I never took an interest in The Office until some friends of mine started quoting it incessantly last year. So over the summer of 2019 I sat down with my NetFlix account and started with Season 1, Episode 1. The show quickly became one of my favorites.
I went through all 9 seasons of the show. Admittedly, my knowledge of the show going in was a bit confused and I thought that Chris Pratt was in it. I waited through all 9 seasons for him to make his appearance.
Even in Season 9, I kept waiting for the appearance I was sure was coming.
In any event. I made it through the show, figured out my mistake and then watched Parks & Rec.
Cut forward to 2020 and the pandemic lock down. I'm getting a little more TV time than I used to and there is not much new content on the television. So I went in search of things to watch. I found a bunch of movies to put on my watch list on HBO and Showtime as part of our Cable Package, and watched through a bunch of those. But as I scanned through the channels on my cable guide, I kept making my way to Comedy Central which was showing Office reruns over and over again.
I thought it was just the fact that I enjoyed the show and knew it was funny that I kept turning it on. But apparently there is a study about this, that those who find themselves returning to watching the same shows over and over find a sense of comfort in the familiar. That knowing how the show winds up is a sense of security.
I was going to share links to some articles about it here, but you can do your own research.
Suffice it to say, if you find yourself rewatching old shows or movies, rereading the same favorite books, it might be a sense of escapism, or relief to relive these moments rather than trying something new.
And in this time, with so much uncertainty in the world, who can be blamed for needing to escape in to something comfortable and familiar.
What do you escape into? What is bringing you comfort instead of watching the constant stream of bad news?
