When it comes to entertainment, we are repetitive creatures. Make no mistake: the marathons of friends, The Lord of the rings, Seinfeld or The Sopranos. It does not matter if we have had a horrible, stressful day or we are sick, there are always those series or movies that in a few seconds already make us smile and transport us to when we were 16 years old. Pop culture is a relentless novelty machine. We recently commented on Magnet that more than 500 new series are released each year. And yet, we spend more than 100 hours of our lives watching movies and series that we know each other by heartliterally.
Why do we spend so much time on stories whose endings we already know? Why, then, with so much new content, is there a growing trend for people to put aside recommendations from friends and decide to “replay” what they’ve already seen over and over again? Yes, there is a predilection for doing it upward. And there are several explanations for it, some even scientific.
The evidence indicates that 2020 and 2021 were “the years of the revised”. We don’t say it, the numbers say it. Nielsen data indicated that the most watched series in the US last year was the US version of office, which ended in 2013 after nine series and was later bought by Netflix. No less than 57,000 million minutes of the series were played. And others that occupy prominent positions in the ranking were new-girl Y The Vampire Diarieswhich ended more than two years ago.
Meanwhile, as The Guardian reported, in the British country the reproductions of The Sopranos in 2020, while in the US they did 200%. The famous gangster series became a lockdown cliché. “The hottest show of confinement,” prayed the media. It premiered in 1999. And of course, the viral snowball effect helped: once a lot of people are rewatching it, it can be hard to resist joining that movement.
Sense of control and familiarity
During the pandemic, it seems that we have been watching something obsessively. But why The Sopranos or Seinfeld for the fifth time instead of trying something new? It’s been years of anxiety and uncertainty, and in those moments, we yearn for ease of processing, a sense of control, and the warmth of familiarity. Also, in the past year, most people have experienced a cognitive load greater than before.
Cognitive load refers to the amount of stress on our working memory, and during the pandemic, we had to keep up with more information and make more (more crucial and risky) decisions than we normally do.
Unfortunately, our memory is a limited resource and there comes a point where we simply we can’t control anything else. The rise of Zoom meetings, divided attention, unfamiliar and changing working conditions, work-care balance, and other concerns wiped out most of our processing capabilities. Under heavy cognitive load, we can turn to shows we’ve already seen and loved instead of new ones so we don’t have to pack anything else into our brains.
Seeing something new inherently involves thinking: there are new characters to learn, plots to remember, predictions of what will happen, and the possibility of an unpleasant twist. But there’s no guesswork, no cliffhangers, and no stressful anticipation in watching an old favorite.
How classic series became gold for companies
the services of streaming they compete at great expense for the rights to add these classic hits to their libraries. In recent years, the rights holders of some of the most well-known television programs they have earned a lot of money as media companies spend staggering amounts licensing their timeless works.
NBCUniversal, for example, paid €450 million to carry office exclusively at its own Peacock service in 2021 for five years. Meanwhile, WarnerMedia acquired friends for 400 million euros, also for five years, for its HBO Max service. Both series were previously available on Netflix, who, seeking to fill the void, paid $450 million for a five-year rental deal. Seinfeld. HBO Max kept the party going when it pledged around $550 million for the rights to The Big Bang Theory and another 450 million for South Park.
Variety’s television critic Daniel D’Addario explained that the trend of rewatching classic series goes back beyond the pandemic: “This was already happening before the isolation, and it has only accelerated in recent years. Part of this is a matter of technology catching up with our interests and desires. You no longer have to wait for TV reruns or invest in DVDs: all this awaits you on-line. Then there is the comfort of familiarity. The things that people enjoy are not experimental, you know very well the rhythms of these series. It’s about knowing what you’re getting and letting it wash over you.”
It’s good for the soul, according to science
All of this is even supported by scientific evidence, which says that revising old and beloved series is good for the soul. A 2013 study by Jaye L Derrick, a professor of social psychology at the University of Houston, investigated the ways in which familiar fictional worlds help restore control in individuals. In that article, he described the restorative nature of replays as creating a sense of “social surrogacy,” that is, the buddy type of relationship.
Research suggested that just thinking about your favorite television series was enough for you to people feel better after a rejecting event, such as a fight or a period of loneliness. And there is an association between favorite narratives and feeling better that doesn’t happen if we’re watching something new.
Through his studies, Derrick has come to the conclusion that self-control, or the energy required to manage your impulses, emotions, and behaviors in the face of new events, is key for so many people to return to old stories. “If we use a lot of self-control throughout the day, at work or in relationships, then we are less able to control ourselves at the end of the day when it comes to watching TV,” he explained. Rewatching a familiar series doesn’t require any self-control because you know how it’s going to unfold, but you can still get all the interest and sense of connection from watching it. Essentially, many of us, when we sit after a stressful dayWe do not expect any more surprises.
So the next time you find yourself watching your favorite series and wondering if you’re wasting your time, feel better knowing that someone else is also watching Friends for the 87th time. Enjoy it unapologetically, because familiarity will always be your friend.