Para-Social Relationship with Downton Abbey

Para-Social Relationships are a one sided affair, especially when it comes to watching your favorite TV Shows and Movies. But even though most of us know that these characters aren’t real and can’t communicate back to us, we don’t care. We still feel this connection and love for these fictional characters that we watch on a screen.

I am completely guilty of this when it comes to my TV shows. When I get invested in a show, I don’t only get invested in the story lines but the well-being of each of these characters. The ones that I like, I feel real sorrow when someone hurts them, if I hate a character then I feel real hatred whenever they do something that I don’t like. And if someone I like on a show dies, then it really feels like I just lost someone that I am not going to see again.

I don’t know what I feel this way with my shows, but it just happens as I get invested. The best example I have of this is when I am watching one of my favorites shows “Downton Abbey.” This is a show about a family living in the 1920 and the stories of them and their servants. I find myself becoming extremely invested in the fates of the characters, I want lady Edith to find someone, I want Lady Mary to be happy after all that has happened to her, I want Carson to stay the way he is. And there is something about the deaths that occurred in this show that really made me feel down. On the days I watched episodes where something bad happened, I found myself actually feeling worse throughout the day because of it.

I am hoping that I am not the only one who feels this level of commitment when it comes to watching TV. But I really feel that the sign of a great show is a show that makes their audience feel a true connection to the characters.