How Television Schedules Our Emotions

Over the last couple of years, I decided to re-watch Pokémon very slowly. I watch it to lull myself to sleep or use it as a background noise as I work from home. There is something about being disappointed in Ash over and over again that feels awkwardly soothing. During quarantine, I imagine that many folks started diving into shows their friends have been begging them to begin years ago. After all, we’re home, and this is the perfect time to dig into something you’re not used to, but in times of anxiety I find myself returning to the shows that I enjoy. This started to make me reflect on the comfort levels we feel returning to the things we know. Nostalgic Predictions Whether it is television, video games, or books, I’ve seen this relationship time and time again with revisiting mediums that we are able to comfortably predict. I’ve always pondered why my father goes straight to Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld or other sitcoms almost regularly. By the time I was 12, I was be able to perfectly predict the reactions of each character of his favorite shows. I thought about the homeliness of sitcoms and their formula. What about it makes audiences return even though each episode can be summarized by four specific actions? The basic formula being: Character A fails at this while B tries to console A and finds humorous ways of doing so. Characters C and D go on and adventure somewhere they shouldn’t be going in spite of their friends’ advice and they run into (insert predictable …