Why are there audiences for hopeless stories?

I watched the first two seasons of the Italian television series Inspector Ricciardi on PBS Passport and was engaged by the interesting characters, the Naples setting, and the insights into 1930s fascist Italy. 

Luigi Riccardi has a supernatural ability: he sees the ghosts and hears the last words of murder victims. It aids his investigations but torments his soul. Terrified of passing on what he considers a curse, Ricciardi doesn’t want to marry and have children. But he’s enamored of a young woman whose kitchen window faces his bedroom window, and the feelings are mutual. For the first season and a half, they stare longingly at one another. They finally declare their love, and Season 2 ends happily. 

Passport hasn’t picked up the third season yet, but I Googled and found out that Ricciardi and Enrica marry and she dies giving birth to their child. I won’t watch season 3.

Hearing from long-lost college roommate prompts a life review

The other day an email arrived from an old college roommate. It was startling to hear from someone after more than half a century. It was humbling to Google her and learn that she is a retired multidegreed professor. 

Sharon and I shared an apartment on the University of Illinois campus when it was still at Champaign-Urbana rather than Urbana-Champaign. We lost contact after graduation.

She wanted to catch up by phone or email. What did I have to say for myself? I decided to be candid in my email:

Roth novel foreshadowed Trump's tyranny

“Every day I ask myself the same question: How can this be happening in America? How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having an hallucination.” 

Think that’s from a recent news story? Nope. It’s from Philip Roth’s 2004 speculative fiction novel The Plot Against America, which HBO later adapted for television.