Stuff you loved in the 90s that you can totally watch on Netflix right now

Living as regionally as I did (with our limited TV channels) I didn’t get to watch a lot of the popular shows of the 90s, but you can bet I made up for that with my ever-presence at the local video store. I think I watched just about everything the store ever had, sometimes twice. We would get stuff years and years after a film was shown in the cinemas and another probably year after that after every other video store in the world got it. I watched so many 80s movies I think they’re now part of my DNA.

When I moved to Fremantle in 1995 my dad worked opposite a video store, and he often came home with a horror or sci-fi selection for me, usually every week. He would fix their VCRs and they would give him carte blanche to watch whatever he liked (once a different video store gave him/me a block-mounted Clueless movie poster and I would have given my life to protect it). I started catching up and watching OMG NEW RELEASES that were almost actually new releases and when DVRs appeared they looked like OMG THA FUTURE.

On Christmas holidays when I’d come back to Victoria I’d fill up on Agro’s Cartoon Connection and sit through the pleasant confusion of unfamiliar characters of Home and Away, and finally see Jeremy Jackson in action after him staring at me broodily from the pages of TV Hits in his red swim trunks and lifesaving flotational device. It was a whole new world.

Now as an old lady, I’m extraordinarily excited about the selection coming to my very own TV screen courtesy of Netflix, and wonder every month what’s about to unexpectedly show up on my watch list.

So far, these have given me flashbacks:

• Full House
• Round the Twist
• The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
• Absolutely Fabulous (to be fair, I’ve never stopped watching this!)
• 3rd Rock From the Sun
• Freaks and Geeks
• All manner of Ninja Turtles/Pokemon/Power Rangers etc
• Back to the Future III
• Empire Records (yay! hear our Sweet Teen Club podcast episode here)
• Mrs Doubtfire
• Inspector Gadget saves Christmas
• Natural Born Killers
• Mask
• Muriel’s Wedding

• Casper
• Friday (it’s Friday, and you ain’t got shit to do!)
• Space Jam
• Fargo
• The Wedding Singer
• Blast From the Past (I love that movie so much)
• American Pie
• 10 Things I Hate About You (sob)
• Total Recall
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (so begins my first celebrity crush with one Edward Furlong)
• Batman Returns
• Batman and Robin
• Batman Forever (so many Batmans)

• Cliffhanger
• Stargate
• Mortal Kombat (back, back, forward)
• Eraser
• Deep Impact (“I want to go shopping! me too!”)
• Saving Private Ryan
• Fight Club (you didn’t hear it from me)
• Twin Peaks Firewalk With Me
• Silence of the Lambs
• Reservoir Dogs
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Seven
• David Attenborough Wildlife Specials (more dead shit)
• Kurt and Courtney

• The Godfather III
• The Power of One
• Once Were Warriors (insert egg and frying pan emoji)
• Forrest Gump
• Eyes Wide Shut
• American Beauty (insert plastic bag picture)
• Spawn
• End of Days
• Sleepy Hollow
• 12 Monkeys (insert Brad Pitt near me)
• The Crow

So what are you going to watch first on your stroll down memory lane? I’ve got to do some kind of 90s action flick. Netflix has a drastic dearth of Jean Claude Van Damme, something has to be done about that.

PS you can also listen to our Empire Records podcast riiiiiiiight here. It’s better than going to Atlantic City!