We tune into television series episode after episode because we've become invested in some or all of the character's lives. Marketers and psychologists measure this on the connectedness scale - the degree to which people think a series and its characters are real.

Even if the characters are rich and live in a 25 bedroom mansion while you live in a studio apartment, you can still connect to characters on a personal level and because you wish you lived a life like theirs.

We often discount the positive of watching how the characters in a television series use and waste money.

Money can be a taboo topic, but these forms of entertainment give us the opportunity to open up and discuss what we'd do in a similar situation.