In a recent “New Yorker,” Clive James owned up to binge-watching “Game of Thrones,” a most un-”New Yorker”ish thing to do, one would think.
But binge-watching is where it’s at, our new favorite thing. Suddenly a respectable thing. Everybody you meet has a new fav they are touting. Those who might have turned up their noses at the “boob Tube” a while back brag about their binge-watching. I’m not sure what it all means, what this wave is we’re surfing, of what it is a symptom.
Binge-watching seems, for one thing, a function of the sheer number of series being produced— hundreds a year, I read somewhere. If they make them, the least we can do is watch, right? Even if it takes our every waking hour (and some of those we might otherwise spend sleeping).
If the 1960s and 70s were the era of the singer-songwriter and movies, this is the era of TV series. There’s this sense almost of obligation to soak up all the talent.
They keep coming at you: “Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Thrones,” “Breaking Bad,” “Deadwood,” “Boardwalk,” “Homeland,” “House of Cards,” “Downton.” All reviewed with the highest praise. There’s not enough time to catch them all in their first appearance, hence binge-watching. “Rectify,” “Last Tango in Halifax,” “The Americans,” “ The Affair,” “Fargo,” “Mad men,” “Masters of Sex.” On and on. Some better than others, but all of them must-see, and eminently binge-watchable. (This list admittedly severely limited by my own series illiteracy.)
Just when you finish binge-watching your way through “The Americans” or a re-binge-watch of “Breaking Bad,” here comes your trusted buddy: Have you been watching “Better Call Saul” (the BB spinoff)? And here comes the second season of “Bloodlines”; got to make time to catch that. Or what about “Outlander”? I got two very strong recommendations in one day last week of “The Night Manager” and dutifully stayed up well past my bedtime watching the pilot.
All good, right? But it does seem as if production is overwhelming consumption. With hundreds of series being made every year, there’s no way we can keep up no matter how zealously we try. (It doesn’t help that Republican politics is so diverting this year.)
And it does make you wonder what we used to do with the time spent binge-watching—sleep? read? Talk to spouse?
Is this our version of bread and circuses?
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