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BERKELEY'S NEWS • NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Dealing with emptiness after you finish a TV show

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ARMAAN MUMTAZ | FILE

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Blog Writer

JULY 01, 2021

Personally, I think the emptiness you feel after finishing a great TV show you’ve been engrossed in for a while is the most universal emotion of all. As a TV show fan, I am all too familiar with this feeling. Shows take us along on a journey for several days, months or even years — depending on how long the show is and how you binge. They allow you to experience a different reality (probably one that is more exciting than your own). You’re invested in the characters and their plotlines, so when the story comes to an end, it’s normal to feel a little sad about not having that fictional escape anymore. If you are feeling the post-binge blues, here are some things you can do to cope.

Spend the extra time on a hobby

Finishing a show leaves you with a lot of time on your hands. You can spend all this extra time away from the TV and on a hobby. Maybe you already have a hobby you’re pursuing that you wish you had more time for. Or maybe there’s a new activity you’ve always wanted to try but put off because you didn’t have space in your schedule. Well, now you do! Spending more time on hobbies is a productive way of dealing with your feelings of sadness or emptiness.

Discuss it with other people

A great way to process your emotions is by discussing them with other people. If none of your friends are into the show you just finished, you can always create a post on Reddit or other social media platforms to connect with fans from across the world. You can talk about your favorite characters and scenes, whether or not you thought the ending was satisfying and things that frustrated you about the show. You may even learn something new, such as a different perspective on a scene or an understanding of a character’s motivation in doing something totally inconsistent with their persona.

Rewatch the show or watch clips of your favorite scenes

I find rewatching clips of my favorite scenes to be the best way of dealing with the blues for the first few days after finishing a show. You can find lots of videos of scenes from your show on YouTube, and you can even search for compilations or excerpts. Watching them allows you to revisit the best parts of the show. You could also take this a step further by rewatching entire episodes from the show. Or maybe you could relive the entire experience by starting from the beginning. If the show has a lot of plot twists, it’s fun to see the foreshadowing during your rewatch.

Search for a new show or book

Finding a new show to fill the void left by the one you just finished may be difficult. You may find yourself getting disappointed after watching the pilots of the shows you decided to give a try, as they don’t match up to the expectations set by the show you just finished. However, it’s still worth giving this strategy a shot. On Netflix, you can find recommendations for new shows to watch based on the ones you already watched and liked. You could ask your friends for suggestions or look up “must-watch TV shows” and pick a show from the list.

You’re definitely not alone in feeling a void when the TV show you’ve been attached to for so long comes to an end. We at the Clog hope you found our guide helpful in dealing with these feelings!

Contact Vaidehi Bulusu at [email protected].
LAST UPDATED

JULY 01, 2021


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