Living Rooms as Third Spaces: The Watch Party Takeover

By Lily Dougherty, Staff Writer Edited by Rezi Ubogu

On an evening in a cozy living room, the latest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty begins to play on the television. Friends lounge on couches and floor cushions, snacks in hand, laughing, yelling at Jeremiah, and gasping together as the drama unfolds on screen. Phones light up as group chats buzz, but they’re quickly set aside—everyone’s attention is on the screen. Laughter erupts when Jeremiah does something ridiculous, a chorus of groans when Belly makes a questionable choice. The room gasps in perfect unison as the drama builds.

For many, these shows are more than guilty pleasures; they’re a crash course in romance, heartbreak, and figuring out what love might look like. That flutter in your chest when Conrad finally looks at Belly? It’s the same one you get when thinking about your own crush. This summer, it was Love Island that pulled us into living rooms, where we held our breath before every recoupling and screamed when Nic finally picked Olandria. Now, as we come back to school, teen romance dominates, proving that while shows and scenery change, the energy doesn’t. These gatherings transform ordinary living rooms into modern third spaces- spaces where friends giggle about red flags, passionately debate which “team” they’re on, and quietly wonder what kind of love story might be waiting for them outside those four walls.

We need “third spaces.” These are not home, not work, or school; they’re somewhere in between, where you can just be. For some, these spaces were the mall, coffee shops, the library, or even the local diner. But for this generation, it’s somebody’s apartment living room: pillows everywhere, half-empty Diet Coke cans scattered around, a pile of Trader Joe’s snacks on the table, and the next episode queued up before anyone can even ask if we should watch “just one more.”

The vibe is effortless with sweats on, hair up, phones nearby, but what happens here feels bigger than a regular Thursday night. These watch parties transform a normal living room into a stage for collective joy, heartbreak, and chaos. This feeling appears to be shared among many Syracuse students. Lily Dardano, a senior, says, “Your friends notice things you don’t notice, so it keeps you more engaged. We bond over those shared reactions — it feels like we’re all in it together.”

Streaming was supposed to make television a solo thing. Watch what you want, when you want, but it turns out that watching together makes it better. Let’s be honest: half the fun is the romance. The messy love triangles, the summer crushes, the “oh-my-god-they’re-finally-together” moments that make you kick your feet. Shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty and Love Island aren’t just entertainment; they’re mini relationship bootcamps. They make you swoon, cringe, scream at the screen, and secretly take mental notes about what you do, or definitely don’t, want in real life.

“Growing up, you have the assumption that things are a certain way in terms of dating, and then when you’re in the real world, you’re shocked at how things really are,” says Kelsey Babcock, a sophomore. She continues, “People have unrealistic expectations of what a relationship should look like.”

Sofia Obnial, a Syracuse junior, agrees. She adds, “I think shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty give us permission to feel big feelings, even if it’s just fiction, it feels like practice for real love.”

Watch parties become the perfect place to sort through those expectations. Debating Team Jeremiah vs. Team Conrad is basically a friendship-bonding exercise. Someone always has the right answer (obviously), and everyone has opinions.

The collective gasp is the whole point. Watch parties aren’t passive; they’re interactive. Someone will throw a pillow at the TV. Someone will pause the show just to yell. Someone will live-text their situationship about what just happened. And somehow, all of that makes it more fun. It’s that shared emotional rollercoaster that makes a random weeknight feel electric.

In a world where much of life happens through screens, watch parties are a small rebellion against isolation. They get us off TikTok, out of bed, and into shared spaces. They give us rituals: a specific night to keep free each week, a group chat full of excitement, and an excuse to bring snacks and debrief about your week before the show even starts. They also make us braver with our feelings. Seeing love play out on screen gives you a safe place to ask: Would I do that? Have I felt that? Do I want that? These shows let us live the drama without actually living it.

These living rooms are where girlhood lives. Where crushes are unpacked, heartbreaks are softened, and friendship becomes the thing holding you through it all. So yes, we might be far too invested in Belly’s choices. Yes, we might yell at Jeremiah like the TV can hear us. But that’s the beauty of these nights: they turn living rooms into sanctuaries of girlhood, where love stories are stitched into shared memory. These moments take something private, like a crush or a heartbreak, and make it collective. In a modern world built for quiet, solitary streaming, we choose to feel it all together, out loud, turning a regular weeknight into something almost sacred.

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