I recently started re-watching Elementary starring Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. My husband couldn't understand. He said: "It's a crime show. Don't you already know 'who did it' in every episode already?" This got me thinking about why people consistently re-watch or re-read things they've already experienced.
I examined myself first. Why did I start re-watching Elementary? It's not because I know what happens; it is because of the characters, the relationships, the interactions, the tiny human details that have me going back to it. I want to see Johnny Lee Miller's Sherlock grow through the seasons again. I want to laugh at the funny parts about their pet tortoise Clyde's knitted cozies again. I want to watch Lucy Liu's Watson discover her true calling as a detective again.
I realized I am like this with almost every show or movie that I have re-watched more than one or two times. The ones that I go back to consistently give me a sort of feeling... a comfort that I cannot accurately explain. They draw me in and kind of allow me to lose myself for a while in their characters and plots.
I am particularly prone to re-watching television shows and movies, and certain genres more often than others. My husband is more keen on revisiting movies rather than TV shows. Maybe because taking on show is more time consuming than a movie. However, that does not stop me. I can safely say that there are a fair few shows that I have seen all the way through at least 3 or 4 times. That is quite the time commitment. When it comes to movies though - move out the way! I've seen some films on the 20+ times scale. *cough* Harry Potter *cough*
One thing I do not do however, which is very quite surprising considering a lot of what my blogging has been about lately: I don't re-read books. The only book that I have re-read in recent memory was The Chrysalids (1955). I did it for my Reading Challenge and at that point I hadn't read it since I was in high school. So even then it wasn't a recent re-visit. Some people will re-read a book in back-to-back sessions. I mean, I get it. You want to soak up every last detail and you might catch things the second go around that you didn't the first time. I don't know why I don't re-read things. Maybe I just absorb things really well the first time and then my mind doesn't feel the need to go back. Maybe I just enjoy visual story-telling more, but I don't think so, because I also really like reading. This might require further thought and reflection on my part...
Another thing, I just realized, that I don't do: I don't really re-play video games either. This is where my husband shines. He loves to re-play video games, so does my one girl friend. And it is consistently the same games over and over again.
Why do humans do this? A big part of the human experience is to try new things, have new adventures and make new memories. Yet, we live in a digital age of constant re-living those things that we enjoyed. Is this part of a "nostalgia cycle" that kids that grew up in the '90s are prone too? ('90s Kids are Obsessed with the '90s) It's hard to say, but this re-run, re-play, re-watch, re-read, re-live, re-boot, re-visit trend seems to be here to stay for a while.
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