” he says. “The rest were standalone episodes with a beginning and end of their own. We go back for the characters, not the narrative.”

It’s certainly true of The Office (2005-2013) and Modern Family (2009-2020), which started out on network TV, but built their core fanbases on streaming. They’re both well-crafted ensemble comedies. Their plots and moral compasses hold up. The jokes are multipronged -- there’s plenty left over for a second viewing. “Modern Family gives you the warm fuzzy feeling like Full House did, but it’s more contemporary,” says Momin. Plus, they’re both mockumentaries – the characters literally break the fourth wall to address viewers. Of course we’re hooked.

On the current rerun circuit is Veep (2012-2019), a fictional account of Selina Meyer, the Vice President of America, for obvious reasons. The US’s own IRL Veep, Kamala Harris, is running against Donald Trump for President. “Earlier this year, Kamala Harris was visiting Puerto Rico, where the indigenous people protested her visit by singing. Harris thought it was a celebratory song and started clapping and nodding along,” says Momin. “A staff member very discreetly whispered what was happening, and you see her face freeze. That’s a scene straight out of Veep.” Re-watch old episodes, and Veep reveals itself to be a workplace comedy. It’s just that the workplace is the America’s second-highest political office.

Suits (2011-2019) has had a revival on streaming. Viewers came to see who Meghan Markle was, and stayed, rewatching, for the whipsmart power dynamics of the lawyers on the show.

Several old shows deserve a 2024 rewatch, says Momin. The X Files (1993-2018), the cultural behemoth of the ’90s made high drama out of paranormal phenomena. “It played with the post-Cold War paranoia that everything is a conspiracy, that the FBI knows what is going to happen, that the Illuminati controls everything, lizard people, ghosts, aliens in Area 51,” says Momin. It’s among the first shows with a slow-burn atmosphere, and seems right at home on a streaming channel.

Other shows reveal their age as we watch them anew. The fast-paced action drama 24 (2001-2010), about a US counter-terrorist agent in the aftermath of 9/11 seems even more offensive, in retrospect. Immigrants are bad, Arabs are terrorists, America is great. “It has multiple scenes of cops barging into people’s houses and torturing them on mere suspicion,” says Momin.

The worst offender isn’t even an action show. It’s a benign little ’60s comedy it’s about an American astronaut with a White manic-pixie-sexy-woman for a slave. The genie in I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970), “is scantily dressed and obeying the man’s every command,” says Momin. Even as a male fantasy, it seems a bit much.

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