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[Regenia Junke]

A few weeks ago, I tweeted that I was looking for fans of The Office who can't stop, won't stop rewatching the series, and that they should email me if they'd like to contribute to an article about their obsession. By the next morning, I had 32 messages in my inbox with subject lines like, "I will rewatch The Office until I'm dead" and "YES I WATCH THE OFFICE ON REPEAT AND I HAVE NO SHAME." I'd noticed that rewatching The Office seemed to be a very common activity, with fans posting about their rewatches on Twitter and memes about it popping up on Instagram. But why? Through emails from fans and talking to experts in psychology and media, I set out to find out why exactly rewatching The Office is such A Thing.

I get loving The Office. That part is totally understandable. After Season 1, NBC re-ran the entire six-episode season, and flipping around my parents' non-cable TV while bored one evening led me to find what is now my favorite comedy of all time. I watched every episode that aired that night. I was hooked.

I watched the show through to the finale, but for me and other fans, viewing The Office didn't end when the show did in 2013. In the time since it premiered, Netflix has taken over, and now fans like me can relive "Your dentist's name is... Crentist?" whenever we want. And whenever we want is, apparently, all the time.

Another fan, Sara, who is now 22, explains that the show helped her through a death she experienced when she was 15: "I had just lost a member of my family to cancer and had no real coping skills or support system, so I legitimately spent a huge portion of that summer watching every season on Netflix."

Others said The Office was there for them through trauma or heartbreak. "Sometimes I go a month or two without watching, but I mostly started it as a way to kind of distract from trauma I was experiencing when I was young," writes Kathleen, 20. And Sahra, also 20, explains, "I watched the series for the first time the summer I graduated high school. I was going through my first heartbreak and as silly as it sounds The Office was there for me."

And, of course, there are much lighter reasons why fans watch the series, too. Erin, 26, bonds with her family over the show: "Every Christmas my family sits down after opening gifts and we watch every Office Christmas episode."

Then, there are the love stories. "Growing up, I remember hearing people say, 'There's a lid for every pot', and The Office demonstrates this idea well," writes 28-year-old Randyl. "Of course, like many, I loved Jim and Pam ... but the Michael/Holly and Dwight/Angela romances were what made me truly believe that there's someone out there for everyone."

Like that last comment, some of the responses were self-deprecating, but it's clear that there's no need to be. If you think you're weird for having seen the entire series 15 times, there's someone else out there who quoted The Office in their high school yearbook. (It was me. I am that person.) But why this show? It's easy to say it's because of the characters or the jokes or the familiarity, but a lot of shows can provide that. Why is The Office the one where the connection is so strong?

Pamela Rutledge, the director of the Media Psychology Research Center, has an idea that goes deeper than just loving Michael's one-liners or Jim and Pam's love story. "The Office is an ensemble production, which means there are multiple psychological access points and emotional hooks to enter the world," she tells me via email. "People can identify with all sorts of situations in the context of office politics and interpersonal relationships." In other words, while you might relate to Jim's job anxiety one day, the next time you're watching, you might really connect with Kelly's situation with Ryan (if so, sorry about that).

Rutledge further explains that watching the show can actually have a physical effect on your mind and body: "Anxiety that might be generated by personal associations is alleviated through humor which changes our body chemistry, reducing stress and improving our sense of well-being." This speaks to the many responses from people who said watching The Office improves their mental health or helped when they were going through a tough time.

But it's not just about the emotional experience and our subconsciouses getting used to the show. There is something particular about The Office's writing and production that sets it apart. Bustle Associate TV Editor Martha Sorren thinks the setting of the show provides a soothing quality that keeps people coming back.

"I have a theory that the contained set is a large part of why people rewatch The Office," she says. "You always know exactly what it's going to look like, who sits where, and what's going to happen when. It's a neutral resting place for your brain because everything always looks the same. There's no work for your mind to do, and therefore it's the truest form of relaxation TV."

Greg DePaul, who teaches Sitcom Writing at the New School and wrote the movies Bride Wars and Saving Silverman, also mentions the workplace setting, but thinks the show being incredibly detail-oriented is part of what makes fans rewatch.

It really has it all, and that just becomes more and more apparent each time you watch. "The Office just hits the right buttons," Davenport says. "If you want some absurdist quirky shit, you've got that. If you want bonafide love stories, it has that. If you want heartwarming friendships or just hilarious comedy, they've got you."

We might not all go to such lengths, but if it was possible for the show to truly disappear out of our lives (or, you know, leave Netflix), it would be a major blow. Usually with TV shows, you might think that one viewing is enough; with The Office, a lot of people really need it.

"In one episode Jim asks Pam what movie she would take to a stranded island with her that she could watch forever and never get sick of," writes Emily, 23, summing up the entire situation with a reference, like any true fan should. "I would pick all seasons of The Office."

Professor Maureen Robinson is a character on Netflix's Lost in Space. She has a PhD in Engineering, and was one of the four principal engineers responsible for the design of the Resolute's safety systems. She has three children with John Robinson; Penny Robinson, Will Robinson, and Judy Robinson.

Maureen dislikes the idea of weapons within her household, preferring to find unique and clever solutions to protect her family and the other colonists. As opposed to her husband, she trusts the Robot, feeling that it is protecting her son, Will. She never had any siblings, but thinks it would have been nice. ("Infestation")

Maureen is very outgoing and always wants to keep her family safe no matter what. This sometimes led her to actions of questionable morality. In one such instance, she was determined that her son Will would join her family on the 24th Mission despite Will having failed the stress test required of all colonists on the mission. In order to secure him a spot, she traded secret information with an individual in order to falsify his test results. ("Impact") This later came back to haunt her, when the information she bartered turned out to be security codes, which were used against her by Hastings, an intelligence officer of the Resolute. ("Unknown")

One of Maureen's boldest actions was leading a mutiny against the acting captain of the Resolute, Captain Kamal, upon learning that the crew of the vessel planned to leave behind those stranded on the amber planet due to most of the vessel's water being poisoned and not having enough water to sustain more than a skeleton crew. She hatched her own plan to purify the vessel's water, but in order to do had to take command of the bridge. She worked together with both her family, as well as the devious "Dr. Smith," against her better judgment. From the info they gathered, she learned that Neil Caird, the security officer assigned to the bridge, owed his life to a man named Anton Penn who was still trapped on the planet. She used this information against him to convince him to lock out the security team that had been sent to the bridge to stop her.

Maureen quickly put her plan into motion. Although Kamal had her doubts, she told her that while she may have made mistakes in the past when it came to her family, she did not make mistakes when it came to her job. However, the one thing that she couldn't account for her was human nature. Hastings was dead-set against her, and used the codes that she had given him against her at a critical moment. While Maureen's mutiny failed, Kamal nevertheless chose to trust her math and go through with the plan anyways. Although her plan at purifying the vessel's water was successful, her actions ultimately fomented distrust against her and her family throughout the vessel. ("Unknown")

Despite this distrust, the group was able to move forward past it and come together. When it became clear that the Resolute was under imminent attack from a group of alien Robots, Judy came up with a risky plan: placing ninety-seven children aboard a Jupiter spacecraft and launching for Alpha Centauri in the hope of at least saving them. Maureen was horrified at the idea, refusing at first to even discuss it. Judy, however, revealed that she had learned something about Maureen: how she had traded with Hastings in order to falsify Will's stress test results to get him approved to come on the mission. She told her that for the first time in her life she was disappointed in her, but continued that it was okay, that she finally understood that sometimes an imperfect solution was all you had. Maureen told her that it was different, but hearing what Judy was saying, John told Maureen that Judy was right. Sobbing, Maureen finally accepted the solution, even though it tore her apart. Afterwards, as the Robots attacked, Maureen realized that she could buy necessary time for the children to get away by destroying the Resolute. In order to do so, she reluctantly made the decision to once again contact Hastings in order to get the needed access codes. He was surprised, but immediately complied upon learning her reasoning. ("Ninety-Seven")

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