Bingeing Vs Watching Weekly

[Ronin Jackson]

These days binging is all the rage.  Breaking Bad went from a critical darling with a moderate following to a mega-hit after people binged through the show on Netflix in time to catch up with the final eight episodes, and Netflix is releasing their original programming in season chunks so viewers can binge through seasons.  Many people wait to watch shows so they can binge through them all at once as they find it tough to wait a week to watch new episodes.

 

I watched Breaking Bad weekly, as each episode aired.  Recently, only after finishing Breaking Bad, I binged through The Sopranos (I finished the entire series in about 6-7 weeks) and am currently binging through The Shield, currently nearing the end of season 3.

 

I am getting more and more convinced, as tempting as it is to binge through a show, that watching weekly is the superior experience.  It's sort of like having a big box of candy... it's tempting to eat a whole bunch at once... but it's better to eat it in moderation.  When there were major developments late in The Sopranos, it occurred to me that the folks who watched the show as it aired, talking about each episode around the water cooler, were seeing something that had been eight years in the making... where as I'd only been with the characters for a few weeks.

 

Watching shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and Mad Men weekly, it seems to me that letting the stories simmer in my mind during that week enhances the experience when I finally watch the show as it airs.  I am more focused and know the story better.  Watching The Sopranos and The Shield one after the other, my attention drifts... I feel like I'm not getting all the details.  It has nothing to do really with the quality of the shows, both of which are excellent.  But I know I'm not getting the same experience as people who watched it as it aired.

 

Of course it's really tough not to binge when you have a ton of episodes at your disposal on demand.  I suspect my opinion is a minority one since most people like to binge these days and even though I know I'm not getting the best experience, I still find it difficult not to.  But just thought I'd put it out there for discussion or just food for thought...

[Mindymoo]

I think watching weekly is the way to go. I watched both "The Sopranos" and "Breaking Bad" weekly. As much as I love BB, I still feel that "The Sopranos" is the superior show. My wife watched "Breaking Bad" weekly, but binged "The Sopranos", as that aired before we lived together and she didn't have premium cable. As much as she liked it, she didn't understand what the fuss was about, while she couldn't wait for every week to happen with BB, and for the new season. I tried to explain to her, imagine waiting two years between certain seasons of "The Sopranos", and watching it in a weekly format, instead of six or seven episodes in an evening. It is an entirely different experience.

 

I've also found that people who watched "Dexter" from the start are far more critical of it than those who binge-watched it. People who had time to stew over the hot mess the show became after the second season, and wait week after week and think about what bullshit plot developments were going on, view it much differently than the people who just sailed through eight seasons in a few weeks. The people I knew who watched it weekly, for example, knew in season six that Gellar was dead the whole time. But the people that I know who binge-watched it? Didn't see that coming AT ALL. It kind of blows my mind how you don't pick up on these details when you watch things en masse, but it happens somehow. And it blows my goddamn mind every time I ask someone how they didn't see some very obvious plot point coming.

 

The latest couple of series I have enjoyed stewing over are "Fargo" and "True Detective", and I don't think the experience would be the same if I had just waited until they finished airing and watched them in one big block (even though as of now, "Fargo" isn't over yet.) I like discussing individual episodes as they air on here and The AV Club, rather than just go "Hey, remember when such and such happened in the last season of 'Breaking Bad'?" It brings back the "watercooler discussion" aspect of shows that has been lacking ever since people have been binging on Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, DVDs and whatever else. So I kind of love the discussion you guys bring forth, since not everyone wants to discuss the TV shows I watch.

[supposebly]

I don't know how many episodes in a row counts as binge watching but I can't do more than 2 or 3.

I have found that some shows improve (Supernatural) which I only got into because I bingewatched the first two seasons and some that leave me meh (True Blood). Some shows I prefer in 2-3 episode installments (Justified), other I'd rather watch weekly (Hannibal). Actually, that last one I need more than a week to digest. Yes, pun very much intended.

On the other end of the spectrum, Alias, I can't watch without setting some serious time aside since the first 2 seasons are very hard to break down. I imagine 24 would be similar.

I agree, ever since I signed up at TWOP, watching TV without the discussion afterwards is only half the fun. But I can only watch so much on a weekly schedule. Reading old discussions was fine too. That is now mostly gone.

[MyAimIsTrue]

I don't have a DVR or a Netflix account so my only option (other than occasional online watching the most recent episode) is real time.  Not to rag on anyone who enjoys binge watching but I have better things to do with my time than watch hours and hours of TV in one sitting.

[DittyDotDot]

I don't actually have any live TV in my house, so I watch most things either online or via disc from Netflix. I do tend to save up episodes of many shows and watch them back to back over a couple of nights, but I think it's more about my schedule though and not always having the time to get to them right away.

 

I definitely think the binging experience varies depending on the show.  Like supposedly, I think shows like Supernatural improve when binged, the less time you have to think about it between episodes the better, IMO. (And when I say binge, it doesn't necessarily mean that I sat and watched 8 hours at once, but maybe one or two episodes a night, but still watching it in a compressed timeframe compared to the way it aired.)  But a show like Hannibal needs to be considered before moving on to the next one. A show like Dexter, I'm not sure it would matter after S1--I don't think I would want to binge or watch it live--I gave up after S3 altogether.

 

I remember when I finally decided to watch Lost--maybe a year after it finished airing--it took me a few of months to get through all five seasons. I went to the thread on TWoP and found it interesting that so many people were annoyed with the show, but I really liked it and found it held together really well. But then I realized, if it had taken me five years to get to the end, I'm sure I would have been really frustrated and probably would have found the progression slower than molasses.

 

Probably the bigger difficulty in the way I watch is that it feels like such a long time between seasons. Like Game Of Thrones, I usually am a season behind because they don't release the show on disk till the next one starts airing. So I watch it over the course of two or three weeks, but then it's almost a year before the next season gets released and I find I have a harder time remembering all the details from where we left off.

 

I don't know, both ways have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the show.

[FormerMod-a1]

For me it mostly depends on how long a season is, and how involved in the online discussions I am for that show.  If the show is currently off the air is another consideration, but not as strong as the first two.  Short seasons (I'm looking at you BBC Sherlock) I can binge watch.  Or even wait until a few seasons are completed and binge watch them all.  However, if it's a show that I can't wait to read the response and discuss with others I tend to watch weekly - just to stay on top of, and be able to participate in, the discussion.  Longer seasons, say 12+ episodes, I tend to watch weekly.  I don't have the time or patience to try to watch 12-24 hours at once, even spread out over days or weeks.  And then there's the danger of the more compelling series to suck be into a black hole of watching, ignoring everything else that needs to be done.  Plus it's easier to avoid spoilers if I'm watching in real time.   Even avoiding discussion sites and forums for that particular show doesn't mean you won't hear anything.  Between "water cooler" conversations and random mentions in media you can hear major plot points before you ever watch.  So I tend to watch most shows "real time" or close to it.  I.e. I might have to DVR and watch later that night or over the weekend, but it's still one episode at a time.

[ABay]

It's definitely a show-by-show decision. Shows with complicated arcs are better binged, for me; it makes the plot easier to follow. On the other hand, it also makes problems more obvious, especially when tings carried over seasons. Some aspects of Lost were better when watching the episodes in a binge than when I had to wait for days...weeks..months...between episodes. But it also makes all of the dropped threads more glaring. Person of Interest is also easier to keep track of when watched in batches. With both shows, I watched live, then rewatched in a binge. I tend to gather and save British series to watch all at once; the short series format makes them more coherent, like a novel.

 

What I do miss when bingeing is the conversation here. When everyone's on their own schedule, as with House of Cards, it's hard to have the kind of discussions that come up when we all have to stick to the same schedule.

Edited June 10, 2014 by ABay

[Ronin Jackson]

I don't know how many episodes in a row counts as binge watching but I can't do more than 2 or 3.

 

 

I'd call binging either watching 2 or more episodes at once or an episode on consecutive days... it doesn't need to be anything crazy like spending all your free time watching a show. Perhaps binging is the wrong term, but I'm talking about enough for there to be a clear distinction between it and watching one episode a week. 

[blueray]

I used to love to watch shows weekly. Part of the fun was waiting to figure what will happen next and talking to other fans about theories (my favorite show is/was Lost). Now a day's there just never anything on tv, so I often find myself binge watching older shows on Netflix that I haven't seen.

[Bastet]

I don't watch programming online, and am too lazy to go buy another pack of DVD-RW discs (I don't use a DVR receiver because I want to record something so rarely - if not for TCM, it would be maybe twice per year - it's not worth the additional expense, plus once I do record something I want a physical copy of it), so if I'm not home to watch something it's pretty rare for me to set up the DVD player to record it.  Every once in a while I get interested in something after the fact and buy/rent it on DVD, but that's my only binge-watching experience other than for re-watches of favorite shows.  I will say that as much as I enjoy the musings of new fans discovering, for example, The X-Files, on DVD, I do think something is lost by moving directly from one episode to the next rather than having to wait (especially with cliffhanger season finales). 

Edited June 11, 2014 by Bastet

[Anela]

I like the build-up to a new episode of a show that I loved, but I got into Breaking Bad with binge-watching, thanks to AMC running marathons throughout the late Spring/early Summer, two years ago. I'd always wanted to watch it, but never seemed to catch it, and had other things recording at the time.

 

There are times when I like to binge-watch, but I have to be awake enough, otherwise, I'll find myself dropping off and it ruins it... I definitely preferred watching the new episodes weekly. I cleaned up the house, showered, made sure I'd eaten, so that I could just settle in with a mug of hot tea, and enjoy the show.

[SVNBob]

TiVo had a survey about this recently.  I can't access the results anymore, but from what I recall, the majority of the people surveyed had binge-watched something. 

Said binging came in two main forms: mainlining a full season after it came out on DVD or streaming (either in a single viewing or over consecutive days), or watching 3 episodes in a row in a single sitting after they'd piled up on the DVR.

 

I'll see if I can find the actual results they published.

[aradia22]

I think it depends on the show. I've seen almost every episode of Glee the week it aired, if not live. At first it was because I loved the show and wanted to see it as soon as it aired but with Glee it's hard to bunch up episodes because you need space to feel all the feels and it's good to get a breather. 

 

Then there are shows where I bunch up episodes to watch. I think I started doing it with Gossip Girl so I could watch a bunch of episodes when I wanted to be put in a good mood. Nashville is another show where I do that. It loses something week to week but if I can get all the drama in one sitting it has a greater impact. It's also easy to do that with reality shows like The Voice where you're not really invested week to week but you can speed through and fast-forward to the important parts, making the long episodes much more watchable. I had problems keeping up with The Voice regularly in other seasons because I'd just get so bored having to come back week after week. With those binge-watches I don't think I'd ever watch more than 5 episodes at a time. 

 

Then there are the shows that I really truly binge-watched. I watched all of Dead Like Me within a week. I watched two, almost three seasons of Charmed in a very short period of time. I don't know how much it added to the experience to watch those shows like that but it was very easy to get sucked into those worlds. I think the shows that really lend themselves to binge watching are the ones you want to overthink and the ones that have multiple episode arcs. Then binge-watching allows you to see patterns, inconsistencies, and the things that they're building on. I totally want to binge-watch Reign since I stopped watching after episode 4. If it wouldn't make me want to shoot myself, I'd binge-watch OUAT. Gossip Girl could be fun to binge watch but that show kind of trades off between multiple episode arcs and episodic TV so it could get tedious. Downton Abbey would be a good binge watch. I don't think I could binge-watch Breaking Bad. It would probably put me to sleep I'd get so bored.

 

I went back to the beginning and binge-watched Ugly Betty and Being Erica. It was a good thing because it was easier to keep track of some of the plot threads (my memory is selective and I consume a lot of content on a daily basis) but it also revealed a lot of inconsistencies and really highlighted story problems and irritating character traits.

Edited June 11, 2014 by aradia22

[Hanahope]

These days, with networks cancelling shows after a season (or less), many times I won't even bother watching and getting into a show unless I know its going to last for a while.  Thus, I've ended up binge watching many shows to catch up, like Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey and Mad Men, then once I'm caught up, watch the weekly episodes.  I like binge watching because you already know that there's going to be an ending, some sort of resolution.  Nothing is more frustrating than to get involved in a complex or plot convoluted show to have it cancelled and you never find out what happened.  I still take that risk at times, but less often than I used to.

 

That said, I do enjoy coming to forums to discuss the shows weekly. 

[ramble]

This discussion is interesting. We rarely watch live tv of shows we're actually choosing to follow because we DVR & watch when it's convenient. I suppose that counts as weekly though. We saw an ad for the new make a star singing show where the audience makes or breaks the star live by their voting. My youngest turned to me & asked if people really watched live tv like that anymore. I wanted to tell her that used to be the only choice but I already felt old enough. I think her comment is an indication of the huge shift in tv viewing.

My oldest binge watches old shows. Usually it's one or two episodes a day of stuff like Perry Mason, Quantum Leap, 7th Heaven, Get Smart, Mission Impossible, etc. She prefers older shows generally. Amazon Prime has served her well. She's hoping I'll decide to add Netflix or Hulu to give her more options, but when she really loves a series she gets her dad to buy it on DVD. My youngest only asked for Good Eats on DVD, although she's thought about Mysteries at the Museum or History's Mysteries.

Both my kiddos have binge watched the entire series of things like Green Acres, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan's Island, The Waltons & Little House on the Prairie. When they were younger & I was much stricter about their viewing they could watch those without having to get approval on appropriateness. I think they've gone through LHOTP 3-4 times completely. I can probably quote chunks of it.

I usually binge watch in the summer when I have a little more freedom. I did that with Fringe & Eureka & most of Warehouse 13. I've started Eureka again with my kids & find myself watching Fringe again too. I've also recently been re-binging on Farscape. It's the only series I own on DVD. I also did a months long binge of Big Bang Theory a year ago or so. My parents own all the seasons on DVD & I was going through a rough time so every night I'd watch one or two episodes just to end the day with a laugh.

Things like reality tv I generally watch weekly unless I can't & then I watch 2-3 episodes in a row. Shows like Grey's, Nashville or OUAT I watch weekly or tend to have a hard time watching. Too much scripted drama in a row makes me not care & I just skip to the last available episode.

Geez, writing all the down makes me feel like all we do is watch tv. I don't think that's true (reminds self to actually pay attention better). I enjoy the freedom steaming content & a DVR give us. On nights when homework is plentiful & we know a show we watch as a family is on it's nice to just know we'll catch it tomorrow or over the weekend. In the summer, when I let the wild ones stay up later, we can do things outside longer knowing whatever we might like to see will be waiting for whenever we decide, be it next week or next year.

ETA: Second Geez! That was a ridiculously long post about tv viewing habits. I need to start blogging again so I'll quit writing so prolifically here. Geez cubed!

Edited June 11, 2014 by ramble

[BellaLugosi]

I like the build-up to a new episode of a show that I loved, but I got into Breaking Bad with binge-watching, thanks to AMC running marathons throughout the late Spring/early Summer, two years ago. I'd always wanted to watch it, but never seemed to catch it, and had other things recording at the time.

 

This is exactly how I got in BB too. I preferred watching week by week afterwards, because I loved the discussion, the articles and the podcasts that went along with it. Actually all through those last seasons of BB I was always thinking how great it would have been to have seen the Sporanos this way, with a weekly podcast from the people behind the show itself. 

 

 

These days, with networks cancelling shows after a season (or less), many times I won't even bother watching and getting into a show unless I know its going to last for a while.  Thus, I've ended up binge watching many shows to catch up, like Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey and Mad Men, then once I'm caught up, watch the weekly episodes.  I like binge watching because you already know that there's going to be an ending, some sort of resolution.  Nothing is more frustrating than to get involved in a complex or plot convoluted show to have it cancelled and you never find out what happened.  I still take that risk at times, but less often than I used to.

 

That said, I do enjoy coming to forums to discuss the shows weekly. 

 

I do this with comedies. I waited until after Brooklyn 99 won an award before I was sure it would be renewed and I watched it. I'm very wary of new shows these days. 

[aradia22]

 

Nothing is more frustrating than to get involved in a complex or plot convoluted show to have it cancelled and you never find out what happened.  I still take that risk at times, but less often than I used to.

Oh, Alphas. This is so Alphas. Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me sort of count but not really because I really just wanted to see what Bryan Fuller would have done with Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies kind of fell apart under the threat of cancellation. But Alphas. Whew. If you watched then you know, that season 2 finale. So much wasted potential!

[spaceytraci1208]

I successfully binge-watched The Shield a couple years ago. I became hooked and had to watch like 3 episodes a day. I tried binging on 24 before the new season, but DAMN that's a lot of TV. Finished the first 4 seasons and decided to watch the new eps anyway...I'll pick back up with season 5 another time

[Anna Yolei]

Binging is about the only way to catch up to a show that one hasn't followed since day one. I do prefer watching live when possible, though.

[ParadoxLost]

For me, live vs. binge is purely a measure of how much I like a show.  If I let enough episodes pass by to binge on a weekend, it means I've lost my interest in the show.

[AltLivia]

This thread is so interesting to me. Breaking Bad is a show I had to catch up on (binge watch) because I didn't get into it until season four was playing in real time. I was able to watch the final season weekly. By that time I really appreciated the anticipation of weekly viewing. I don't think I could have withstood the tension/anxiety/general darkness throughout the series on a weekly basis, however. It would have fatigued me somehow.

 

I binge-watched Lost, a couple of episodes a day for many months. I feel like it made more sense this way. As much sense as it can, and I loved it.

 

Currently watching one or two episodes of (season one of)  Orange Is The  New Black daily. I know many who've binged this recent second season and now they're in for a real wait.

 

In some other cases, I watch series long after they've left the air, when channels get the rights to air them daily. I caught Six Feet Under for the first time on Bravo and have since rewatched/bingewatched. It probably stands up to both weekly and binge format.

 

I like to binge-watch because I like to watch shows with friends and most of the time we just can't get together for the scheduled showing.

[ABay]

It's summer, there's nothing on, so I'll be binge-ing on things I've saved up or gathered for the drought. I also do this for long holidays when TIIC assume no one will watch TV. This weekend, I'll be marathoning DaVinci's Demons. Depending on how that goes (the female:male ratio of nudity is infuriating. Also, the plot is craziness), I'll either switch to The Borgias to search for that one tiny bit of scenery Jeremy Irons left unchewed and to enjoy my new sweetie, Cardinal Sforza, and new second runner up sweetie, Machiavelli, or I'll try Thick of It. I think I also have the second half of Masters of Sex to watch yet, as well. But I have to save something for future weekends.

[Irlandesa]

I'm a binge watcher without the patience to be a binge water.  I would love to gobble down multiple episodes at a time.  I think it's easier for me to get into a show that way and once I'm into the show, I want to keep going.  That's what happened to me with Deadwood which I don't think I would've watched if it weren't for the fact that it was On Demand and I had a rainy lazy Sunday to kill. It's especially true with comedies.  US comedies are approximately 22 minutes long and can three can be watched in just over an hour.  They go down so smooth. 

 

But if it's a show I really want to watch, I am not going to wait until after it's aired so I can binge watch it all at once.  I want to see it "now" so I will watch it live, or within a few days of recording it.  The benefit to that is being able to discuss it online. 

 

Still, there are some shows out there that escape me initially for whatever reason and I love being able to just watch them all at once.  Heck, I binge watch shows I've already seen.  If I'm free and there's a L&O marathon on, I will watch.  Or when Scarecrow & Mrs. King was free on Prime, I would watch multiple episodes at at time.  Or rewatching Quantum Leap.  That's my comfort time.

[crimsongrl]

A few years ago I binged all 4 seasons of The Wire over a 3 day weekend and I regret nothing! Talk about an emotional rollercoaster. It took a few episodes to get into but once I got into it I was hooked! I kept telling myself 'just one more episode' and then it'd be hours later all of a sudden.

I binged a season & a half of Treme but got bored and gave up.

I usually watch whatever I record within 10 days. I'm so paranoid I won't have DVR space for something important or get spoiled on a major plot or something. If I have multiple episodes piling up it usually means I'm close to deleting my season pass. Although, I once recorded almost all of Season 3 of The L Word (hated S2) and binged throughout the week to catch the live finale. I liked the season well enough but it was strange to read the forums and see how differently everyone felt. There was an actress everyone hated that I didn't think twice about!

I also love to binge movie sequels! Horror movies are my favorite. Every writer & director tries to top the last and its fun to spot the plot holes and yell at the stupid.

[Bastet]

I can somewhat binge watch an old show I'm re-watching, but even then I'm not likely to watch more than two or three (depending on whether hour-long or half hour) in quick succession.  And often I need at least a week to get around to watching one episode, which is why I don't usually participate in rewatches, even of shows I just love -- schedule two per week, and I know it's not happening with any regularity if at all, so I don't even start.

 

This is undoubtedly affected by the fact if I'm watching a recording of something rather than a live program, I'm most often watching it in bed.  So I can't stay awake for binges!

[ABay]

My weekend pattern is to watch an episode with breakfast, do some chore like clean the litter boxes, watch another episode, run an errand, watch another episode, rinse, lather, repeat. It helps me get through housework that would otherwise be overwhelming by breaking it into segments and providing a reward. Weeknights I might watch 2 or 3 episodes while doing stuff online.

 

I will marathon shows I've already seen and new ones. The new ones are almost always short run British shows although, as I think I said above, I will also save up the last few episodes before a series finale in order to watch them all at once before saying goodbye.

[atomationage]

 

Some shows I prefer in 2-3 episode installments

 

I don't actually have any live TV in my house, so I watch most things either online or via disc from Netflix.

I prefer to watch more than one episode of a show at a time, and by methods that skip the commercials.  It puts me behind on many things, but I find that so many shows end with a cliffhanger of some kind, that I don't want to watch just one.  If you figure out their formula, sometimes you can skip the last few minutes, so you're not anticipating the next episode.  The downside of this is that there are still series that I want to watch that I haven't ever seen, and others that I've given up on that are already on Dvd.  Needless to say, it eliminates any possibility of participating in the discussion of the shows that I have delayed watching. 

[00redsvt]

I did binge watch quite a bit. I suffer from some health issues that keep me in the house more often than I'd like and I get bored. Unfortunately, I have a hard time remembering what I've watched. So, I have quit watching the same show continuously. It gets far too confusing.

The only exception would be my soap operas. I do use one afternoon to watch the episodes that are on the DVR. Normally I can cruise through five episodes in a short amount of time though thanks to the level of suck that has been occurring recently.

[Tabbyclaw]

I'd prefer to watch everything live, and I do when that's an option, but if it's an older show that I'm just now finding I am a binge addict. TV episodes are like potato chips, and marathons are an excuse to get some serious knitting done. I watched the first two seasons of Haven twice (once discovering it for myself, once grabbing my equally-bingey best friend and telling him he totally had to watch this show; he was gonna love it and it was gonna be our new thing we watch together) in about a month, and I think all of Brooklyn Nine-Nine took me a couple days. My most recent mega-binge was Fullmetal Alchemist. Both of them. In about... you know what, let's just leave it at "far less time than it should take someone to watch two entire series; I am unemployed and have no social life stop looking at me like that." (For the record, I do not recommend doing this. At least take a break in between the two.)

 

Right now I'm binge-watching Psych, which I watched weekly when it was new but gave up on early in the third season. I decided I should give it another chance now that it's over, and I don't know if it's the bingeing or just the knowledge that it has an endpoint but I'm finding myself more forgiving of it. All the elements that made me walk away from it the first time are still present, and are getting worse (Shawn is the most obnoxious manchild in the history of television, virtually all the female criminals are motivated by either wanting a man or being rejected by one, the writers are too busy cramming in pop culture references to actually give half of the episodes plots), but this time around I'm more willing to shrug and say, "Whatever. I'm watching for Lassiter and Jules' partnership, and occasionally Gus and/or Henry." And with shows I don't have previous experience with, I think bingeing makes me more likely to fall even harder for something I probably would have liked, but not as obsessively. I am absolutely sure I'd have adored Haven had I come across it when it first started -- there are times when I look at the show and go, "You wrote that bit just for me, didn't you?" -- but if I'd had the slow burn of waiting a week between episodes I don't know if I'd have been already making a list of the fanfics I wanted to write for it by about the fifth episode. Same with Fullmetal Alchemist; I probably would have quite liked it at the pace of a sane person, but I also probably would not have told a friend I was at risk for exploding into a glittery cloud of feelings regarding Riza Hawkeye once I finished it/them. (I was at least aware even as I said it that it was a weird thing to say.)

[ganesh]

My most recent mega-binge was Fullmetal Alchemist. Both of them.

I watched them weekly and it was killing me. Two words: Nina. And you went through that twice?!

 

I binged Arrested Development only because it was a holiday and I had not much else to do. I'm watching OITNB maybe one episode every other day or so. I watch a lot shows, so there's always something to watch, but I spread it out. I think it's easier to take a show in holistically and appreciate it more without the binge.

[Tabbyclaw]

I watched them weekly and it was killing me. Two words: Nina. And you went through that twice?!

 

Forget Nina; I went through Maes Hughes twice.

[ganesh]

Yeah, but Mustang the second time around Ripped. Shit. Up. 

[Tabbyclaw]

Oh yes, the glittering cloud of feelings most definitely encompasses Roy Mustang and his Roaring Rampage of Revenge as well. (And also the bit where I 'ship it like burning and that's not even supposed to be a pun.)

[aradia22]

Binge watched the last four episodes of Brooklyn Nine Nine. No regrets. I forgot how much I like this show. I was getting a little bored week to week and having this long break gave me a chance to pick the time when I would be the most receptive to it.

[applecrisp]

I always record shows or wait a bit to watch if airing live to FF though commercials or annoying parts (if it's reality).  Shows like Mad Men and GoT, I watch as close as they air because they generate so much discussion and I can't wait.  I just think you lose a little bit if you binge.  Enlightened was a show I watched all at once and wished I had known about when it aired.  If they have been on my DVR for a while I just know I am not interested in the show enough.  So I just start deleting.

 

Sadly, I watch too much TV and hate to admit it.  It seems as if I am talking to someone about TV shows I always get the remark," you watch a lot of TV, I just don't have the time" or" I'm too busy to watch it."  It kind of makes me feel like a loser.  That is why I come on here.  People can be very critical about it.  

[DittyDotDot]

I have a co-worker that says I watch a lot of TV because I seem to always know about a show or something. My comments to him usually are that he watches a lot of TV also, we just watch different things. He spends his weekends watching sports and sometimes has to leave early to make sure he doesn't miss a game whereas my TV watching never interferes with my work schedule. I catch them when I can, but spend far more hours of my life doing something work related than watching TV. I actually would say I spend more time reading than I do watching TV. Its just that I belong to this community of TV watchers that keeps me informed on all things TV.

 

Anyway, my point was, never be ashamed of your TV watching ways! Everyone has something in their life that they probably spend to much time at. There are worse things in the world that you could be doing with your time @applecrisp--you could be robbing liquor stores or the local serial killer or sitting on a bar stool slowly killing your liver or... ;)

Edited June 22, 2014 by DittyDotDot

[ganesh]

What I really like it the options available for tv watching. I can watch The Daily Show in the morning on my computer because my cable puts them online. I don't have a dvr, so I can't record everything. I can also use that service on my phone. For sports, you can pretty much watch live streaming on every platform. 

 

If you want to save up and watch the last two episodes of Game of Thrones at one time, you can. Look at the how successful Breaking Bad was because of netflix. It's a pretty great time that there's a lot of tv. I'm not a rewatcher, so it's great that there's original content year-round now. 

[amaranta]

Without the advent of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu there are many shows I would never have seen.  For a couple of decades I was a total workaholic, 12 hour days including weekends.  I rarely saw anything on TV.  Examples: I never saw The Office or Friends during their actual runs. Then I had an accident that forced some major changes: I now work from home and have a very flexible schedule.

 

What binge watching means to me is 2-3 episodes per day, usually during summer hiatus or when a lot of shows break for holidays.  I have watched and found what are now some of my favorite shows this way: Parks & Recreation, Friday Night Lights, Community, White Collar, Mad Men and The Office.  Right now I'm doing Suits (am up to season 3, started in early May); next I think I'll try Leverage or perhaps Psych.

 

I also like the freedom of choice it allows.  It's very difficult for me to find many shows I really like.  I don't like explicit violence (abhor is more accurate), so mob shows and most criminal procedurals are out.  Horror genres, dystopian themes, vampires and zombies - don't like any of them.  Netflix and Amazon allow me to test the waters and I can tell pretty quickly if I'm going to stick with a show.

 

[Ronin Jackson]

Good points all around... it seems since so many on this forum are obviously here to discuss recently aired shows, there's probably a lean here towards watching weekly.  I actually don't pay for cable, so almost all shows I watch I end up getting into initially via a streaming service or other alternative.  If I catch up to a show by the time it is airing new episodes I watch it via alternatives as well, but it usually takes some time before it becomes available.  For mega hyped shows like Game of Thrones or the final eight episodes of Breaking Bad, I practically have to hide under a rock to avoid spoilers.  If you are waiting for it to show up on streaming or DVD, by that time you might forget the spoiler if you see a discourteous headline or hear a blurb at the water cooler.  But maybe not.

 

I also never watch anything with commercials (except OTA sports) so I appreciate not having to view them on streaming, DVD, etc. verses watching live.  Not only does it break up my attention but if they are cut out you are spending 10-18 minutes less per hour long episode actually watching TV.  If I did pay for cable I'd insist on a DVR, no doubt.  It's been a few years but last time I had cable and a DVR I would always wait about 20 minutes or so when I was watching a show live just to skip through commercials. But even then I prefer just having it all cut out so I don't need to wrestle with the remote.

 

I've been intentionally slowing down my binge watch of The Shield.  It's a great show with a lot of detail that resurfaces in later episodes, but it's a tough one at times to take in large portions. 

[ganesh]

 

I also never watch anything with commercials (except OTA sports) so I appreciate not having to view them on streaming, DVD, etc. verses watching live.

My cable puts the shows up online the day after. So I watch them there instead because there's only 5 minutes of ads versus 20. The picture quality is better. I don't have a tv, but I have a tv card you plug into the usb port and watch on my monitor, but the video quality of the application isn't that great. I still watch the news on live tv mostly. Even PBS puts the news online too.

[ToxicUnicorn]

These days, with networks cancelling shows after a season (or less), many times I won't even bother watching and getting into a show unless I know its going to last for a while.  ...  I like binge watching because you already know that there's going to be an ending, some sort of resolution.  Nothing is more frustrating than to get involved in a complex or plot convoluted show to have it cancelled and you never find out what happened.  I still take that risk at times, but less often than I used to.

This is very true for me.  The up side, as stated above, is that you will get completion, or at the minimum, you get some sense of when a show will start to go south and can spare yourself that part.  (For example, even without spoilers, I know that Alias starts sucking after season 2, so if I ever get around to that, I'll stop then.  Although, I probably won't even start, because I like closure.  With Friday Night Lights, I watched the first season and then stopped for about a year to savor it before I tackled the second season, which I knew was regarded as a mis-step.)

 

Even when I start watching a show long after it's done, though, I'll typically watch an episode and then pause awhile.  I'll probably watch an episode every 3 days or so.  Unless it's something incredibly stupid, like ANTM, in which case, I can zip through a season by skipping all the inane bits.  (No, there's not much left, thanks for asking.  :))  The fastest I've ever watched a show was Sherlock, which was watching and then re-watching an episode before moving on to the next one, to take it in fully and spread out the viewing experience.  That probably took a few weeks a series.  (Sherlock episodes can be rewatched many times and be quite satisfying.) 

 

The down side, which is significant, is that you aren't able to talk about it in real time.  Usually, I'm pretty content reading through comments afterwards without contributing, but it is a cost.  As a result, shows that I know I will enjoy commenting on (which tend to be competitive reality), I typically watch in roughly real time.

 

I actually don't pay for cable, so almost all shows I watch I end up getting into initially via a streaming service or other alternative. 

 

 

I don't either, so even if I am trying to watch close to the air date, I still have to wait at least a day to be able to comment.  It's a pain, but I guess it's worth the cost of cable to me.  I'm getting used to it.  Incidentally, I'm very happy that the forums here are set up with episode threads - it makes it much easier to separate what is safe to enter and what is not.  Props to TPTB.

[SVNBob]

I couldn't get access to the original page of results I saw about it, but here's TiVo's press release about the binge-watching survey I mentioned.

 

In addition to the stats, it also brings up that TiVo has named July Binge Month.

[Keely]

In my house, binge watching totally depends on the show. The more complex the storylines the higher the chance we'll save it and binge once the season is done. Orphan Black is a great example of this. We saved and binged The Blacklist last week. We've yet to decide if we can save s2 for binging or if it will go to must see tv as soon as it airs.

 

We have a huge DVR so that affords us a lot of freedom we didn't used to have as do Netflix and Amazon. We don't watch anything completely live anymore, preferring to at least give things a 10-16 minute buffer before starting any show.

 

My personal feeling is that some shows benefit enormously from binging; even the lighter/fluffier ones. Binging allows you to get through filler eps, drawn out or bad arcs in a short timespan versus growing frustrated from prolonged torture and dumping a show. There have been multiple shows we would have stopped watching if we'd had to suffer through parts of it live. Binging can often decrease the pain exponentially.

 

Of course there are some shows we watch the moment our buffer period is up. We choose on a show by show basis with all manner of different criteria. Toward the end of its run, we probably would have been better off binging Battlestar Galactica, whereas binging 3 eps in a row of Revolution killed the show for me. Yet I don't think a show like Deadwood would be well served by binging. The prose is thick enough that for me, my brain would stop absorbing it if I tried to do a first run viewing by binging.

[VanillaBear85]

I prefer to binge watch because I like watching shows at my own pace, which could be several in one sitting or one episode at a time. I primarily watch shows through DVDs from the library or Netflix. There are only a few shows that I watch in real time. I like having a season or more of episodes at my disposal at a time, because I can gauge whether I will like the show better. If there are several seasons of a show then I tend to space it out, but if there are not I watch it quickly I.e. Pushing Daisies took three days and that particular show will likely be rewatched at some point. I feel that I retain information better when I watch it at my pace than weekly.

[ramble]

I just binge watched the first three seasons of Falling Skies. My kiddos were out of town for a week & I hate that alone in the house feeling, especially at night. I spent several hours each evening watching episode after episode. Today I watched the first episode of the new season & I don't know if I'm going to like watching it once a week. I'll try one more episode & if I'm not feeling it then I'll put it off until after it's all done.

[FormerMod-a1]

I just started watching Game of Thrones and I thought I'd be able to binge watch it relatively short order.  However, I just can't.  I really like it, it's really good, but it's so heavy and heady material.  I can keep up with all the goings-ons pretty well, but I need a brain break.  My first day I watched 5 episodes, took a break, then thought I'd watch 2-3 more, but ended up only watching 1 more.  Then the next day I only watched 1 episode and I don't think I'll be watching any today.  When I binge watched Lost I watched 1 ep before work and 1 ep before bed every weekday and several on the weekends.  I won't be able to do that with GoT.

[ganesh]

Yeah I wouldn't watch more than one GoT per day myself. There is just way too much going on.

[kiddo82]

I like to watch weekly whenever possible. There's just something about the fact that "Wednesdays is show X night" makes me happy. Even if I can't catch the episode live, just knowing that it's banking on the DVR and I can watch it later is fun. Not that having an entire 22 episode order at my finger tips isn't it's own form of fun, but the anticipation is missing. I have no burning desire to watch any of the Netflix originals at this time because knowing that they'll be there whenever I'm ready for them makes watching them less urgent. I'm sure at some point curiosity will get the better of me, and I'm not saying I won't get sucked in, but at present I don't need to watch them the way I need to watch The Americans because I want to watch it live and not fall behind.

Now that we live in the age of DVD's, Amazon Prime, and Netflix I tend to only weekly watch shows I am up to date on. Remember back in the dark ages when if you were late to a show you were SOL for seeing the missed episodes until (hopefully) the show made it to syndication? Yeah, now I'm so spoiled I won't touch a show I can't see from the beginning. (With the rare exception of sitcoms if I'm only behind a season or two since those tend to be less serialized) The times I do binge include catching up on a show I want to watch weekly, catching up on a show I can't watch weekly (premium cable), and catching up with shows that have ended their run. My rate of gluttony depends on the show, my level of interest, and where I am with the show. For example, Dexter. Knowing the limited number of episodes per season (approx 12), and the fact that I was always only a season behind, I had no problems plowing through those eps in a regular work week. It's not much of a commitment and the chance of burnout isn't great. However, watching an entire series from the beginning can seem like a daunting task (I've just started watching Rescue Me for the first time) and I tend to do that at a much steadier pace. Watching a seven season series from episode 1 is an endurance event and needs to be treated as such. Binge re-watching is a different animal. Knowing which episodes I can get housework done during and which I really want to savor helps me blow through a bunch of episodes without feeling too guilty about watching 4 episodes of television in a row.

Edited September 20, 2014 by kiddo82

[yourpointis]

What Your TV Binge Watching Says About You

 

https://www.yahoo.com/health/what-your-tv-binge-watching-routine-might-say-109330515992.html

 

Binge-watching TV shows is associated with loneliness, depression, and the inability to catch — and stop — ourselves from engaging in this extreme viewing behavior, new research suggests. Binge-watching is defined as “watching between two to six episodes of the same TV show in one sitting.” The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, is based on survey responses from 316 people ages 18 to 29, who were asked about their TV-viewing behaviors, the types of shows they watched, and their loneliness, depression, and ability to self-regulate.

 

The researchers found that people who binge-watched TV reported higher levels of loneliness and depression, as well as less self-control, compared with people who didn’t binge-watch TV. Loneliness, depression, and the deficiency in self-regulation were also found to be predictors of binge-watching behavior. Some possible reasons: “Those who feel negative emotions such as loneliness and depression may binge watch TV series to stay away from their negative feelings,” the researchers wrote in the study. It’s also possible, they noted, that binge-watching is a means to keep up with “trendy” TV shows, which is then used as conversation fodder later on.

 

The researchers also noted the link between self-regulation deficiency and amount of binge-watching. “The results imply that the higher self-regulation deficiency an individual has, the more episodes he/she tends to binge watch,” they wrote. “Indeed, binge viewers may find themselves clicking the ‘Next’ button for one more episode after another, even though they realize that there are things to do the next day or they need to sleep.” They also noted that self-regulation deficiency was the biggest predictor of binge-watching behaviors, and that the inability to resist the desire to watch show after show could trigger feelings of guilt. (Anyone who’s ever felt kind of bad about whiling away any entire Saturday afternoon in front of a screen can attest to this.)

<snip>

In addition, it’s important to note that the study did not show that binge-watching TV causes loneliness, depression or self-regulation deficiency, nor does it show an opposite cause-and-effect relationship — it merely shows relationships, particularly predictive relationships. In addition, the study was only conducted in millenials — further research is needed to see if the findings apply to other age groups, the researchers said.

[proserpina65]

I've never binged watched a currently airing show in which I was interested from the beginning.  I have binged watched things that I only decided to watch after they stopped airing (The Wire, Firefly) or I missed at the beginning (Grey's Anatomy, Black-ish) or aired on channels I don't get (again, The Wire and the first season of Game of Thrones).  I do occasionally binge-rewatch; a friend and I have done this with every season of Game of Thrones.

 

I don't have any on demand services.  I don't have a dvr, so saving entire seasons to watch in a binge isn't practical for me.  And I loathe trying to watch things on the computer - they're always buffering which drives me crazy.  So other than some things on dvd, watching live is pretty much it for me.