My grandma used to say the same thing about watching her stories, but she was usually referring to soap-operas like Days of Our Lives, which I just learned is now on its 60th season. Kind of the opposite vibe of Law and Order or Matlock, in that you really needed to understand each character's complex backstory to fully appreciate what was going on. It can get annoying when you try to jump back into a show, but need to do homework on everything that happened before. I feel like most new shows are like this now. I am a sucker for sci-fi, so I will put on some old Stargate SG1 from time to time just as comforting background stories.