Do you know why I only watch movies which I know will end happily? It's because my mood is almost immediately altered by what I see on screen. The reason behind it, according to my diagnosis at least, is investment. I feel an almost unhealthy level of investment in the lives of the people I watch in movies and TV shows. Don't ask me why the same doesn't apply to books; I simply do not know.
When I watch a TV show, say for example Parks and Recreation (which I absolutely adore), I get very deeply invested in the idea that Leslie Knope (if you don't know who that is, you need to get on google, and then go and watch every episode of P&R available in your country. Seriously.) will succeed, and will end up happily ever after with Ben Wyatt. If Jim and Pam hadn't gotten together at the end of the 3rd season of The Office, I might have thrown something at my television.
This unhealthy investment, or UI for short, extends even more so into the romantic lives of the characters I watch, especially on TV. After I have spent years tracking the progression of a fake relationship on TV, I am super pissed if it doesn't pay off, I feel real sorrow when TV characters don't get together. Perhaps it's the lack of any real drama in my own life (a condition I work very, very, very hard towards achieving, BTW) and the complete vacuum where a love life should be, but I feel real feelings for the fake couples on my television set.
Before you rush to the comments section to tell my how crazy I am, believe me, I know. I don't sleep. Which means countless days and nights are spent getting UIed in the lives of people invented by nerdy, bespectacled writers sitting somewhere in an office in Los Angeles or London. And since there is no great love story waiting in the wings for me, I think there is an even more pressing reason I need for these fake loves to work out, in some way, shape or form.
So, here's the thing, the sleeplessness and emotional unhealthiness have combined to make me care more deeply in whether Meredith and Derek on Grey's Anatomy will end up together, than in the real issues of people I actually know. And I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.
