Why re-visiting “comfort shows” brings so much comfort

Comfort shows and movies have become pretty common terms recently in our lives and in pop culture. You can walk on a college campus, ask any student if they have a comfort show, and I will bet that the answer is yes. So, what is a comfort show? 

Comfort shows can really be any content that brings you joy and relieves your stress, and one that you keep going back to— over and over again. They can be anything from sitcoms to reality television shows, to crime shows even. 

For me, my comfort TV show is “Gilmore Girls,” the first show I ever binge-watched when I was in sixth grade. I have watched the entire series and the revival an ungodly amount of times. There’s just something about it that keeps me coming back. 

I raise the question, why do we keep going back to these so-called “comfort shows?” 

Looking at life right now, it always seems to be midterm season in college, and when those anxiety-filled days of studying start to become too much, we tend to fall back on familiar content. Rewatching content seems to be an effective way of relieving stress; something about being able to immerse yourself in something predictable where we know what to expect.

For a majority of people, their comfort show is one that they started watching at an age when they were just starting to figure out who they are. A lot of it comes back to the nostalgia factor of watching the show. We tend to like revisiting the show to chase the feelings we first felt while watching the episodes. 

Escapism is another reason we keep going back to these shows. It’s extremely comforting to be able to completely get lost in a show and forget about the outside world. It’s also a way to experience what we wish we could go through: the love stories, events and relationships we may not have in reality.

I walked around Penn State’s campus and asked a few students what their comfort show was and why, and here are the responses:

• “I have two comfort shows, actually. I would say “New Girl” and the second one is “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” They are just like really lighthearted shows and it’s like a good escape. It’s just a way for me to take my mind off things and just kind of escape all of the problems I’m having in real life.” 

• “My comfort show is probably “Gossip Girl.” I started watching it in middle school, around the time my parents got a divorce, so I just keep going back to it. It was something that my mom and I watched together. We love the characters and I really wanted to be Blair Waldorf as like a middle-schooler, which is probably why I am the way that I am today.” 

• “I would say “Game of Thrones:” the really good dialogue is just comforting and it’s a breath of fresh air from bad dialogue in a lot of current shows. Also, I love the characters as they’re so well-written and complex.” 

Now, comfort shows can be amazing for relieving stress and chasing nostalgia, but I would advise anyone to be conscious of re-watching, and re-watching and re-watching content. There’s nothing intrinsically bad about going back to shows you can quote the dialogue of and give you a feeling of security, but you may be robbing yourself of new forms of content where you may find something you love just as much as whatever your “Gilmore Girls” show is.

However, if you need a boost of serotonin or a place to escape to when you’re feeling all the stress, there is no shame in rewatching your favorite shows for the millionth time. You can probably find me doing the same thing!

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