Following up the finale

It's mild. It passes. But the grief we feel when a favourite show or film ends is real. And there are ways to cope too

- Riddhi Doshi

On one level, it seems like the ultimate first-world problem: A well-loved TV show, video game or film franchise has ended, leaving fans bereft, nursing a sense of loss. Imagine the feeling of emptiness after Game Of Thrones delivered its final (if middling) finale in 2019. Or emerging from this year's trifecta: The end of Succession, Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Rita Kottasz, associate professor of marketing at London's Kingston University, has been studying this phenomenon for about a decade, and terms it post-series depression.

Even she's quick to point out that this isn't an actual disorder. But in a world where it's possible to binge-watch a show over weeks, get immersed in a fictitious world, and invest in characters' story arcs, the void, when the show wraps up, is pretty real.