A Country Practice

Neighbours vs Friends: we found out which beloved show fans mourned more when it ended

Retrieved on: 
月曜日, 9月 18, 2023
Resuscitation, Game of Thrones, Cancer, Anger, Research, Affection, Sadness, Friends, Amazon, Death, Grief, Parasocial interaction, Time, Reading, Empathy, Character, Television, A Country Practice, Music, Tourism, Online shopping, Surveying, Electric motor, Neighbours

Perhaps you’ve experienced this sadness on reaching the last page of a book that you’d been reading for months?

Key Points: 
  • Perhaps you’ve experienced this sadness on reaching the last page of a book that you’d been reading for months?
  • Importantly, parasocial relationships, which are connections we form with media characters or personalities, are valued, and we often take them seriously.
  • Let’s consider the television series Friends, whose finale in 2004 was watched by over 52 million US viewers.

When good Neighbours become lost friends

    • I decided to examine the grief and loss reactions of Neighbours fans and what factors were associated with them feeling this loss more acutely.
    • They also described the level of their grief and loss, similar to the survey Friends fans had completed almost 20 years earlier.
    • Importantly, at the time of completing the survey, fans had no indication that the series would be revived in late 2023.

You’re breaking up with me?

    • When Molly Jones passed away from cancer on the Australian series A Country Practice in 1985, the nation almost entered a state of collective mourning.
    • Similarly, exits like Maggie Doyle in Blue Heelers and Dr Patrick Reid in Offspring had Australian viewers reaching for their tissue boxes.
    • The deaths of many key characters, including Robb Stark, at the wedding of in Game of Thrones shocked viewers.

Grief, gratitude and viewer motives

    • Not surprisingly, given the series had only just concluded, they did not report feeling a sense of closure to their grief.
    • However, they were very grateful for the role Neighbours had played in their lives and what it had given them.
    • Fans who experienced greater grief and loss reactions had formed strong relationships with their favourite character, involving empathy and understanding.

Finding the perfect blend

    • The sadness we feel when a character or series leaves the parasocial world makes sense from a relationships perspective.
    • Indeed, other studies have found that we react to the deaths of celebrities in some ways as if we knew them.
    • Parasocial relationships do not allow us to experience the satisfaction that reciprocation in feelings, connection or bonds from a relationship partner affords us.