“I’ll see you again in twenty five years”: Life Course Fandom, Nostalgia and Cult Television Revivals

Abstract

Since they first aired in the 1990s, Twin Peaks and The X-Files have been enduring hallmarks of cult television. This reputation only increased with the news that the shows were to be revived and, perhaps unsurprisingly, media discourse surrounding the revivals harkened back to the shows’ peaks. Yet this discourse also drew heavily on concepts of generational fandom and nostalgia. This article is interested in how and why fans of The X-Files and Twin Peaks use nostalgia to discuss their relationship with the shows and their own fandom. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with fans, this article identifies three forms of nostalgia specifically related to reboots, remakes or revivals: spatiotemporal nostalgia, textual nostalgia and communal nostalgia.