Okay it's not deep enough to be philosophy-style but...
Walking Distance (Season 1)
This episode is about a "hot shot" advertising exec returning to his home town, and accidentally goes back in time and meets himself as a kid. He gets all sappy about having lost his youth, and yearns to get those years back... He even tries to tell the kid (himself) that these are the best years of his life and not to piss them away (although he accidentally breaks the kid's leg in the process). Then his dad comes in, gives him this speech, and the man goes back to his present time (the 50s).
On Wikipedia, it says this episode "was a little more depressing than most, in that it does not have a happy ending and the man’s problems are never really resolved."
I, on the other hand, think it was the most uplifting thing I've ever seen and actually made me feel better about life and being nostalgic.
In the beginning, he goes back to the 1930s (when he was a kid) and gets a milkshake at an old fashioned diner. He gets all "dreary-eyed" remembering the "good times" he spent there as a kid. At the end of the episode, the man goes back to the diner, except this time it's the 1950s (present time) and it's filled with 50's teenagers.
From my perspective, as someone from 2013, the scene in the 50's diner makes me nostalgic even though I've never lived in the 1950s. Probably because I know things will never be that way again (not that I particularly want them to, there's just something about knowing things will never be that way again). It's weird because he thinks the 50's are worse than the 30's (because it's his present), but in retrospect (no pun intended) the 50's are actually really cozy too.
However, from his perspective, he can't see that. Just like his father said, he cannot see that the present holds new things that he will eventually be nostalgic of later. This episode was made 60 years ago, and from our perspective we can see that things were cozy when we look back into the 50's, although the main character thinks they are depressing because it's his present. The fact that this realization can only be made because there are 60 years between us and the episode makes it a "meta" example of the concept as well.
Unfortunately, there's not an episode about someone who's afraid of the future and meets their future self and then has a cozy realization that you shouldn't live in the future.
Walking Distance (Season 1)
This episode is about a "hot shot" advertising exec returning to his home town, and accidentally goes back in time and meets himself as a kid. He gets all sappy about having lost his youth, and yearns to get those years back... He even tries to tell the kid (himself) that these are the best years of his life and not to piss them away (although he accidentally breaks the kid's leg in the process). Then his dad comes in, gives him this speech, and the man goes back to his present time (the 50s).
On Wikipedia, it says this episode "was a little more depressing than most, in that it does not have a happy ending and the man’s problems are never really resolved."
I, on the other hand, think it was the most uplifting thing I've ever seen and actually made me feel better about life and being nostalgic.
In the beginning, he goes back to the 1930s (when he was a kid) and gets a milkshake at an old fashioned diner. He gets all "dreary-eyed" remembering the "good times" he spent there as a kid. At the end of the episode, the man goes back to the diner, except this time it's the 1950s (present time) and it's filled with 50's teenagers.
From my perspective, as someone from 2013, the scene in the 50's diner makes me nostalgic even though I've never lived in the 1950s. Probably because I know things will never be that way again (not that I particularly want them to, there's just something about knowing things will never be that way again). It's weird because he thinks the 50's are worse than the 30's (because it's his present), but in retrospect (no pun intended) the 50's are actually really cozy too.
However, from his perspective, he can't see that. Just like his father said, he cannot see that the present holds new things that he will eventually be nostalgic of later. This episode was made 60 years ago, and from our perspective we can see that things were cozy when we look back into the 50's, although the main character thinks they are depressing because it's his present. The fact that this realization can only be made because there are 60 years between us and the episode makes it a "meta" example of the concept as well.
Unfortunately, there's not an episode about someone who's afraid of the future and meets their future self and then has a cozy realization that you shouldn't live in the future.
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