Rewatching The Office. Apparently it's an Anxiety thing.

in #life4 years ago

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.

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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?

All images property of NBC/Universal

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I usually tend to gaming but tv shows are nice and relaxing as well although lately I've been so busy with Hive I mainly watch something during dinners. So usually it's like 1.5-2 episodes per day. :D

Your dedication to the platform and to OCD's curation efforts has always been something I have appreciated. I wish I could put that sort of dedication and investment in to the platform!

For me, the TV is on as background noise, so maybe rewatching shows lets me catch some of what I missed the first time around. I have episodes on while I am on Hive, so a little back and forth.

Gaming has never really been my thing. My son is all in on Fortnite and with the shut down of everything he likes to do, he is spending around 12 hours a day on the Xbox. Not sure that is entirely healthy.

I remember watching one of your Twitch streams you were playing some game where you battle like big Soda Cups and utensils or something, you found some interesting stuff to get in to. When I have gotten in to games it was games like that, with a funny sarcastic slant. Portal/Portal 2 were the things I got in to.

Thanks for stopping by @acidyo! Good to hear from you!