So many years ago a show aired on Showtime called "Weeds." In my young college years in a tiny one bedroom apartment with my then-boyfriend, now husband, we somehow scraped together the money for full cable plus Showtime. My mom had bought us the first season and said "This show is hilarious."
We were hooked instantly and somehow all of our friends, some 7 or 8 of us would squish into our tiny one bedroom apartment, every week to watch Weeds. This may have happened two full seasons I cannot remember. One season I was studying abroad and when I came home I literally adapted back to the Pacific Northwest time zone, by binge-watching Weeds when I couldn't sleep.
Weeds is created and written by Jenji Kohan who is now most well known for the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. Weeds now lives in infamy for perfectly embodying the phrase "Jumped the Shark," when referencing it's weirdly tumultuous detour in Season 4. Now Weeds lasted 8 Seasons but to all die hard fans, after season 4 it was like, "This can't get worse, but let's just see I guess."
I fell in love with Weeds amazing cast and the plot line and once I was invested, I was all in. When we moved around and were struggling 20 somethings trying to figure out life, we couldn't afford cable. Season after season after season went by and what would we do? Every year they released it on DVD we would buy it THAT day and then watch the ENTIRE season with great food and laziness. Hence, I invented binge-watching.
I'd like to say it started with Weeds but really I think it started when I got my first Season of Friends. It was like a contest on who could watch the most episodes. Even when Netflix started you could only "Binge-watch" whatever you had on disk pre-streaming platforms. So if Netflix sent you 2 discs of a season with 5 disks, you were still limited.
I lived to have an entire season in my hands and devour the entire thing. It was the most relaxation I could ever have and thus my invented perfection of the binge-watch began. Other binge-watching revelations could go back to America's Next Top Model or bad VH-1 reality television shows. Remember those marathon days? Yeah, I was all over that!
This all came about because with the final season of Jenji Kohan's most recent brainchild being released onto Netflix and also my recent binge watch of Glow, I realized that the term and act of "binge watch" is such a thing so much so that many Netflix series drop that term into normal conversation. It's now fully a thing.
I started to re-watch all of Orange is the New Black and often prep for a new Season release by watching all prior episodes. I am the exact target audience of all things binge-watching so I think I should get some creative credit here.
Netflix definitely does it right. Watching a series from week to week is now agonizing and makes you feel prehistoric and completely let down.
The best part, for me, about a binge watch experience is it forces me to slow down. I do not sit still and this whole "me time" thing is such a struggle for me. So then, if I know a season is coming out I can be like "Sunday after church we are doing nothing and watching Stranger Things 3 all day!" It forces me to get stuff done and out of the way to succumb to the "chill."
I'm sure many people can't do the binge watch but for me, while breastfeeding and being a stay at home mom with this kid attached to me, it was all about binge-watching. I devoured Mad Men, the last seasons of The Office, that series The Killing was it called? I watched Glee and a bunch of other stuff I'm probably forgetting.
I'm that weirdo who likes having stuff on in the background. It's a momentary distraction or, something to offset the other annoying walks of life. Who doesn't enjoy folding laundry with Game of Thrones in the background? Well, at least the first 7 seasons now maybe.
I have always been that girl that cannot wait to settle into a good movie with popcorn and treats or with a pizza and undivided attention on that screen. When movies were still affordable, I'd be there just waiting to engulf myself in the drama. I still need to watch all 3 uncut versions of Lord of the Rings and all 8 Harry Potter movies in one sitting. Yes. Goals.
Maybe I should write something about "The Art of The Binge Watch," because I think I'm seriously onto something here! I digress, and the moral of all this Friday fun is, binge watching is such a thing that our patience to follow a series is waning, much like our patience without technology is dissolving. So although I fully plan to keep watching Orange Is The New Black and become a binge-watching connoisseur, I will leave you with the wise words of the great Ferris Bueller:
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