Binging

The other day I was interviewed by John Jurgensen at the Wall Street Journal concerning “binge” TV watching. I described my 22 hour marathon of Breaking Bad. Of course, this makes it sound like a person who sits down and takes in a season, or two, of a show needs some kind of twelve-step program. “Hello, my name is Chad and I am a binge TV watcher.”

First let me say that the interview I had with John was great. We spoke for about forty minutes and covered a lot of ground and he even talked with my wife getting her perspective. Unfortunately it made her sound a little “frustrated” at my couch potato ways; on the contrary, she was quite easygoing about the whole ordeal.

In the age of Netflix, DVR, and box sets many people like myself have opportunities never before afforded to them. Specifically we have the luxury of watching our shows when we want to watch them, minus (most of if not all) the commercials. This means an average hour-long show on television actually sits at the 47 minute marker, give or take. Those extra 13 minutes add up when you are blowing through multiple episodes.

I imagine many people who binge are like myself who just don’t have the time or patience to arrange their calendars according to their programs. For me, the school year is too hectic to watch anything, let alone keep up on complex storylines. So once summer hit, I plugged in.

I don’t think this is unique. Not to mention, I noticed the complex subplots more easily and had a more thorough understanding/analysis of the characters by watching the episodes back-to-back.

The downside is I miss the community’s discussion. I’m so far behind that everything I want to explore has been thoroughly interpreted, analyzed, and explored.

Teaser – Next week a fine author with a new two-book deal is coming for a visit. You won’t want to miss what he has to say.