2003 REWIND

20 years ago still hold up — here’s where you can stream some nostalgic ’03 goodness.

BY BILL FROST

Remember 2003? Before we were shifted into our current alternate reality? Good times — and good, new TV shows. Aside from a few snafus like Stripperella (Pamela Anderson as a cartoon superhero pole dancer), The Mullets (two brothers with mullets — that was the show) and America’s Next Top Model (Tyra Banks smize-shames young women), 2003 was a hot year on the tube. Here are some Y2K+3 series you can stream right meow.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (NETFLIX, HULU)

One of the greatest American comedies of all time, Arrested Development seemed too smart and intricate to click with the Fox audience in ’03 (they were into American Idol and My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé). Mitch Hurwitz’s fractured fairytale of the rich on the skids is a masterful collage of kamikaze camera work, droll narration (by Ron Howard) and a cast of comic killers. The first three Arrested Development Fox seasons are perfect; two Netflix sequel seasons aimed to match them. (Narrator: They did not.)

NIP/TUCK (HULU)

Nip/Tuck was future TV uber-producer Ryan Murphy’s second series after the criminally overlooked Popular (imagine Glee without all the annoying singing and earnestness). The six-season FX show about an odd couple of plastic surgeons (Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon) weaves seamlessly between family drama, dark comedy, psychological thriller, societal satire and straight-up medical doc (if you’re averse to blood, stay away). Murphy’s American Horror Story, Dahmer — Monster, and even 9-1-1 owe Nip/Tuck big time.

RENO 911! (PARAMOUNT+, THE ROKU CHANNEL)

Aside from a break between 2009 and 2020, Reno 911! hasn’t stopped cranking out mock-Cops content since 2003, including six seasons on Comedy Central, one season on the Roku Channel, three feature films, and whatever that Quibi nonsense was. Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenny-Silver, Niecy Nash, Cedric Yarbrough, and Wendy McLendon-Covey are an improv dream team, adding just enough realism to the Reno Sheriff “docuseries” to make the comedy pop.