The thrill of competence

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Post-Olympics depression is real. After years and years of working towards a specific goal, most athletes return home to a life that bears little resemblance to the routine of structured training and monk-like discipline that defined their existence before the Games.

But the end of the Olympics is also a letdown for mere spectators like me! (And I don’t mean to make light of what can be a debilitating mental health crisis for some athletes — Michael Phelps, who’s won 28 medals, has been open about this.)

It’s just, the Games in Milan offered the most wonderful two-week distraction. We saw heart-pumping victories and heart-wrenching defeats. Inspiring storylines, unexpected heroes, feats of human strength and endurance. We saw athletes make themselves vulnerable to the elements, the competition, the limits of their own bodies — and still execute under pressure. “My advice is always to ruin the friendship,” Mikaela Shiffrin wrote in an Instagram post, quoting a Taylor Swift song about taking risks and living without regret.

But now we too are back to normal life. No flipping on curling while I fold laundry; no checking in on American figure skater Alysa Liu or Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, the Norwegian cross-country skiing god.

That the end of the games just so happened to coincide with a giant blizzard — at the cusp of  March, the relentlessly long month that stands between us and the most ambitious of daffodils — feels almost cruel.

What are we to do?

I have turned to what’s increasingly referred to as “competence porn.” In case you’re unfamiliar with the term (and hesitant to Google it), the basic gist is that we derive enjoyment from engaging with entertainment that features characters who are very, very good at what they do: “The Pitt” is a prime example. So are “The Newsroom” from the 2010s and “Law & Order,” a staple of the genre for more than 35 years. (According to my writer friend, the term is also popular in romance novels, where it describes the spectacle of love and mutual respect between two successful adults.)

To manage my post-Olympic blues, I returned to an old favorite, “The West Wing.” Unbelievably, that show went off the air nearly 20 years ago, but it remains a balm. Aaron Sorkin’s fast-paced political banter, the characters’ sheer decency and smarts, the way they fight and make up and care about each other — it just feels good to watch. I feel similarly about “Madame Secretary” (which I discovered on Netflix after it went off the air) and “The Diplomat” — both shows about politics with strong female characters. And then there’s “Shrinking,” the Apple dra-medy about a group of therapist friends (and their friends) that’s mostly about characters owning up to their shortcomings — competently overcoming their incompetence.

I suppose, for me, it’s not just about stories in which people are really good at what they do. It’s about people striving to do their best, sometimes failing, but always reaching for the right thing by giving the best of themselves. Just like Olympians.

What’s your version of “competence porn”? We’d love to know.