The phenomenon you're describing is hardly limited to parasocial relationships. Some people talk about sports teams, others about company stocks they have no va

The phenomenon you're describing is hardly limited to parasocial relationships. Some people talk about sports teams, others about company stocks they have no valuable information on, others about drama in their subcultures, others about world news... we are about to start getting huge amounts of discussion around election polling in states none of your friends live in. "Do I have any power over anything related to this information?" has almost no psychological significance. I do not know whether TV show plots belong in this list, but they might.