Within the early 2000s, just some years earlier than Netflix started providing streaming companies and when time spent watching TV in America was at its peak, Cristel Russell had an commentary: Amid the growth of recent tv collection, why did so many individuals select to rewatch reveals they’d already seen? Russell, a professor of promoting on the Graziadio Enterprise College at Pepperdine College, realized the phenomenon utilized not solely to tv, however books, films, and journey experiences, too. “I believed 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 examine members to parse their motivations for revisiting acquainted media. Revealed 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 reveals.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
What did you discover motivated folks to revisit sure media?
Going into this, I believed that it could be nostalgia, as a result of that may have appeared like essentially the most logical cause. Individuals would say [shows were] like consolation meals. They’d return to one thing that was acquainted, they usually knew they favored it, however they didn’t essentially bear in mind the main points of why they favored it. They knew that it was a humorous present, however they couldn’t actually bear 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 bear in mind the main points. They loved it that rather more as a result of now they had been rediscovering it as if it had been new as a result of they couldn’t bear 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] had been craving for the previous. It’s that the rewatching expertise allowed them to understand how a lot they’d 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] supplies 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 children.” You see it in another way and that lets you be like, “I’m a special particular person than I used to be then.”
What different misconceptions exist which can be extensively accepted about rewatching?
I believed this might be a passive habits. I believed that folks rewatched as a result of they needed one thing senseless. Nevertheless it’s normally very partaking and energetic. They actually needed to be transported into their present but additionally into themselves and attempting to recapture the enjoyment that they bear in mind having. We name it volitional since you select it. You need it and due to this fact you might be actually into it and being attentive to it.
In the course of the pandemic, many individuals had been rewatching reveals, partly attributable to the truth that manufacturing on new reveals and movies had stalled. However what else fueled our choices to revisit TV throughout this time of disaster?
Consolation. I do assume there’s a component of, “I do know this isn’t going to disappoint me as a result of I bear in mind liking it.” Identical to while 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 all the time find yourself ordering the pad thai with shrimp. We tend to revert to the acquainted — that’s a human drive — and particularly at instances of disaster. I believe we noticed a few of that within the pandemic. However due to streaming entry, you will have so many decisions that you just simply don’t know easy methods 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 folks round my age rewatching the HBO present Women which aired about 10 years in the past, which isn’t that way back. However I believe for folks of my technology, we’re reflecting on our youth.
We additionally generally see how society has modified. It makes you notice the progress that society might need made, or not less than 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 a bit of window to the previous. However this window to the previous lets you 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 truth, I’ve a venture happening proper now that’s about what makes a success as a result of I do assume there are specific patterns. My co-author and I believe there’s one thing associated to the cultural zeitgeist — {that a} present faucets into a specific cultural zeitgeist and that’s what makes it turn out to be a success when it first comes out.
There are common traits that may make it stick throughout these generations, like friendships. Seinfeld is a gaggle of mates. Associates is a gaggle of mates. So there’s a whole lot 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 believe seemingly it’s going to return all the way down to the essential Greek types like tragedy, comedy.
Does binge-watching impression the best way that we revisit and reinterpret a present that we in all probability watched when it aired weekly?
I’ve one other paper known as Narrative Navigation, it’s additionally about TV, and in that one, what we observed was within the streaming age, folks navigate the reveals that they watch, and particularly the reveals that they rewatch, very in another way. I rewatch issues from begin to end. We’d 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.
Most people we interviewed had been doing all this piecemeal viewing or skipping or pausing. Many had been even going on the web to ebook a visit so they may go go to the spot that they simply noticed on the present.
What do folks 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 night time lineup. And also you’ve obtained to attend till subsequent Thursday to see the following episode. Now we’re fed the complete three seasons of a collection unexpectedly, 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 linear. Even when they recorded it, most individuals watched TV fairly near when episodes had been launched. Now it’s far and wide.
What has stunned you essentially the most out of your analysis on rewatching?
Irrespective of what number of instances folks repeated watching the identical TV collection, they might all the time decide up on new issues in it. The reason being as a result of persons are hyper-responsive. In different phrases, they’ve totally devoted their consideration. We’re so distracted in trendy life. That is really a approach of focusing your consideration on one thing since you find it irresistible a lot. This hyper-attentiveness and hyper-responsiveness makes you assume, “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 observed there was a backyard within the background as a result of we’re wanting on the characters. It’s virtually like an countless provide of novelty, although you’re really doing one thing that’s the identical.
