The H Virus: How to survive the Hiatus Apocalypse

It’s that hazy time of year: the gap between the end of fall-airing seasons and the start of summer one-hit-wonders, trials and errors and all in between. The desolate darkness reserved only for repeats you don’t like.
It’s…hiatus season.

Don’t worry—as we’ve survived the other three sitcom seasons, we’ll survive this one. TV’s winter. But how? Well, to hibernate in your living rooms and man-caves properly, you need supplies and an itinerary (and maybe an artillery, depending on how gung ho you get).

Based on experienced accounts from other, well-worn shows, I can offer you this lasting advice:

1. Watch like shows.

Repeats will make you stir-crazy; never forget the looming series premiere. You’ll go nuts. Watch shows with similar humors for the fresh entertainment.
Based on Netflix recommendations:
Like How I Met Your Mother? Watch Rules of Engagement.
Like New Girl? Watch 2 Broke Girls.

Like The Big Bang Theory? Watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

And get a Netflix account. It’s the price of a movie ticket.

2. Collect show swag.

Being surrounded the comforts of sets can assuage the pain left where your heart used to beat. To remind you The Mother is just one summer away, look into purchasing The Yellow Umbrella for your foyer. Or The Ducky Tie for on the job. Or The Bazinga Poster.

To remind you you’ll get your sense of feeling and sentimental attachment back again.
Bazinga.

3. Read.

Arm yourselves with the world’s greatest weapons: books. Sci-fi (maybe educate yourself on some of TBBT’s never-ending references!), romcom, or thought-provoking, soul-searching titles, all exist on the page as well as the LED screen.
Or, by reading, you could just pull up those individual Wikia pages one more time. Yeah.

4. Go out with friends.

Remind your friends you exist by tagging along with them the next time they go to your favorite local coffee shop. Maybe downstairs to your regular Irish bar for a drink. Then to the comic book store with your latest paycheck.
…Just try not to start sobbing in public this time.