Everyone has a favorite thing, from food to music to books, and TV shows are no exception. In recent years, the term comfort show has infiltrated discussions surrounding people’s favorite TV shows, but it turns out there is a science behind why those favorite TV shows are so comforting to viewers.
A comfort show is a show someone will go back and rewatch multiple times. The feeling of watching a comfort show is akin to a big hug or the smell of cookies baking in the oven during the holidays. A lot of common comfort shows premiered in the early 2000s such as “Friends,” but a comfort show can be any show from any point in time.
Chivonna Childs, a psychologist for the Cleveland Clinic, told the clinic’s newsroom comfort shows are comforting because of how the content relates to the viewer’s life and experiences.
“Often with comfort shows, they’re people we can resonate with,” Childs said. “They’re stories we resonate with, or they’re stories we wish we could resonate with.”
Clinical psychologist Alexandra Gold said in a Q&A with Friday Things predictability is a large factor in what makes a comfort show a comfort show. In an unpredictable world, people yearn for familiarity, and rewatching a show is less overwhelming for the brain than starting something new.
“If there’s a time in your life that you have positive memories of because of what you were doing at the time, routines with your family or friends, you might make a positive association between that time in your life and the show you were watching at the time,” Gold said.
Especially in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, people are searching for comfort and familiarity and ways to make sense of their life scenarios after several years of trying to find new normals and navigating tough times.
Raffaello Antonino, a counseling psychologist, told Business Insider comfort shows can even have mental health benefits, become a safe space for people and allow people to explore and feel emotions through the show’s characters.
“Gilmore Girls,” is a show rewatched by many people each year, especially in the fall. Watching Rory Gilmore navigate common adolescent experiences such as breakups, academic challenges and familial disputes may help viewers get through their struggles in a lighthearted, sitcom world.
Although viewers do not live in Stars Hollow and don’t have a real-life Lorelai Gilmore to help them make sense of things, watching “Gilmore Girls” or any comfort show provides a space to see how others handle common life situations. Additionally, audiences see how characters navigate life in their fictional worlds, giving viewers something to apply to their real-world lives.
An escape from the real world can be provided by viewers sitting down to binge-watch a show, especially something comforting. Binge-watching releases dopamine in the brain, giving off feelings of happiness, excitement and pleasure.
Whether it is watching Ross and Rachel fall in love for the millionth time on “Friends” or watching Serena and Blair navigate life on the Upper East Side in “Gossip Girl,” people navigate toward comfort shows for a reason. The familiarity of Jess, Nick, Schmidt and Winston in “New Girl” and the humor in “The Office” is something people crave in their lives.
