In case you hadn’t noticed – in which case you are an astoundingly well-organised person of almost savant-like powers who is completely up to date in all things; I may just have to worship you once I finish season 6 of Dexter and season 8 of Supernatural and … – binge-watching of TV shows is now A THING.
A very big and ever growing THING.
Given life by new digital mobile technologies which mean that people are no longer limited to watching a show on the night it is telecast – in the case of streaming service Netflix, which releases shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black in whole seasons at once, they’re not even broadcast in the old sense anymore – binge-watching has become the chosen way for people to catch up on shows they have missed, in many cases, multiple seasons at once.
But binge-watching is not something that you should embark on lightly.
Well I mean of course everyone does but by lightly skipping into 7 seasons in one go of The Big Bang Theory, you run the very real risk that you will forget basic hygiene skills, your now fore-closed house will revert to a jungly mass of thorny bushes and they will need to send search parties in pith helmets through the vortex of mouldy food, unread mail and unwashed clothes to find you.
Sure it sounds rugged and survival of the fittest-esque but is this really the way you want to go out?
I thought not.
So to avoid you and those you hold dearest descending into an unwashed Chernobyl-like nightmare of post-apocalyptic proportions, the good folks at Neilsen via Huffington Post have prepared a handy dandy chart of viewing times for the shows that most people find themselves binge-watching till their eyes fall out of their heads and are nibbled by hordes of rats even the Pied Piper would blanch at approaching.
All you need to do is check the chart, find how long a show’s seasons will take to watch and you can safely plan how many jumbo packs of crisps and gallons of cask wine you will need to see you through.
You will be happier, and the world will thank you for removing the risk of epidemic and suffocatingly-bad BO spreading outwards from your binge watch saturated humble abode.
* Yes I have featured it before but every article that even remotely mentions binge-watching must feature this hilarious clip from the inspired people at Portlandia …