Holly Wainwright

After the break, the show that has so many of us longing for a world that no longer exists.

With the release of Love Story, a drama series about the romance of one of the most iconic couples of the 20th century, John F. Kennedy Jr.

and Carolyn Bessette, there's been a really interesting reaction.

So I'm not actually watching the show, but I've seen clips, I've seen photos, I've seen it all over my social media.

What are you doing with your life?

I know.

I'm watching maths and it's such a commitment.

It's honestly like eight hours a week.

It's honestly a full-time job at this stage.

But if you've ever been deeply invested in a show that is set 20-plus years ago, you'll understand this feeling.

A substack called Why Love Story is Resonating argues that the series is landing because it captures something many feel we quietly lost.

And essentially it evokes nostalgia for a pre-phone world.

You could even say that the atmosphere of the show has created a phone nostalgia in younger people who have never known that world because the contrast between this moment in history of these two absurdly beautiful people falling in love and our own is really stark.

So in Love Story, audiences are seeing a universe structured around friction.

Things weren't automated or simple.

And some of the observations that were made in this viral substack are that information was finite.

So there was a beginning and an end to your intake and scarcity created meaning.

Photos were taken on film and because of that, they weren't developed till weeks later and there was a delay between experience and documentation, which made them two different things.

Whereas now it's like we live and archive at the same time, which I have always felt takes away from the living part because you're doing another job.

access was physical.