Her Take:
Let’s play Make Believe for a minute, ok?
Let’s pretend that, as the self-proclaimed liberal of our team, I say that I’m SO HIGHLY EVOLVED that I don’t watch TV. Oh, it’s FINE for SOME PEOPLE, but I enjoy my cup of Oolong with a copy of the New Yorker (have I mentioned that I do the crossword puzzle in pen?) and Tchaikovsky on vinyl instead of poisoning my brain.
But, you know, if that’s something YOU like to do, you should have every right to do it. I’ll be in the garden drawing and being entirely enlightened if you’d ever like to join me.
That’s not me, that’s a bad stereotype, but it’s fun to pretend sometimes, right?
Before I launch for real, let me address my blogging partner directly, ok?
I love you, man, and it’s a testament to the mystery of human relations that we’ve stayed friends when we have so many things on which we fundamentally disagree.
My family adopted the all-streaming-TV lifestyle pretty early in the game. It’s been more than 10 years since we’ve paid for cable TV. For maybe 5 of those years… maybe more.. I’m not actually paying attention.. we didn’t have access to any broadcast TV. I’m basically almost unable to cope with destination television anymore. Those muscles have atrophied.
Just last week I watched a whole episode of something on regular TV (it was The Masked Singer, and I’m suitably ashamed) and I’m not sure I blinked for an hour. My brain kept reminding me that THIS WAS ON REAL TV and I can’t pause, rewind, or fast forward so I HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION. So stressful. You have to blink, people, your eyes dry out.
So maybe my high tolerance for constantly streaming TV is really more of a survival mechanism.
No, that’s just an excuse.
The truth is, there’s a lot I love about binge watching TV. It starts with the instant gratification of not having to wait a week - or more (shudder) - to find out what happens in the precious seconds after the screen goes black at the end of the last episode, but it doesn’t end there.
It also gives me the chance to leave the insane inhospitality of a Wisconsin winter and be somewhere else. Maybe somewhere warm, possibly with zombies, or superheroes, or people funnier than I am. It doesn’t really matter where I go, friend, the point is that I can travel for a little while. If the show is good, I lose myself, and the things that matter here fade away long enough to give me a break. Then, when I come back to real life, I get the chance to recruit my friends and family to take that same journey.
I am 100% that “OH MY GOD HAVE YOU SEEN (Insert TV show here)??” person that will drive you crazy talking about whatever I’m watching.
Wait, scratch that, not ‘whatever’. It’s more accurate to say ‘whatever I’m watching that I think you’ll want to watch too’. I’m a serial curator of other people’s viewing experiences, I can’t help myself. If I see a show (or movie, or video, or anything really) that makes me think of you, I’ll carry that little gift in my brain until I see you again and attack you with it. My hope is always that you go immediately home, watch the thing I suggested to you, and then come back and tell me EVERYTHING about it. Even though it doesn’t normally play out exactly like that, it’s beyond-beyond satisfying when someone takes my recommendation and then tells me about it. They don’t even have to agree. It’s all about sharing an experience even if we can’t be in the same place at the same time.
The point here is, at last for me, there’s good in watching a lot of TV, even if that means a little extra time spent in an imaginary place.
His Take:
Binging. Up until around 10 years ago, this word brought many strong emotions out of a person when someone says it. BUT we’re not talking about that today, we’re talking about one of my favorite vices, and that’s television. Prior to DVDs and streaming services, if you wanted to watch a TV show, you had to watch a TV show. You had to sit down, at a certain time, on a certain night of the week and watch the TV. Most of us over 40-ish can remember having to run (okay, SPRINT) to the bathroom during a commercial break and pray to God that you made it back in time, so you didn’t miss anything.
Fast forward to when VCRs came around, things for a little easier. You could set your timer and watch when you wanted. And the best part was you could fast forward through the commercials. Then DVDs came about, and before long studios started putting out season sets of TV shows. And with that, the binge watching began. It became more common place when streaming services started popping up. Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, and just about every TV channel.
A lot of TV shows becae more popular BECAUSE people were binge watching them. The Office, Parks & Recreation, many shows that flew under the radar, now got the spotlight due to being available on these platforms and also by word of mouth. But the question we’re discussing is does binge watching hurt or enhance your viewing experience. In my opinion, it does NOT make your viewing more enjoyable. I actually think, it’s quite the opposite.
As an example, we’re going to use the TV show Superstore. A very funny workplace sitcom about people working in a Walmart-like store called Cloud 9. I can’t recommend this show highly enough and encourage you to watch it. ANYWAY, I binge watched the first season on Hulu, and I have to say, it wasn’t the most pleasant viewing experience that I’ve ever had. I don’t know about other people, but I think I retain less when I’m binging. I get to the end of the season, and I don’t really remember specific episodes, I just remember the beginning and the end. Everything in between kind of blurs together. In comparison, I watched the second season as it aired, and I had a much better time with the show. I had a week between shows to “chew on” that week's show, think about what happened, what the characters did, on occasion I even watched a couple of episodes twice.
We live in a super-fast world. But I think sometimes, we need time to let things soak in. While you can binge a season of anything you want, or a series of movies, there’s no rule that says you HAVE to. You can always watch one episode at a time. Every streaming service has a stop button. And are you really going to impress your friends or family by telling them that you’ve seen all 20 seasons of Law & Order: SVU? If that’s what impresses your friends, you might want to get some new friends. My advice would be: If you're really interested in a show, take your time with it. Enjoy it. It’s not a race, people!!!
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