Why are obvious stories still satisfying?

[Esceptico]

Most stories in films, books or TV are fairly obvious. Some genres are worse than others eg romcoms. Yet it doesn’t seem to matter. We still seem to love them. Similarly, many people can enjoy rewatching films repeatedly.

Conversely, stories that have unexpected endings can be unsettling or even dissatisfying - when I watched The Hitcher it was very surprising that the girl who looked like being the love interest of the main character got killed off.

Given that it has been suggested that there are actually only a handful of different stories and that all films, books or plays can be matched to one or other of that handful it is probably a good thing that we don’t get bored of obvious plots!

[Leon R]

Because they are all forms of escapism and sometimes that is the comfort of knowing that things are going to turn out a certain way.