F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
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I recently started rewatching the television show F.R.I.E.N.D.S. This round of the series will make it, let me think, my gazillionth time watching through all ten seasons. It's one of those shows I can have on and I don't even need to see it to know what's happening. I'll have it on in the background while I’m writing or fully pay attention as if it's my first time watching the show; I'll watch the same episodes with the same jokes and laugh like its my first time hearing them.
There's a reason I started watching through this series again. I didn't know it at the time, but after reading through Play and Repeat: Why We Watch the Same Shows Over and Over, I learned there are a whole slew of reasons why humans prefer to watch shows they have already seen. As someone who has been particularly stressed out the past few months the following three theories immediately stood out to me.
The Mister Rogers Effect
Named for the beloved Mr. Rogers who started every show with the same pattern, this theory reminds us that even as adults we need routine: "Knowing what will happen bestows order and safety, especially during times when our lives feel uncomfortably less controlled."
The Principle of Least Effort
The word lazy is a bit triggering for me and so it was comforting to learn that choosing my favorite television show over something new is not lazy but rather a biological strategy: "If we’re familiar with a story, we can let our minds relax while still being entertained. This is not laziness but rather a basic evolutionary fact that organisms (including humans) conserve energy by choosing a course of action that requires the smallest amount of effort."
The Conjuring Effect
In times of trial, when life is unpredictable and there is so much we cannot control, we will unknowingly crave things where the outcome is guaranteed to be good: "When we listen to the same music over and over, we experience what the author Elizabeth Margulis calls a conjuring power. Knowing exactly what will happen gives us a sense of personally controlling the outcomes."
When I started the series I didn't realize all the reasons it would help; I wasn't thinking I feel out of control, lacking energy, and need guaranteed outcomes so watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. is the ticket! Of course not. I just wanted something comforting, but for some reason I've always associated rewatching old shows with being a waste of time. In times when I probably needed it the most, I would deny myself the comfort: I should watch something new, I would always think, enrich my culture by trying something different. It was nice to know that not only should I not be embarrassed to rewatch an old sitcom, but that it might be exactly what my mind and body needs to recover.
The next time you feel the urge to watch the old and familiar, just do it. Let your mind take a break from whatever it needs to take a break from and enjoy the predictable laughs and easy joy of a guaranteed happy ending.
