Comfort binge
These are our series that feel right at home
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Who doesn’t know it: Gray rainy weather, a bad mood or just a bad day – only your favorite series can help. Comfort binge can be so comforting. We once put together which series feel at home for us.
We can sing along to the title song, say the dialogue word for word and still watch our favorite series over and over again. And that despite the fact that the selection of the various streaming services is huge. This phenomenon has been given a name: comfort binge.
Comfort Binge: We can watch our favorite series over and over again
Author Alexis Nedd used the term on the news site Mashable for series we watch when we’re exhausted, lazy or in a bad mood. It’s about getting the greatest pleasure from the comfort binge “with minimal effort,” Nedd wrote.
We are familiar with the series that we watch over and over again, the protagonists are like friends with whom we have already mastered many things in life. We know the feeling when we dive into the world of the series, we’re fine and it’s like coming home and having a nice evening with your friends.
Some old favorite series seem a bit outdated today
However, one thing quickly becomes clear with many older series: You probably wouldn’t shoot it like that today. Because many series such as Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls and Friends play with clichés and ways of thinking that we tend to criticize in society today. There are homophobic traits, sexist comments and sometimes even racist approaches. This shows how outdated the series actually are. Nevertheless, they give you a pleasant feeling, even if some have a bland aftertaste.
These are our editors’ series that feel right at home
1 out of 7
Grey’s Anatomy
Julia: The comforting thing about Grey’s Anatomy is that no matter how bad fate is with the protagonists, a few episodes later everything is fine again. Nothing can be so terrible that it throws Meredith and Co completely off course. But it’s dramatic enough to snap me out of my day-to-day life for at least 40 minutes. So every Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. as a teenager, I fought for my place in front of the TV and watched the doctors with my sister. It relaxes me just as much now as it did back then. Good thing there are about… a lot of seasons and episodes.
2 out of 7
friend
Annalena: When I’m in a bad mood, one thing (almost) always helps: Watching Friends. And while I don’t insist otherwise, Joey, Phoebe, Rachel, Chandler, Ross and Rachel have to be watched in English. Because the gags are so much better! With the series, you always have the feeling of being part of the clique yourself, take a seat on the sofa with Monica and immediately feel at home. After 3 – 4 episodes, the mood has usually increased considerably because you just laughed so much. Thank you dear friends!
3 out of 7
Gilmore Girls
Sina: “If you’re out on the road. Feeling lonely, and so cold. All you have to do is call my name and I’ll be there on the next train”: As soon as the first notes of the Gilmore Girls’ theme song sound, I feel inner peace. Even if there is usually not much peace to be found in the jittery mother-daughter team. This series has been with me since I was a teenager. Stars Hollow has become almost like a second home and from the sofa I wander with the two of them through the small house with the overgrown garden, through the Dragon Fly or through the hallways of Yale. Rory’s obsession with learning, reading a lot, the fascination of studying and the desire to be a journalist inspired me – without the Gilmore Girls I might not be an editor today. Of course it’s clear to me: Today the series with all its clichés and prejudices wouldn’t be filmed like that anymore, but I owe her a lot and that’s why it remains my home series.
4 out of 7
How I met your mother
Mareike: how I met your mother: Yes, from today’s point of view the series is teeming with difficult man-woman relationships and is well sexist. I don’t care, I don’t want to hear. When I’m sick or in a bad mood, looking inside feels like visiting MacLaren’s, where you meet your four best friends and talk about the fact that things don’t always go well – but at the end of the day you’re still not alone is. Friendship as you want it.
5 out of 7
Queer Eye and Turkish for Beginners
Laura: When I watch the US makeover series Queer Eye, I always feel completely loved and mentally wrapped in a cozy blanket: Every episode is highly emotional, but it always ends well and in between I have to laugh a lot. The five queer men who turn other people’s lives upside down have long felt like my friends, whose recipes, styling tricks and love advice I gratefully accept. In the past, after a hard day at school, the evening series Turkish for Beginners provided exactly that feeling. Last summer I looked through all the seasons again, but then I was shocked at how outdated many views and dialogues are – I thought the plot about a German-Turkish blended family almost 15 years ago was totally progressive. Glad we’re on now.
6 out of 7
This is us
Laura: My absolute favorite series, which always gives me a good, secure feeling and builds me up, is: This is us. The different fates within the family and the different ways of life and points of view of the characters in the series show again and again that nothing is impossible and that there is a solution for everything. Life goes on, just when you have other plans, life makes its own.
7 out of 7
Good times Bad Times
Rick: My Guilty Pleasure is actually good times bad times (GZSZ). Whenever I’m in a bad mood or don’t know what to watch, I catch up on the episodes I haven’t seen before. Always feels right at home for me as I used to watch it with my mom and sister – a nice memory.
Should we stop watching the series now? This is difficult to answer and in the end everyone has to decide for themselves. There is always criticism of old series or children’s radio plays. But we should keep in mind that many Comfort Binge series were shot at a different time and therefore had a different social orientation. Series change over time and, in principle, always show the current state of development – just like films.
If you look at it with these glasses, you can see the criticism and still enjoy the comfort of the series. Perhaps series shot today will also be viewed critically in ten years’ time.