Awesome show. Lots of fun spotlighting all the best of the 80s top pop culture moments. Rob Lowe is the perfect host for this type of show too. Great show to binge too.
5 Reviews
Lots of fun
gcic2 January 2022
Super entertaining, informative, and all around enjoyable mini-series
jellyneckr17 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Nearly twenty years after VH1's "I Love the 80s" first aired, cable television is still celebrating the decade with mini-series exploring the culture, fads, and fashions of the time period. Because the analysis of 80s pop culture has been done to death at this point, I expected Nat Geo's "The '80s: Top Ten" to be boring, repetitive, and not very interesting. To my surprise, not only did I enjoy the six episode mini-series, but I found it to be the most entertaining show I've watched on TV in quite some time.
Hosted by Rob Lowe, each episode looks back at a very specific aspect of 80s pop culture: watercooler moments, streetwear, commercials, fast food, gadgets, and toys. One would think that it would be extremely hard to fill up a 45-minute episode talking about just fast food trends or commercials from the 80s without making everything seem padded, though somehow those two episodes end up being the high points. Getting the directors of 80s commercials, including Ridley Scott, to talk about the commercials that they made from both a filmmaking perspective and a marketing perspective is fascinating, and something rarely seen when discussing pop culture. Likewise, the episode that focuses on fast food is captivating in how it balances portraying both the positive and negative aspects of what the popularity of fast food has done to American society since the 80s. There are many times when the series seems like it could fall into being either too critical or too celebratory of the decade; in the end, the show finds just the right balance between the two.
If there's one flaw to "The '80s: Top Ten", it's that there aren't enough different commentators featured throughout the six episodes. While I love Kevin Smith and Tiffani Thiessen, it occasionally seems like the show cuts back to them simply because there wasn't footage of someone more directly involved with the topic at hand to cut to. Ultimately, this is a minor complaint when 95% of the mini-series is entertaining, informative, and all around enjoyable from start to finish.
Even for those that weren't around in the 1980s or those who don't have much interest in the decade, "The '80s: Top Ten" should, at the very least, teach viewers a little something. For me, this was one of the most fun and surprisingly binge-worthy series I've watched in years, and I absolutely loved it. I only hope "The '90s: Top Ten" is not far off. 9/10.
Hosted by Rob Lowe, each episode looks back at a very specific aspect of 80s pop culture: watercooler moments, streetwear, commercials, fast food, gadgets, and toys. One would think that it would be extremely hard to fill up a 45-minute episode talking about just fast food trends or commercials from the 80s without making everything seem padded, though somehow those two episodes end up being the high points. Getting the directors of 80s commercials, including Ridley Scott, to talk about the commercials that they made from both a filmmaking perspective and a marketing perspective is fascinating, and something rarely seen when discussing pop culture. Likewise, the episode that focuses on fast food is captivating in how it balances portraying both the positive and negative aspects of what the popularity of fast food has done to American society since the 80s. There are many times when the series seems like it could fall into being either too critical or too celebratory of the decade; in the end, the show finds just the right balance between the two.
If there's one flaw to "The '80s: Top Ten", it's that there aren't enough different commentators featured throughout the six episodes. While I love Kevin Smith and Tiffani Thiessen, it occasionally seems like the show cuts back to them simply because there wasn't footage of someone more directly involved with the topic at hand to cut to. Ultimately, this is a minor complaint when 95% of the mini-series is entertaining, informative, and all around enjoyable from start to finish.
Even for those that weren't around in the 1980s or those who don't have much interest in the decade, "The '80s: Top Ten" should, at the very least, teach viewers a little something. For me, this was one of the most fun and surprisingly binge-worthy series I've watched in years, and I absolutely loved it. I only hope "The '90s: Top Ten" is not far off. 9/10.
Watch this, you will love it.
Roxie993 January 2022
I thought this was GREAT. Whether you were around for the 80's or just curious, it's full of laughs. I mostly agreed with their picks. I also never realized just how much the 80's changed things. And the best part, NO WOKE BS. Enjoy.
USA USA USA
michaelrthomson8 January 2022
Not exactly a new concept, these 80s retrospectives are all over the place from every angle and every production company to varying degrees of success.
Rob Lowe, being the icon of the 80s that he is, who in no small part thanks to Botox looks still remarkably like he did 50 years ago (either botox or he is a vampire), takes a trip down what I'm sure for him are clouded memory lane ways.
The challenge to me, and to any other non American is that this show pretty much just talks about American culture, for example the episode about adverting just talks about American ads, great if you're American and remember them, otherwise kinda boring and has one reaching for the mobile device to check the newsfeed.
A bit of 80s flashback isn't bad, but when television today is consumed by a global audience, you loose a lot of the audience by simply staying in one geographic location in terms of what you present in my opinion. This could have had so much more, besides bad hair, shoulder pads, synth pop and the origins of rap, the 80s had huge global things happening, the world was changing very quickly, but this show choose to focus on Super Bowl ad slots and American pop stars like Madonna.
If you're American I've no doubt you'll appreciate this as either a flash back or a fun look at your own pop history, but if you're not, then this is a pretty lacklustre show compared to others of the same sort.
I suspect Rob Lowe and Madonna should be retired gracefully and for the same reason, neither really has anything to add at this point that hasn't already been done before, by better.
Rob Lowe, being the icon of the 80s that he is, who in no small part thanks to Botox looks still remarkably like he did 50 years ago (either botox or he is a vampire), takes a trip down what I'm sure for him are clouded memory lane ways.
The challenge to me, and to any other non American is that this show pretty much just talks about American culture, for example the episode about adverting just talks about American ads, great if you're American and remember them, otherwise kinda boring and has one reaching for the mobile device to check the newsfeed.
A bit of 80s flashback isn't bad, but when television today is consumed by a global audience, you loose a lot of the audience by simply staying in one geographic location in terms of what you present in my opinion. This could have had so much more, besides bad hair, shoulder pads, synth pop and the origins of rap, the 80s had huge global things happening, the world was changing very quickly, but this show choose to focus on Super Bowl ad slots and American pop stars like Madonna.
If you're American I've no doubt you'll appreciate this as either a flash back or a fun look at your own pop history, but if you're not, then this is a pretty lacklustre show compared to others of the same sort.
I suspect Rob Lowe and Madonna should be retired gracefully and for the same reason, neither really has anything to add at this point that hasn't already been done before, by better.
Unbelievable!
calisparkz210 January 2022
Watching this with my wife and my daughter! I just couldn't believe that in what should've been a fun show was multiple mentions of suicide in different episodes! Why are Disney/Nat Geo advertising this to children??? What is with Disney firstly making sexual innuendos in kids movies and now mentioning a word that has absolutely no place on Disney plus!!! Canceled immediately and advice others to do the same!!!
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