What does it imply when you like rewatching your favourite TV exhibits?

Within the early 2000s, only a few years earlier than Netflix started providing streaming companies and when time spent watching TV in America was at its peak, Cristel Russell had an remark: Amid the growth of recent tv sequence, why did so many individuals select to rewatch exhibits they’d already seen? Russell, a professor of promoting on the Graziadio Enterprise Faculty at Pepperdine College, realized the phenomenon utilized not solely to tv, however books, motion pictures, and journey experiences, too. “I assumed this query had already been studied,” she says. “And it turned out it had not.”

Russell and a collaborator, the advertising and marketing researcher Sidney Levy, interviewed 23 research members to parse their motivations for revisiting acquainted media. Printed in 2011, Russell and Levy’s paper helped outline the idea of a rewatch — volitional reconsumption — and defined why nostalgia isn’t the first motivation for returning to those exhibits.

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.

What did you discover motivated individuals to revisit sure media?

Going into this, I assumed that it will be nostalgia, as a result of that may have appeared like essentially the most logical cause. Contributors would say [shows were] like consolation meals. They’d return to one thing that was acquainted, and so they knew they preferred it, however they didn’t essentially keep in mind the small print of why they preferred it. They knew that it was a humorous present, however they couldn’t actually keep in mind precisely what was humorous about it, or they knew that it was a film that made them really feel good on the finish, however couldn’t keep in mind the small print. They loved it that rather more as a result of now they have been rediscovering it as if it have been new as a result of they couldn’t keep in mind precisely.

If it’s not nostalgia, then what’s at play right here?

The definition of nostalgia is a craving for the previous. It’s a want to return to a earlier time. What I discovered in my analysis is that it’s not a lot [participants] have been craving for the previous. It’s that the rewatching expertise allowed them to understand how a lot that they had grown. It wasn’t craving for the previous; it was an appreciation of the current. The deep connection that you just make to [the show] gives this self-reflexive second that you just’re like, “Wow, once I first watched this, I used to be 20. And now I’m 40. And I’ve youngsters.” You see it in another way and that means that you can be like, “I’m a distinct individual than I used to be then.”

What different misconceptions exist which are broadly accepted about rewatching?

I assumed this could be a passive conduct. I assumed that folks rewatched as a result of they wished one thing senseless. However it’s often very participating and lively. They actually wished to be transported into their present but in addition into themselves and attempting to recapture the enjoyment that they keep in mind having. We name it volitional since you select it. You need it and subsequently you might be actually into it and taking note of it.

In the course of the pandemic, many individuals have been rewatching exhibits, partly because of the truth that manufacturing on new exhibits and movies had stalled. However what else fueled our choices to revisit TV throughout this time of disaster?

Consolation. I do suppose there’s a component of, “I do know this isn’t going to disappoint me as a result of I keep in mind liking it.” Identical to whenever you take a look at an enormous menu at a restaurant and also you take a look at all these different issues that you just’ve by no means tried, however you at all times find yourself ordering the pad thai with shrimp. We generally tend to revert to the acquainted — that’s a human drive — and particularly at instances of disaster. I feel we noticed a few of that within the pandemic. However due to streaming entry, you may have so many selections that you just simply don’t know the best way to make sense of all of it. So you find yourself simply being like, “Oh, I’ll take the one which I do know as a result of I can’t digest these lots of of 1000’s of various choices that I’ve on my Roku and Netflix.”

It’s attention-grabbing that you just level that out as a result of I’ve been noticing individuals round my age rewatching the HBO present Ladies which aired about 10 years in the past, which isn’t that way back. However I feel for individuals of my technology, we’re reflecting on our youth.

We additionally typically see how society has modified. It makes you notice the progress that society might need made, or at the very least the adjustments. I see it as progressive the place you see that you just your self have modified, however perhaps additionally the world that you just stay in has modified. So it’s just a little window to the previous. However this window to the previous means that you can see the current extra clearly.

What makes a great rewatch present? Have they got sure qualities or traits or is it extra so in regards to the particular person’s style?

Truthfully, I’m nonetheless trying to find the reply. In actual fact, I’ve a venture occurring proper now that’s about what makes successful as a result of I do suppose there are particular patterns. My co-author and I feel there’s one thing associated to the cultural zeitgeist — {that a} present faucets into a specific cultural zeitgeist and that’s what makes it change into successful when it first comes out.

There are common traits that can make it stick throughout these generations, like friendships. Seinfeld is a gaggle of mates. Pals is a gaggle of mates. So there’s plenty of components, which is why it’s so onerous to reply these questions. And my job, as a researcher, is to attempt to distill it all the way down to the important components.

I feel doubtless it’s going to return all the way down to the fundamental Greek types like tragedy, comedy.

Does binge-watching impression the way in which that we revisit and reinterpret a present that we in all probability watched when it aired weekly?

I’ve one other paper referred to as Narrative Navigation, it’s additionally about TV, and in that one, what we seen was within the streaming age, individuals navigate the exhibits that they watch, and particularly the exhibits that they rewatch, very in another way. I rewatch issues from begin to end. We might discover that folks would watch the ending first. Or they might skip complete scenes as a result of there’s a personality that they don’t like. Or simply watch the final season.

The general public we interviewed have been doing all this piecemeal viewing or skipping or pausing. Many have been even going on the web to e-book a visit so they may go go to the spot that they only noticed on the present.

What do individuals get out of it by watching it in these methods?

Mainly now they’re in management. Within the outdated days, it was right here’s your Thursday evening lineup. And also you’ve obtained to attend till subsequent Thursday to see the subsequent episode. Now we’re fed your entire three seasons of a sequence , and so that you get to decide on the tempo at which you watch it. It’s not one measurement suits all anymore. It was once linear. Even when they recorded it, most individuals watched TV fairly near when episodes have been launched. Now it’s everywhere.

What has stunned you essentially the most out of your analysis on rewatching?

Regardless of what number of instances individuals repeated watching the identical TV sequence, they might at all times choose up on new issues in it. The reason being as a result of individuals are hyper-responsive. In different phrases, they’ve totally devoted their consideration. We’re so distracted in fashionable life. That is truly a manner of focusing your consideration on one thing since you find it irresistible a lot. This hyper-attentiveness and hyper-responsiveness makes you suppose, “I didn’t even discover, within the background of the backyard over there, they’re rising this flower.” The primary time you by no means even seen there was a backyard within the background as a result of we’re trying on the characters. It’s virtually like an infinite provide of novelty, despite the fact that you’re truly doing one thing that’s the identical.