Our deeply polarized society, the recent election, and even the cancellation of some of our favorite shows have all hit us hard.
But the good news is that watching TV is more than just an escape.
Some of our favorite TV shows offer unexpected life lessons, and you never know what you’ll learn when you tune in.
Irrationality teaches us how to stay stable in difficult times
NBC’s Irrational is one of the funniest heartwarming suspense dramas around, but it’s much more than that.
Alec Mercer actually teaches every week. His neuroscience lectures focus on different aspects of the brain’s workings, often including demonstrations and experiments to illustrate his points.
Alec doesn’t teach life lessons specifically, but his exploration of neuroscience does teach his philosophy of life, which is based on his understanding of the brain.
Alec’s life is guided by two guiding principles:
- The brain processes emotions before reason, so you must identify emotional triggers and put them aside
- Trauma makes the brain want to protect itself, but life must be lived to the fullest
I’ve found the first principle to be an especially useful life lesson, even if I haven’t fully grasped it yet.
During difficult times, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by your emotions and make decisions that aren’t in your best interest.
Fear is a particularly strong motivator. It causes people to go into flight or fight mode, often making decisions that end up harming them as they try to protect themselves.
Alec’s speech in the first episode of Irrational Season 2 about emotional triggers and his advice to wait for the emotion to go away before making a big decision are things I’ve never heard in my life, but they come from Television characters have a greater impact.
Cooling off periods is something I now consciously try to do.
Alec doesn’t just teach these lessons in his lectures.
He lives by them.
He demonstrates the principle of living life to the fullest despite everything life throws at you every day, and despite the trauma he endured, he still gets up and does his job.
Despite this, he’s also one of the happiest characters on the show, whereas Phoebe is struggling this season as she chooses safety over continuing her adventures with Alec, and she’s not happy with her new job.
Phoebe’s story contains subtle messages about the cost of choosing safety over living fully, and the consequences of doing so.
More recently, Irrational has also included life lessons about the cost of doing the right thing
In the current political climate, doing the right thing is more important than ever, but it won’t be easy.
Irrational offers useful life lessons here, too. I particularly enjoyed the conversation between Phoebe and Kelly in Irrational Season 2 Episode 4.
When Phoebe is hesitant to come forward after she realizes that her new boss plagiarized student work, Kelly tells her that she only recently learned how hard it can be, and she knows that because she herself chose to come forward and give her the credit for her coding group Hacker, but they then rejected her.
People will reject you and people in power will use it to hurt you.
No, that’s not one of those life lessons I’m talking about. Kelly’s deeper point is that you have to know what the consequences are and choose to do the right thing.
This awareness makes all the difference. It’s easier to advocate for the right approach if you’ve already assessed the consequences and developed a plan to deal with it.
Watch “Irrational” online
Discovery teaches us to protect our happiness
Discovery is an important show because it includes a group of predominantly black women who stand up for missing people who have fallen through the cracks of the system.
It also teaches us some important life lessons about how to cope with trauma.
In the days following the presidential election, I kept thinking back to a scene from Discovery season 2, episode 5, in which teenage Gabby tells Bella:
If we are free now and let Sir steal our joy, then he has won. We don’t want him to win.
This is an extremely important message in these frightening and frustrating times. I think it’s the same message that my candidate espouses, but in a different form.
Regardless, it resonates with me so much right now and remembering not to let anyone steal my joy helps me stay stable and keep moving forward during these difficult times.
watch online
I learned many life lessons from my noble blood
One of the many reasons why I was heartbroken by the end of “Blue Bloods” is that there was so much to learn from the Reagan family.
Its heroes are human beings with flaws, relatability, and opinions.
Blue Bloods teaches the most important life lesson every week: know what you believe and stick to it.
Frank lived a life of integrity, or attempted to do so, which meant that his decisions were often made without regard to political considerations such as optics.
He’s a threat to his opponents, but they respect him, and that comes from him knowing who he is and what he stands for.
There is no more important life lesson than this.
Of course, there are other life lessons in every episode. Every week I find at least one Frank Regan quote that I want to pin on a meme.
His advice to Mayor Chase, “Serve the city, not your ego,” is one of my favorite pieces of advice of late.
You can always rely on Henry to learn life lessons, too. One of the best things about Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 11 is the suggestion he gives Jamie about some criminals who stole a car that once belonged to Joe:
Never hold on to material possessions. Worry about what you can’t replace.
This is an important thing to remember.
It’s easy to hold on to our things during hard times because they give us a sense of safety and security that we sorely lack, but that doesn’t help.
Watch blue bloods online
Over to you, TV fanatics.
What life lessons have you learned recently from your favorite drama?
Hit the comments and let us know!
