The Psychology Behind Why We Can't Stop Rewatching Our Comfort Shows
The Power of Nostalgia and Comfort Viewing
Welcome to The Media Room 📺—where I dive into the themes behind the movies, shows, and cultural moments that shape the world of art and entertainment.
As a social worker and mental health educator, I spend a lot of my time immersed in learning and researching heavy topics—trauma, depression, loneliness, anxiety, narcissism, and did I mention trauma?
During my downtime, I crave a healthy escape, and one of the best ways for me to decompress and disconnect from the heaviness of the work I do is to watch a TV series. My evenings are my time to unwind, and when faced with the choice between watching the newest show everyone is raving about on Threads or revisiting a show I've already seen, I always find myself reaching for my remote and leaning toward what's familiar—rewatching an old TV show.
No matter how many times I watch The Office, I still laugh from the pit of my belly every time I watch the scene where Dwight starts a fire in the office to conduct a "safety training" drill, causing Stanley to have a heart attack (Season 5, Ep. 14). It gets even better when Dwight goes to CPR training and decides to cut off the dummy's face, pretending to be Jason from Friday the 13th (Season 5, Ep. 5). These episodes never get old no matter how many times I watch them, and I also know I’m not the only person who’s a bit obsessed with re-watching old TV shows.
As you scroll through social media, you'll notice countless people expressing their love for rewatching '90s sitcoms and consuming media from the early 2000s, from Friends and The Office to Gilmore Girls and Sex and The City. In an era of streaming services offering endless new content, the question remains: why do so many of us gravitate toward the familiar instead of exploring something new? Are we disinterested in fresh content, or is there some kind of psychological reprieve we get when we revisit old shows?
The answer lies in how nostalgia, emotional safety, and psychological regulation work together to soothe us. Let's explore why old TV shows provide such universal comfort.
Nostalgia: The Comfort of Memories
Nostalgia is more than just reminiscing; it’s a powerful emotional state that connects us to happier or more stable times. Re-watching a show you loved during a simpler or more joyful phase of your life can evoke warm feelings and provide a temporary escape from present stressors.
Studies have shown that nostalgia can benefit our mental health by boosting our mood, fostering a sense of meaning and belonging, and even enhancing self-esteem. Old TV shows serve as a portal, transporting you back to the moments when you first watched them—whether it was lounging on the couch after school (Did someone say Pepper Ann is streaming?), binging episodes with friends, or sharing laughs with loved ones who are no longer in your life. These memories create a sense of emotional security and familiarity that’s deeply comforting.
Which nostalgic show do you find yourself returning to again and again?
Reducing Stress: Familiarity as Emotional Safety
When life feels overwhelming, our brains often crave simplicity. After a stressful day at work, you might want to do as little thinking as possible and reduce your tasks to decompress. This helps manage cognitive load—the amount of working memory being used in the brain to process information or perform tasks.
Watching an old TV show can serve as a coping strategy to manage stress due to its predictability. When you re-watch an old show, you're already familiar with the storyline and characters, which reduces cognitive load. This predictability can be a powerful way to manage the uncertainty and chaos of everyday life. While new shows require an investment of our time and mental energy to follow unfamiliar plots, characters, and twists—old shows allow us to relax into the comfort of knowing exactly what comes next.
Regulating the Nervous System: Grounding Through Media
Old TV shows can also help regulate the nervous system. When we feel dysregulated, whether due to stress, anxiety, or other emotional challenges, grounding techniques can help stabilize our emotions. Watching something familiar engages the senses while keeping the brain in a safe and predictable environment. After all, trauma is the body's reaction to a perceived threat or a general sense of danger and lack of safety.
In a time when our nervous systems are constantly feeling dysregulated and in a state of fight or flight—due to traumatic experiences that are environmental, societal, or interpersonal—our bodies need something that will keep us grounded and help us feel safe.
The soothing effect of rewatching shows is like wrapping yourself in a warm, weighted blanket. It's not just about the content—it's about the full sensory experience: the familiar theme song, reciting those timeless jokes, and even appreciating the stunts, colors, and visuals. These elements work together to create a grounding effect that calms both the mind and body.
Hit play for a dose of nostalgia.
A Sense of Control in a Chaotic World
In today's fast-paced, unpredictable world, the feeling of powerlessness can be overwhelming. Re-watching old TV shows offers a small but significant sense of control. The familiarity of a show becomes especially valuable when dealing with stress or anxiety. You know the storyline, the jokes, and even the emotional arcs—which gives you a sense of control and can leave you feeling empowered in many ways.
Repetition can be inherently soothing—it reinforces safety and comfort. It’s one of the reasons why a child will ask you to read the same bedtime story or play the same game of peek-a-boo again and again. As an adult in a world filled with challenges, old TV shows offer a comforting reminder that some things—like how Carrie had no business marrying Mr. Big—will always remain true.
Dopamine and Our Desire to Feel Good
Humans love pleasure! Watching a favorite TV show can trigger dopamine release, the brain’s reward chemical. Because the brain associates the show with past positive experiences, revisiting it becomes a reliable source of joy, pleasure, and happiness.
Is There A Dark Side to Re-Watching Shows?
We are living in lonely and disconnected times. As people search for belonging and strive to form new relationships, parasocial relationships—one-sided attachments to celebrities, influencers, or fictional characters who are unaware of the connection—continue to rise. Sometimes, a person's obsession with rewatching a show might stem from their fixation on a television character or actor.
If rewatching content comes from a place of unhealthy obsession with a person—constant rumination, stalking them in real life, obsessive thoughts about the person, an inability to separate the character from the actor—then you may have developed a parasocial relationship. The solution to breaking free from this pattern is to create real-life, meaningful relationships with people you know or do the work to meet new people and form real connections to combat feelings of loneliness.
The Takeaway: Your Dose of Healthy Escapism
In a world that constantly demands our attention and energy, re-watching old TV shows offers comfort, nostalgia, and emotional regulation. It’s more than just entertainment; it’s a way to reconnect with ourselves, find stability, and take a break from the demands of modern life. So the next time you cue up an old episode of Parks and Recreation or Vampire Diaries, know that you’re not just indulging in nostalgia—you’re engaging in a powerful form of self-care.
Share What’s on Your Mind
What themes from this piece resonated with you? What are you currently re-watching? Leave a comment and stay tuned for Friday’s email: Reflect & Release!
“Pepper Ann she’s like one in a millYAAAAN!”
I have been re-watching Ted Lasso. Which I have re-watched before too. I've done some re-watching of Schitt's Creek too. And of course Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Meanwhile my s.o. and I are doing a complete Star Trek watch-through, from the original series on to current day. Most of this is a re-watch for him, but not for me, so that's fun. I'm all about comfort television.