What is a Comfort Movie?

Why Do I Watch the Same Shows Over and Over Again?

We all have our comfort shows and movies. Whether it’s the default show we put on when we’re sad, the story we come back to every year around the holidays, or the movie that we watch to be transported back to middle school sleepovers – we love them and can’t go too long without a re-watch.

I’ve always wondered what it is about certain movies and shows that takes such a hold on us – yeah, some of them are just really high quality works of art. But some of them aren’t – some of my favourite things to watch are objectively bad. So what is it that keeps us coming back? 

Maybe it’s because we see – or want to see – part of ourselves in the characters we become obsessed with. We fight their battles alongside them. We learn to overcome challenges and defeat monsters and go on amazing adventures. We become champions, too – at least for a span of thirty minutes to three hours.

Maybe it’s because we grow up alongside them. We share in their successes and failure. We fall in love and have our hearts broken together. We learn the same lessons that our favourite characters do. And when our favourite characters learn how to be better people, it makes us want to be better right along with them. 

Maybe it’s the memories we make along the way. The people we curl up next to as we watch our favourite movies. The friends we laugh with as our favourite shows provide a little background noise. The memories of our own lives that we get to relive as we watch someone else’s unfold. 

Most of all, I think it’s all three. There’s some magical combination that happens when we see ourselves reflected on screen, when we see who we want to be. When we watch magic unfold while someone we love is beside us, along for the ride. Whatever it is, I’m grateful for it.