I long, therefore I re-watch: Nostalgia and Turkish TV series

To what extent does rewatching old TV series evoke nostalgic sentiment? This study aims to examine the production and expression of nostalgia among viewers of two popular Turkish TV series, Avrupa Yakası (2004–2009) and Yabancı Damat (2004–2007), through an analysis of the comments on Instagram and YouTube. Using a mixed-methods approach, I employed thematic analysis of qualitative data from Instagram comments, complemented by quantitative data extraction from YouTube to facilitate the thematic analysis of those comments. The findings reveal that the viewers often idealize the eras depicted in these series by attributing their nostalgia to contemporary social and economic instability in Turkey. Despite the continuity of the same political party's rule since 2002, the Justice and Development Party, the study illuminates that nostalgic engagement functions as a coping mechanism, and it reflects a collective longing for perceived social stability associated with the early 2000s. This research advances the field of nostalgia studies by showing how media content and social media platforms serve as sites of memory.