Why is it that we often have fonder memory of things than they deserve?

In my case, I just finished wrapping up watching (Star Trek) Enterprise a couple of days ago, which is the only show of the franchise I had missed so far. While some parts I found a bit corny, all in all it was quite enjoyable. It put me in the mood of re-watching Deep Space Nine - what I considered my favorite - courtesy of Netflix, and as unfortunate as it was that pilot was painful. I mean, seriously, that acting is abominable in parts. How did I ever like this stuff? I assume my younger self had the bar set lower as far as quality is concerned. Maybe I need to watch some more, but I get the distinct feeling that things may not improve.

Yet, in comparison, its at the time rival sci-fi show Babylon 5, which I rewatched not too long ago, held up significantly better, excluding the botched story progression from season 4 to 5 (for obvious reasons).

Weird.

I've always been a Star Trek pariah for insisting Enterprise was the only worthy successor of TOS. TNG was downright annoying (though they actually did pretty well with the movies).

Well, except for Nemesis. Ugh. That was a draaaaag. First Contact is my favorite from that 'era'.

Happens all the time, especially with older games.

For example, I played Medieval 2 way back when it was released, but never managed to finish all campaigns. It was fun, awesome, and was always surprising me... or so it seemed to be back then. I played it this year in March, I think, to the end. Found it to be incredibly boring and once you get a feel of how to AI works, you just keep on rolling the same tactics to the end until you basically win the campaign.

That's one of the reasons why I said, screw the backlog, and extended my WoW sub for a month. So many old point and click adventures and indies in the backlog, I'm kind of really not looking forward to clearing it (only a few AAA or 'AA' games left in it).

Don't judge a series by their Pilot, they tend to be horrible and really focus on throwing the characters in your face. DS9 takes a bit of getting used at the start, same happened to me last time but it's still great to watch at times, especially when Julian and Niles start hanging out together more :)

I would agree that Enterprise was most similar in tone to the original series, but in terms of overall quality it's probably the weakest of all the Star Trek shows. TNG managed to turn Star Trek from a pulp sci-fi show into something a lot more meaningful and complex. Because of this, I think it is the most important post-TOS show. The TNG movies, on the other hand, were downright terrible in my opinion (especially Nemesis, although First Contact wasn't bad).

Let me show you the door. And by door I mean air lock....

Enterprise wasn't so much bad as simply "been there done that." Between TOS, TNG and Voyager we already had like 10,000 hours of 7 people on a spaceship finding weird shit. DS9 is loved because it changed up the formula, made it a sci-fi war and political drama.

This is why Enterprise's best episodes were the season 3 war drama stuff.

Anyway... on topic...

X-Files was my favorite show ever as a kid but watching it today it's a little... I don't know, full of itself? Too serious? I don't enjoy it as much. Also the National Lampoon movies are no longer funny.

This all might depend on mood though, maybe someday I will watch some X-Files and love it again.

As for games the best example I can think of is every point and click adventure game ever. I loved them as a kid but today find them boring as shit.

It went down about that same way for me. When ST: The Next Generation first came out, i was still in high school and living at home. Was rare for our whole family to share a favorite show. A couple years ago, i watched a few episodes and it was just bleh. When it came out, even the opening scene was cool to watch. We hadn't seen that level of graphics before. Same with the whole show, it was all a new sorta thing. Nowadays TNG lost it's ground breaking edge. i wonder if that's why i had no time for it the second time around. Also we change. i dug ST: Deep Space Nine for a season or two, then bugged out. And watching the original Star Trek nowadays is almost painful, where as a kid it was great old school tv :)

Babylon 5 was one i saw while visiting family in between travels. i thought it was ok but forgot it when back on the road and didn't think about it again until it showed up on Netflix a year or two ago. Then i was hooked. Watched em all in short span of time. Missed some of the concluding movies though cuz netflix sorta sucks like that ;~p Ahh hey! i just started the one month free trial of Amazons streaming service. i might just watch B5 again if it's there. And reinstal the B5 mod for Civ4, and check out all the new additions since last i played :)

It happens all the time with stuff you see as a kid, because as a kid you have so much less surface to reflect what you are seeing. As you get older you see more movies, read more books and do a lot more other stuff and all that effects on your view of things.

Previously good plotlines and characters may present themselves as flat and stale on new review of the same material just because when you are older you know more. The same reason you might end up liking something new you didn't previously.

And then there's movies and series that are very hung on special effects. They are a breed of their own, as special effects tend to age fast. I remember when I first time saw Babylon 5 and thought the special effects were great. Then I saw the first episodes again some time ago and boy, was I surprised how bad the CGI was. When special effects are in question there's only a handful of movies and series that have truly lasted the test of time.

Oh, here's another one: Dune. I loved it as a kid. Yikes! Finally saw it again some years ago and I was appalled by it. Worst. Acting. Ever! The entire movie is a mess bar some special effects and costume designs.

The funny thing is though is that really only happens to me with TV shows and movies. Where games are concerned that isn't so much the case. Sure, some age more gracefully than others, but what I found fun then I often still find highly enjoyable today.

I've recently browsed through books by Terry Pratchett and Karl May and found out that I have little use for them anymore. Loved that stuff when I was 14 or so. Of course our tastes evolve when we mature intellectually. That's actually something that repulses me about Nerd culture, that refusal to outgrow the shit people liked when they were teens. It's a sign for arrested intellectual development, is what it is. That said, some things do stand the test of time and that may be a sign that we're dealing with true art. Hal Foster's Prince Valiant for example is still as great as it had been when I was 8.

Funny you'd mention that because just recently the local (national) TV here started airing the Deep Space Nine episodes, one every evening. I've never been a fan of Star Treks or its various spinoffs, but I decided to give them a chance since I figured DSN used to be pretty popular too, so it can't be too bad?

It is. Maybe it has just aged badly (just like so many other TV series from the 80s and early 90s), but watching the first few episodes was quite painful, and I don't think I would have enjoyed them much more even back then. Oooh, this mysterious Q entity... blah. I have no idea if later episodes are any good, but I lost interest in trying to watch them. I even dislike the actors and their mannerisms.

There are several other reruns running now too, I admit that e.g. McGyver feels quite corny nowadays. It used to be one of my biggest favourites when I was a kid (teen?).

As for Babylon 5... it still remains probably the only space scifi TV-series I've ever really liked. I recall the first two seasons were mostly nothing to write home about, but when the Shadows vs Vorlons thingie picked up, it was golden.

I still find Seinfeld and Frazier reruns quite enjoyable.

That's a really arrogant and condescending thing to say. It's also rather ironic to post this on a forum about retro video games (unless you consider yourself to be affected by arrested intellectual development).