Comfort Shows Are All the (Relaxing) Rage
On a viral tweet from The Hill and some of my favorite comfort television shows
Recently, a tweet from The Hill about their article “The top streamed shows are almost all old. Why?” by Alix Martichoux went viral as fans of TV shared what they miss most about the medium. The article reflected on Nielsen ratings for 2023 that saw Suits (2011-2019), NCIS (2003-present), Grey’s Anatomy (2005-present), The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019), Gilmore Girls (2000-2007), Friends (1994-2004), Heartland (2007-present), and Supernatural (2005-2019) in the Top 10 most streamed acquired shows last year. Audiences watched the legal drama Suits, which debuted over a decade ago, for more than 57 billion minutes in 2023.
Most of the responses to the tweet reflect the same aspects that TV watchers miss in their viewing experiences — consistency and longevity.
Episode orders are getting shorter, with 6-8 episodes being more common than 10-13 anymore — and 22-24 is becoming even less of an option. TV shows are being canceled on cliffhangers after one or two seasons. I’m still not over Netflix’s cancellation of Shadow and Bone. We were so close to a Six of Crows spinoff series, too! And don’t get me started on Paramount+ pulling the plug on the iCarly revival after the Season 3 cliffhanger that finally—after more than 15 years—introduced Carly and Spencer’s mom off-screen. There are also long-running shows that don’t get the opportunity to conclude with a final season. All of which create a frustrating and unfulfilling TV-watching experience, to say the least.
So, The Hill’s answer lies in its question. People watch older TV shows because they can (usually) offer what current TV cannot.
“Prestige TV,” with its six to eight episodes and years between seasons, has a place in the medium. Plus, those shows are award darlings for a reason. Still, people will return to what’s comforting, nostalgic, and (more often than not) predictable. The Hill echoes as much by citing a Well+Good article that discusses revisiting older TV shows over turning to new programming. “Watching something comforting can take away the stress involved in the infinite choices at our disposal and the consequential energy drain,” psychologist Sabrina Romanoff, PhD, said.
“Watch 13 episodes of an entire series or watch 100 episodes of an entire series? Going to go with that good ol faithful 5 season show. It’s comfy there,” TV/Film writer and director Caroline Renard wrote in response to The Hill’s tweet.
Of course, TV watchers gravitate to shows they know they can invest in without fearing character development, side quests, bottle episodes, and long-term plots will be ripped away from them at any second. Those storytelling avenues inspired by the medium’s formula are often lost when disguising a six-part movie as a television show. Not to mention, short seasons and early cancellations don’t support the parasocial relationships that come with getting to know characters over 5+ seasons. That bond may be unexpected, but once it forms, it’s undeniable.
Because of that ultimate qualifier, comfort shows will always be different for everyone. That feeling of familiarity, nostalgia, or whatever else makes someone feel safe, loved, or comforted will differ from person to person.
NCIS and Grey’s Anatomy may be an odd go-to choice for some, but their dozens of seasons create endless opportunities to connect with the characters and their relationships. There’s also something to say about most procedural shows (almost) always finding a resolution for their case of the week at the end of every episode. Something is soothing and perhaps even uplifting about that pattern.
I get it less with Grey’s Anatomy and more with its first spinoff series, Private Practice. It aired for six seasons from 2007-2013. It introduced me to one of my favorite fictional characters: Amelia Shepherd. I have watched her on Grey’s Anatomy since the end of Season 10 in 2014. Seeing Amelia evolve over 14 years has made her a comforting character for me. Watching her go through highs and lows somehow made me believe I could get through whatever I went through, too.
That feeling of hope or perseverance can make a TV show a comfort watch.
It’s why Ted Lasso has become one of my staples, even though it ended (maybe, possibly) in 2023. It’s a comfort watch engrained so deeply in me that I almost always find myself rewatching at least the first season every weekend. Usually, that pattern emerges on Sunday nights to push away the Sunday Scaries.
These shows make me feel like everything will be okay for 22-50 minutes, and that can be invaluable when my anxiety is high or a few small things snowball into a terrible day. They don’t make the annoying tasks or heavier subjects disappear, but they allow me to take a break and approach them again with a slightly different perspective after those 22-50 minutes. In the wise words of Ted Lasso himself, they help me “be a goldfish,” which is more helpful than I ever anticipated.
Comfort TV shows often take me back to a simpler time, so I frequently fall back on the teen dramas that made me who I am. They make me think of the younger me, who had fewer responsibilities. So, Degrassi: The Next Generation, One Tree Hill, and The Vampire Diaries are just a few YA shows that are on an endless loop. They make me feel safe and cozy in the nostalgia of my adolescence. But I’ve learned there is more to my desire to rewatch those shows and others like them.
That viral tweet spawned a larger conversation about the state of TV. It made me realize that those teen dramas are also comforting because they represent an era of TV that is becoming a bygone. That genre does not exist like in the 90s and early 2000s. There are only a few on TV; unfortunately, they dwindle daily. All American is one of the only remaining on a network that used to be home to many—the WB turned The CW. The other few teen shows exist in streaming spaces where shortened seasons and long hiatuses between them thrive.
TV is a vastly different landscape from when I was growing up, and it will likely change tenfold in the next decade.
Returning to the staples I know and love in that uncertainty is comforting. With how bittersweet, distant, and short some TV seasons have become, it’s soothing for me to escape into a small-town drama with more than a dozen episodes to its name. So, don’t think Gilmore Girls made Neilsen’s chart on a fluke.
The consistency and longevity of Stars Hollow is comforting, as is Bluebell in The CW’s four-season, small-town romantic drama Hart of Dixie. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching Zoe Hart and Wade Kinsella fall in love, just like I’ll never tire of the jokes on New Girl. The latter is such a comforting watch that I often put it on before bed to lull me to sleep because Jess, Cece, Nick, Schmidt, and Winston feel more like old friends rather than TV characters anymore.
Ultimately, life is beautiful, challenging, and short. TV is an intimate entertainment medium because it’s with us and in our homes for years if the show is lucky; it shouldn’t be a shock when we form deep attachments to a series that encourages just that. Find a bit of unashamed solace in a TV show from time to time if you want. If that program happens to be one with 20 seasons that encourages immersion into the characters’ lives and their world, why shouldn’t you watch them once, twice, or forty times?
And with that, I’m going to watch New Girl Season 4 Episode 6, “Background Check,” for the millionth time.
💌 Shelby