Falling into a nineties' cinema rabbit hole, and getting a reality check

Kopitiam, Malaysia's first English sitcom from 1998, became available on Netflix not long ago.

In the midst of having too much frivolous fun, it helps to think of Arthur Schopenhauer. He is the face of piercing disapproval and informed dejection. I pictured the pessimist philosopher often over the last two weekends while streaming television of the dangerously nostalgic and strictly average variety. I was able to stop when his sage words — “to gain anything we have longed for is only to discover how vain and empty it is” — began to hit home but not before I had fallen considerably down a nineties’ rabbit hole.

A few things had led me in that