The late ‘90s were a baffling time in history — but our shared fascination with the era is as much about what didn’t happen as what actually did. Most over the age of 35 have been haunted by the idea of the “Millennium Bug,” a conspiracy that essentially heralded apocalypse via computer glitch. It was an object of rapt obsession, and our first true brush with modern doomsday prepping — even though it turned out to be all for naught in the end. But there are those who still wonder what our world might have looked like had the Millennium Bug actually come online.
In the 25 years since a few hundred programmers averted the apocalypse, the Y2K problem has faded into legend… at least for those of us who weren’t around to witness the hysteria it inspired. But with nostalgia for the early 2000s rearing its head in a major way, elder millennials are keen to revisit their youth — the good, the bad, and the hypothetical. Enter, Y2K, a kitschy “what if” about the armageddon we managed to avoid in 1999, wrapped in the veneer of a raunchy teen comedy.
