Binge Watching?

[audreyh1]

I often see people refer to binge watching a show on Internet streaming.

I like to savor good shows and series and stretch them out. This week I was kind of "forced" to "binge watch" for me, as PBS made season 2 of Mr. Selfridge available for this week only. For me, this binge watching meant 1 episode a day, LOL! That was the fastest I've ever gotten though a series.

I generally don't like to watch more than two or three shows a week of a given series.

Just curious.

[Amethyst]

Wasn't "binge watching," but we watched all of Year 1 and most of Year 2 of Downton Abbey in a few weeks on Netflix (each disc had 3 shows and we watched one disc a week). We hadn't seen the show, and really liked it at first...but boy, does it get repetitive after a while.

Amethyst

[freebird5825]

Mr B and I like to binge watch Law and Order: Original, SVU, and CI.
SVU can get a bit intense, so we favor the original and CI. "Lenny Briscoe" is his favorite character.

We will watch it live (with a 15 minute pause delay) if it is one we haven't seen yet. I record the later night showings, so at any time of day we feel like settling down and watching TV, we have our pick. I happily do the fastforwarding through the commercials. That in itself is worth the monthly DVR fee through our cable provider.

Once in a while I will go to Netflix and pick out a history based movie we will both enjoy.

The most we will binge in one evening is 4 episodes of L&O, with breaks in between.

I wish "Benched" would return to TV. Keeping an eye out for it.

[ls99]

DW is binge watcher of SciFI. I ignore TV save for dancing shows.

[Sarah in SC]

DH is binge watching Lillyhammer right now and I must admit I need a break so we aren't sitting in front of the tv five nights in a row.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

[MichaelB]

DW and I are now official binge watchers. We began with "The Good Wife", then "West Wing", now "Downton Abbey". For us, binge means 3 or 4 times per week, 1 or 2 episodes at a time. The Food Network is suffering as a result.

[rodi]

I was forced to binge watch "Homeland"s first seasons because we waitlist the dvds from the library then have ONE WEEK to watch the season. Fortunately it's a compelling show.

We will binge watch House of Cards latest season next time we join netflix for a month. We've got too many projects going on to even think about doing this anytime soon. We typically join netflix for a month, once a year and get House of Cards and any other movies not availalble for streaming from Amazon Prime.

And I've gotten DH into watching "The Wire" through amazon prime - but it's typical an episode every few days. I'm loving being able to watch on my tv, vs the PC, now that Prime and Tivo are playing nice together.

[audreyh1]

Most of you guys aren't doing what I think of as binge watching*. We usually watch something almost every day, although often it's only half an episode. I just prefer to watch different shows and not the same back to back.

*I've read of some people watching several episodes of say House of Cards a day, for several days in a row.

[Tailgate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 *I've read of some people watching several episodes of say House of Cards a day, for several days in a row.

typically, this is what we do.. couple of episodes each day until we're through with the series, generally we watch in late afternoons when we've gone through our checklist (activities, chores, etc) that day..

[Totoro]

I think I'm the real thing.

I watched the entire season 3 of House of Cards in two days. Agents of Shield in three days.

When I found out about Gotham, watched the first 10 episodes in one day.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg ..

[Bestwifeever]

Some shows are designed for bingewatching, I think--Netflix's Orange Is the New Black is presented in six episode installments. We did bingewatch each batch of that over two nights.

I do really like watching a complicated show (lots of regular characters or a fast moving plot) without much time between episodes because it can get confusing for me if I let too much time go and perfect-memory DH gets a little annoyed with my "who's that?" over and over. I watched all of Justified like that and will watch this final season like that too.

Vera and Inspector George Gently are two shows we pace ourselves with because I find them very deep and moving for police mysteries and like them to settle before proceeding.

Yeah, I adore Downton Abbey but it is a pretty repetitive silly show, more obviously so if you bingewatch it.

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 I often see people refer to binge watching a show on Internet streaming. I like to savor good shows and series and stretch them out. This week I was kind of "forced" to "binge watch" for me, as PBS made season 2 of Mr. Selfridge available for this week only. For me, this binge watching meant 1 episode a day, LOL! That was the fastest I've ever gotten though a series. I generally don't like to watch more than two or three shows a week of a given series. Just curious.

If you have Amazon Prime, both seasons are available there and you could pace your viewing a little bit.

[Meadbh]

I don't binge watch; I batch watch. I could not do what Totoro describes. The most I could watch at one sitting is 2-3 hours. That means three 60 episodes or two 90 minute episodes. The content also makes a difference. For an intense drama such as House of Cards, one episode at a time may be enough. So once I get into a series that I like, it may take me a couple of weeks to finish it. That's cool; so much better than the old way: waiting a week, missing the next episode because I misprogrammed the VCR, losing track of the clues, etc!

Of course, personal taste varies. I will usually give a new series two episodes before giving up on it. I'm finding that many American comedy series fall into that category for me.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro I think I'm the real thing. I watched the entire season 3 of House of Cards in two days. Agents of Shield in three days. When I found out about Gotham, watched the first 10 episodes in one day. And that's just the tip of the iceberg ..

OMG! Now that's what I'm talking about!

House of Cards is too dark, too intense for me to watch more than an episode a week!

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever If you have Amazon Prime, both seasons are available there and you could pace your viewing a little bit.

We'll go back and watch season 1 then. Thanks!

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 OMG! Now that's what I'm talking about! House of Cards is too dark, too intense for me to watch more than an episode a week!

This season latest House of Cards seems to vier off into the unbelievable. Don't want to spoil it for others but we are finding it hard to watch now. And yes, some of the earlier season stuff was a bit over the top ... but that is Hollywood, ugh.

[Moemg]

Whenever someone mentions binge watching all I can think of is "Orange is the new black " . I binge watched that . I got so hooked I would even watch an episode during the day and I never watch daytime TV..

[Midpack]

Never binge watched anything, never tempted to do so. Two episodes of something in the same day is probably the most I've ever watched. But I don't watch that much TV compared to reported US averages**, and would be happy to watch even less.

But I can understand how others who are still working might resort to binge watching on weekends - I guess.

I know DW gets miffed when her favorites leave her hanging at the end of each episode, even though she knows that the standard formula, so maybe she'd be better off waiting and binge watching. No mystery will be solved in less than the program time (so you know all the early conclusions are tangents), and no serial will end without some 'cliff-hanger.' Yawn...

** 5 hours/day, though more streaming and less live TV each year

[Jaded salami]

got hooked on Sons of Anarchy, somehow missed that show in its first run, watched the entire season 3 (which was very good) in 3 days.

[chilkoot]

Like the OP, I tend to stretch things out to savor them. One indirect way of judging how well I like a show is to note how infrequently I watch. I'm only now getting to the fourth season of Game of Thrones and have to ration it to one hour a week; gotta make it last.