According to the creator of the new BBC One period comedy The Power of Parker, it's the desire for a simpler time when life seemed easier that fuels our enthusiasm for content about the 1980s and 1990s. 

Parker's creator, Paul Coleman, believes people tend to crave nostalgia when facing adversity. "Times are tough at the minute with [challenges like] the cost of living ... Most things you look back nostalgically at you do with rose-tinted spectacles ... you remember the good times – there's a bit of that going on," he said.

Coleman was a teenager in the 1990s himself, so he looks back at the era with a smile on his face, but he thinks younger generations who weren't even born then feel the appeal of the period too: "Things seemed a bit simpler because we had less noise. But also because they think, 'I would've been able to pay rent, that would've been amazing' because it's really impacting that generation."

Facing uncertainties such as the climate crisis, he said it was perhaps no surprise youngsters are harking back even though the Brit said "I was living through Thatcher at that time and ... thinking 'this is dire,' particularly for northern communities.

As Coleman pointed out, the decade was not without violence and tragedy, including the Bosnian genocide, the Rodney King beating and subsequent L.A. Riots, the bombing of the World Trade Center, and the Columbine High School shooting.

Still, the decade is often remembered as relatively peaceful and prosperous: the Soviet Union fell and the rise of the Internet ushered in a radical era of communication, business, and entertainment.

However, some think that our fascination with the 1990s might also be a bit of a fad.

"Every generation looks back at past trends," said Dr. Renee Middlemost, a Lecturer in Global Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong's Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts.

"I believe it has something to do with the way people are watching media these days. With platforms like Netflix around, people recommend shows to each other, and there are less people seeking out new things. Our tastes seem to have narrowed.

"The whole sharing thing with ... recommendations that has narrowed the tastes of people in regards to television viewing has been seen in cult cinema, too," Middlemost added.

"It's all been done by word-of-mouth. And with the sharing of videos and content, the online world has made the pop culture loops come around much more quickly than before."

Whatever the case might be, the 1990s still seem preferable to what came next: the worst terror attack on U.S. soil, two long and inconclusive wars, two stock market crashes, and a financial crisis that precipitated a deep recession. After the '90s, said Kevin Howley, a DePauw University communication professor, "It's as if history jumped a track.''