Does T.V fill the gap?

      If I were to say that television did not play an important part of my day I would definitely be lying. For me personally it provides a release of all the stresses of school and work and just focus on what is happening on the screen. However I always thought that I was just watching never involved in any way in the show that is unfolding before me. I did know that I sometimes got involved in certain shows but I figured that was nothing special it was not out of the ordinary. Then I learned of the concept of gap filling and surrogates. All the shows I ever watched are connected by one thing me I take experiences and knowledge from previous shows to new shows which leads to me gap filling in between breaks of shows. I did notice that I did make assumptions and predictions about new shows through what I had seen in older shows. I never knew shows worked around this concept but it did make sense seeing how there are so many similar shows out on the air. Getting invested in shows is easier than ever because there are characters in many shows that reflect the emotions viewers’ experience. I was able to notice it plainly in the episode of private practice in how the husband of the surrogate mother reacted when learning of his wife’s coma. The show gave different reactions to the problems of the show that reflected some of the opinions of the audience. Concepts like this allow us as an audience to become so invested in media texts because of being able to see us represented in the show in some way. The question that I had when watching Private Practice was how successful in other forms of media is the concept of surrogates and gap filling and is it always present.