I don't know about you, but I now see holidays and the long weekends they provide as an opportunity to catch up on some TV.
Some people take trips to other cities. Maybe they go camping. At the very least, many have a cookout, inviting over family and friends. But for me, it's a chance to make some room on my DVR or get up to speed on a show that my buddies are watching. I don't want to be left out of the discussion. I don't want to avoid episode recaps. I don't want to worry that someone will spoil an episode on Twitter and Facebook before I've been able to watch it.
Over the Labor Day weekend, I caught up on the first two seasons of BBC America's Luther, a show that one of my good friends has been recommending to me for the past three years. Luther's 10 episodes have been available on Netflix Instant for quite a while, so there's really no good reason for me not to have watched them already. But there's so much other stuff on — also including sports, of course — that Idris Elba's troubled, vengeful cop just got lost in the stack.
However, season 3 premiering this week on BBC America gave me the motivation I needed to begin powering through the previous episodes. There were only 10 of them to watch, and I basically had four days of free time. No problem, right?
But 10 hours of TV can still be pretty daunting, especially on a weekend when college football started and baseball's playoff races are entering their stretch run. Personally, I don't think binge watching can be done every week. Maybe not even every month. The mind and body have to prepare for all that consumption. And you really do have to effectively tune out the outside world.
My last binge was in July when Netflix released Orange is the New Black. As it's done with all of its original programming, Netflix made all 13 episodes of Orange available at once, giving subscribers another opportunity to devour the show at their own pace.
View it over a weekend, watch one or two episodes per day, or go crazy and watch the entire series in one butt-numbing sitting. Netflix is leaving it entirely up to you, as the site (or should we call it a network at this point?) did with its other endeavors, House of Cards and the fourth season of Arrested Development.
Shortly after Orange was released, many critics watched the entire season in full and reviewed it immediately. My main TV watching buddy A. finished off those 13 shows before I even watched the first episode. I didn't want to be left behind, nor did I want to deprive A. of not being able to talk about the show, so I eventually dove in.
Why didn't I join A. right away? Well, I wasn't sure how to take this on. Having so many options just kind of froze me in place, like the proverbial deer in the headlights.
Do I just watch the first episode and dip my toe in before deciding to fully binge? Should I wait until the weekend to start watching, so I can watch a couple of shows in a row or maybe more, if I really get into it? (Orange was released at 3 a.m. ET on Thursday, July 11.) Wait a minute — I've got other stuff to do this weekend, so can I commit to watching a bunch of episodes? Maybe I just shouldn't bother watching at all then. The whole enterprise felt exhausting, and I hadn't even started viewing the series yet.
Actually, Orange is only one part of the vast TV buffet that's available these days. It's just one of dozens of shows — scripted drama or comedy, or reality show — that are there for the viewing, so many of which are so damn good. Where does one even begin when deciding where to devote TV time?
Making a decision is a good start, of course. I did finally take the plunge with Orange and the hooks were quickly in. All of the great reviews and high praise were absolutely not wrong. I finished off the series within a week and discussed virtually everything I could think of about it with A. in one of our epic post-mortems shortly thereafter.
Isn't that really the best part of watching a great TV series? Sure, a show you enjoy is its own pleasure. However, getting to talk with someone about it, going elbow deep into every detail, truly enhances the experience. (Isn't this why 75 percent of us use the internet?)
But after finishing Orange and analyzing the hell out of it with a close friend, a familiar gnawing feeling soon returned. Which series do I choose next?
There aren't any more long holiday weekends until Thanksgiving. But I could probably catch up on or finish off a series before then, right? If I plan my binge-viewing schedule well, I should be able to scratch more than one show off my watch list. I can fit season 3 of Game of Thrones into that window. I should also be able to tackle the last season of The Walking Dead , hopefully just before season 4 begins on Oct. 13.
The show I really should've committed to over the summer was Breaking Bad. I am really out of the loop there, and virtually everyone I know either online or in real life watches it. I have to ignore friends on social media or be the annoying person who doesn't want to talk about the show because I don't want to hear spoilers. Never mind that if something was actually spoiled, I'm so far behind that it would take me a while to catch up with those story developments.
What I really wanted to do was catch up on Dexter during the Fourth of July holiday. The eighth and final season began just days before July 4. At one point, this was one of my favorite shows. I became a fan while binge-watching season 1 during a weekend visit to Seattle. When I got home, I quickly picked up the season 2 DVD set and blew through that. Shortly thereafter, it was on to the third season. Then the fourth.
After finishing season 4, I'd reached the point where I needed to subscribe to Showtime to watch the fifth season. Or, of course, I could just wait for the DVD set and watch Dexter the way I always had.
But while deciding whether or not I wanted to pay for Showtime (a dilemma that seems silly now, considering how much I currently pay for cable and how many channels that gives me), then waiting for the DVDs, I lost interest in the show. Dexter was tossed into the pile of all the other TV programs that I'd get around to watching eventually — when I had the time!
Four years later, I was wondering if I could plow through three seasons of Dexter and then jump on to Season 8. Naturally, that was setting myself up to fail. What an absurd challenge to present for myself. Watching 12 episodes over a long holiday weekend would have been enough. Who can watch three seasons totaling 36 episodes over four days?
I mean, I'm sure it can be done. But should it? Really? Aren't there better and more productive uses of your time, even if it's just to go out to the grocery store? Go see some friends. Say hello to your mother. Breathe fresh air. Let sunlight touch your skin. Curl up some grass with your bare toes.
Look, I realize this is the most first world of first world problems. Oh, you can't watch all your TV? Boo-hoo! I know — I don't talk about this much to friends and family. I can only imagine how those conversations would play out.
My baby's about to start Kindergarten! Where does the time go?
You're not kidding! Have there already been six seasons of Mad Men? I just finished Season 4! Why are you looking at me like that?
The fact that there's so much excellent television to watch right now — more than anyone, even professional TV critics, can realistically hope to watch — is such a luxury. I'd like to think there will be enough opportunity during our individual lifetimes to eventually watch it all. But maybe it'd be nice if the networks cooled it on the great stuff for just a bit. I don't know — give us a year to catch up. I promise I'll lay out a schedule for myself and get this done.
