A nostalgia for obsolete aesthetics always gets me with this trope – it's rarely just about the plot's factual destruction. So much of the emotional weight comes from the texture of what's gone. The physicality of cassette tapes in 'Station Eleven', the ritual of a printed newspaper, the specific quiet of a world before notifications. That stuff isn't just set dressing; it's the emotional core for characters who remember a different sensory reality.
I think the theme it explores most ruthlessly is the impermanence of consensus reality. Our 'normal' is incredibly fragile, held together by shared belief and infrastructure. When that shatters, the theme becomes about what inner frameworks survive. Is it pure survivalism? A clinging to old ethics? Or building something entirely new from the fragments? It's less about mourning the loss of Starbucks and more about the terrifying freedom of a blank slate, stained with grief.