Why we feel invested in a television series

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.