Dark Side of the '90s

Arbitrarily found out about this show on YouTube because someone posted an episode about the Viper Room. I had to research it to find it. Loved every episode on demand so far. They should do more to advertise this series. It's great, but I didn't know it existed.

I've only watched season one so far and I've enjoyed the episodes. I'm a child of the 80s and 90s so watching this is like being back in the 90s being nostalgic for some of the best times of my youth. It's also a refreshing and deeply reflective experience, looking at the era with different lens now being much older and thanks to some information this documentary presents that I didn't know about at the time.

Like some reviewers pointed out, there are details that are left out in the episodes, and the series could probably have done better. But for a docuseries covering such a wide range of topics that spanned a decade, I think it did well.

I particularly enjoyed the episode on the Viper Room with information surrounding the scenes at the club that I'd never heard until now. I was a huge fan of River Phoenix from when I was a preteen in the late 80s after being struck by his raw and beautiful performance in Stand By Me, and his death, which happened when I was in high school was a traumatic event for the then-seventeen-year old girl. Three decades later my heart still aches when I think about him and his life cut too short. So many interviews and articles written about his life and death that I read or watched over the years and they always left questions. This documentary helped to fill that void. It was heartbreaking to remember it once again but thanks to the interviewees who were the regulars of the club and their stories of what kind of place it really was, I have more clarity and understanding. So thanks in particular for this episode.

It's so politically driven and most episodes of season 2 are boring. Wtf were they thinking? There's so many interesting stories and public figures from the 90's! I don't wanna hear about UFC for two hours.

So I like this show, it's fun 90s nostalgia. It's not very different from other 90s decade docuseries done in the past by CNN or Vh1. The title implies it would be about something "dark sided" but it's not really. Some of the dark sided stuff seems like a stretch. I presume they're just doing it for branding purposes since Vice has other docuseries like "Dark Side of the Ring". Ooooioo.

I mean, it's not wrong and pretty much sums up a lot of the 90's influences but more focused on American events for the most part.

That said, it will FOREVER irk me that they always try to say "Beverly Hills 90210 was the first groundbreaking show about real teens" when Degrassi was already doing that before they ever showed up.

Watching Jason Priestly, being Canadian, agreeing with this bs in the documentary is just rich.