You open the streaming platforms, look at recommendations on social media, and even when you’re searching for new shows to watch, you always end up watching your favorite series and movies. Nowadays, this happens to many people, but why is this the case when there are so many new titles available?
Comfort answers part of this question, what researchers call comfort viewing, watching what we already know, without the pressure of something new. Watching rom-coms from the 2000s brings back that silly feeling of chance encounters that, fortunately, work out. And comedies like The Office, Friends and How I Met Your Mother deliver silly little jokes about work and friendship, settings we’re all familiar with.
But here are a few reasons that might, also, explain our search for something we’ve already seen, sometimes, a zillion times:
Duality: Escape from reality and a reflection of the reality we experience
On the one hand, there are those who return to TV shows to escape the reality they’re living in and immerse themselves in a dystopian universe, for example, as in Stranger Things or The Umbrella Academy, which depict contexts that don’t actually exist, with parallel worlds and people with superpowers. Or even in complicated or cozy romantic settings, such as in The Vampire Diaries and One Tree Hill.
On the other hand, there’s the option that presents a situation we’re familiar with but organized in a different way, as in The Office or Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which feature lighthearted jokes, relationships, and comedic situations in the workplace, a space that’s often considered so tense. Grey’s Anatomy fits here too, though differently: it’s not a comedy, but a medical drama that balances humor with heavier, more emotional storylines, proof that comfort doesn’t only come from laughter.
Identifying with characters and their personalities
Characters with such relatable personalities, like Cameron Tucker (Modern Family), Michael Scott (The Office), or Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls), make us go back to these shows to catch up with the people we love, familiar enough to feel like real friends, even though we know exactly what’s going to happen.
Nostalgia
Here, there are two aspects to this sense of nostalgia; the first involves transporting ourselves to a time one did not experience, evident in the setting and worldview of the series’ characters, which seem comforting and welcoming, as seen in Friends, set in the 1990s, and How I Met Your Mother, set in the 2000s.
The second, however, isn’t about the show’s universe, but about the impression that everything was easier back then, without cell phones or the apparent social acceleration of time, as in Gilmore Girls, where everything was resolved with a landline call or a face-to-face meeting, without the pressure of always being online.
How current productions deal with sensitive and explicit topics
Some shows produced today deal with topics like sex, nudity, drugs, death, and mental health in an explicit and often unfiltered way, which makes us look back to older shows. But it’s not as if those shows avoided talking about sex, drugs, or heavy topics, after all, Sex and the City built its entire identity around that.
The difference lies in tone: there, heavy subjects were wrapped in humor and levity, discussed over brunch between friends. Today, series like Euphoria and 13 Reasons Why lean into a rawer, more visceral approach, Euphoria‘s neon-lit and house parties, or 13 Reasons Why‘s unflinching classroom conversations about a friend’s suicide, choosing realism over relief.
The Feared or Beloved Comfort Zone (And is it wrong to always stay in it?)
Sometimes, returning to that world is like rediscovering one’s own childhood, pre-adolescence, and adolescence, as in iCarly, Victorious, Austin & Ally, and even Gossip Girl, and that, too, has to do with affection. Some people argue that wanting to return to this comfort zone leads to stagnation and regression, when, in reality, it’s a much-needed break between one thing and another, one that doesn’t interfere with the viewer’s personal growth.
In the end, maybe the question isn’t “why do we keep coming back to the same shows,” but what they still have to offer us. Open your streaming app, look for something new, and once again choose what you already know. And this time, don’t feel bad about it.
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The article above was edited by Giovanna Rodrigues.
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