Comfort food
As my son has gotten older (he’s a teenager now), it’s been a real pleasure to introduce him to shows and movies that I enjoyed in the past, and either watch them fresh with him or revisit old favorites.
Lately, it’s been watching The Office from the beginning (up to season 5 now), usually a few episodes a night. Some of the early episodes are just as cringey as I remember, but the show still pretty much holds up even 20 years later. That got me thinking about the way that we seek the familiar and safe, especially in downtime.
There’s something always exciting in life about discovering new things, going new places and meeting new people. It stimulates our brains with new experiences and gives us a better view of the world. But there’s also something to be said to going back to a favorite tv show, movie, book, album, whatever and just unwinding in that. Something where you don’t have to follow plot, or make sure you didn’t miss a crucial scene - not because they aren’t important, but because you’ve heard the joke before, know what’s going to happen and quite frankly it doesn’t require your full attention.
I’ve found getting older that, with my son, I’ve been able to do both of these at the same time with the sharing of these shows. It’s new and exciting for him, but also familiar and relaxing for me. This is inherently part of being a parent and raising a kid, but it hits on a different level because unlike say, practicing tying shoes, this is something I actually enjoy doing as well. I like being able to tune out and enjoy the show (and, let’s be honest, probably watch it while I’m on my iPad or phone too) but also see him laugh at the jokes for the first time.
Streaming companies know that we crave these “comfort food” shows of course, and these escapes, that’s why Peacock is basically built entirely around The Office, Paramount Plus around Survivor and the Amazing Race and other reality TV, and Disney+ around…well, everything Disney owns. We pay for these shows we know and love, that we grew up with or represent a particular time in our lives, simply because of this desire for the familiar. Sure we will watch new stuff, and some of that new stuff will inevitably become comfort food as well, but that’s why things like FAST (Free Ad Supported Television) services are some of the most popular services out there - who wouldn’t want to flip on a channel and have 24/7 episodes of Friends streaming non-stop anytime you want?
I don’t really have a larger point to all of this, just observed my feelings when watching and sharing TV with my son about how unique the world is now when it comes to media. And certainly no judgement from me on what your comfort food is - Law & Order, trashy reality tv, 2000s HBO shows, whatever. It’s just interesting to me to see what will become the comfort food for the next generation when they have so many of our comforts immediately on hand.