I Don’t Binge Shows Anymore

At some point in the last few years, I decided I don’t binge shows anymore. It was fun, for a while, but it largely left me feeling empty. Watching an entire series on a day off or across the span of a weekend just isn’t satisfying. Even if I have that much free time, I just can’t justify doing nothing but watching a show. There are other things to be done, plenty of chores and other activities. Maybe it’s because my style of watching a show means that I’m WATCHING a show.

My wife kids me about how much I focus when I’m watching a show. I’m not the type of guy who is going to be washing dishes while the show plays in the background. I’m not filling out paperwork and glancing up at the screen from time to time. I’m not playing a game or engaging with the social networks on my phone and catching the show in the corner of my eye. When I’m watching a show, I’m exclusively watching a show. I’m sitting there with my full attention directed at the screen, watching every action, listening to every word. Marathoning a show left absolutely nothing else done around the house.

I have also found that I prefer to talk (alright, more like debate) about individual episodes of a show after watching them. If you’re trying to get through the entire season in one day, you’re not going to have deep conversations about the particulars of individual episodes, at least not unless you pause the show, which you’re not going to do because you’re trying to get through the whole season in a day, right?