There was a time when television wasn’t something you scrolled past; it was something you waited for. You’d rush home from school, fling your bag on the sofa, and pray that NEPA didn’t strike before 8 p.m.
They’re the ones you turn to when your life feels chaotic, when work emails won’t stop, or when the world outside just won’t give you a break. They’re the shows that make you exhale, laugh, or remember who you were when things were simpler.
They’re the series we’ve built relationships with, the fictional worlds that feel like home, the characters who’ve become as familiar as family members.
Let’s explore the shows we can’t stop rewatching
1. The Office (2005-2013)
There’s something special about The Office. Years after it ended, it remains one of the most-streamed shows on any platform. People don’t just watch it, they live with it, keeping it running in the background like a particularly entertaining roommate.
The Dunder Mifflin paper company shouldn’t be comfortable viewing. The boss is an insufferable narcissist. The workplace is dysfunctional.
Half the employees are miserable, and the other half are too oblivious to realise they should be. Yet somehow, we return to this beige-walled office space again and again, finding new details to love even after the hundredth viewing.
What makes The Office so rewatchable? First, the mockumentary format creates intimacy. Those talking-head interviews, the knowing glances at the camera, the sense that we’re in on the joke, it all makes us feel like part of the documentary crew, observing these characters’ lives alongside them.
The Office excels as background viewing. You can tune in and out, catching familiar moments without needing full attention.
2. Friends (1994-2004)
Friends is the ultimate comfort show, the chicken soup of television. It’s been over twenty years since it ended, yet new generations continue discovering and rewatching it, making it one of streaming platforms’ most valuable properties.
The show’s premise is simple: six friends in New York navigating relationships, careers, and life’s challenges. What makes it eternal is how it captures a particular fantasy, the idea that your friends are your chosen family, that your twenties and thirties can be an extended adolescence of hanging out in coffee shops and enormous apartments you definitely couldn’t afford in real life.
Friends works as comfort viewing partly because it’s an aspirational fantasy. Monica’s apartment is unrealistically spacious and beautiful. The characters have flexible jobs that allow them to spend all day at Central Perk.
This fantasy is exactly why we return. In stressful times, Friends offers an escape to a world where your biggest problem might be which romantic partner to choose or whether you should take a job in Paris. The stakes feel meaningful within the show’s universe but blessedly low-stakes from outside it.
3. Parks and Recreation (2009-2015)
In a cynical age, Parks and Recreation offers something radical: optimism. The show genuinely believes that government can work, that public servants can make a difference, and that people are fundamentally good despite their flaws.
Leslie Knope‘s relentless positivity could be annoying, but instead, it’s inspiring. Her love for her town, her dedication to public service, her belief that waffles and friendship and community can solve most problems, it’s exactly the tonic we need when the real world feels overwhelming.
Like The Office, Parks and Rec features a workplace ensemble, but the tone is warmer. Yes, there are buffoons like Jerry (or is it Larry? Or Gary?) and deadpan cynics like April, but the show treats everyone with affection. Even characters introduced as antagonists eventually reveal hidden depths.
One of the show’s most rewatchable elements is the Leslie-Ron friendship. They disagree on everything politically yet develop profound mutual respect and affection.
Parks and Rec rewards long-term viewing with emotional payoffs that feel earned. These emotional beats make rewatching satisfying. You know where everyone ends up, and seeing the journey again with that knowledge adds layers to earlier episodes.
3. The Golden Girls (1985-1992)
Long before Friends or Parks and Rec, The Golden Girls established the template for comfort sitcoms: a found family, witty banter, recurring gags, and underlying warmth that makes everything feel safe and welcoming.
Four older women sharing a house in Miami shouldn’t have been revolutionary, but it was. The show centred on women over fifty, a demographic television usually ignores, and gave them full, complex lives including active sex lives, career ambitions, and deep friendships.
The Golden Girls remains funny decades later because the humour is character-driven rather than topical. Rose’s St. Olaf stories, Dorothy’s sardonic wit, Blanche’s sexual confidence, Sophia’s cutting one-liners, these character traits generate endless variations on familiar themes without feeling repetitive.
Beneath the comedy, The Golden Girls tackled serious issues with surprising depth. The show addressed ageing, death, illness, sexuality, discrimination, and loss with honesty wrapped in humour. Episodes could be genuinely moving while maintaining comedic tone.
This emotional authenticity makes rewatching meaningful. You laugh at the jokes but also feel the underlying themes about ageing with dignity, maintaining friendships, and facing life’s challenges with humour and grace.
4. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996)
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air took a simple premise, a street-smart West Philadelphia teen moves in with wealthy relatives in Bel-Air, and created something that worked as a family sitcom, social commentary, and star-making vehicle for Will Smith all at once.
The show is infinitely rewatchable, partly because it operates on multiple levels. Kids enjoy the physical comedy and Will’s charisma. Adults appreciate the exploration of class, race, and family dynamics. Everyone loves the fashion, the music, and Alfonso Ribeiro’s incredible dancing.
