We’ve all been there. It’s a Friday night, and you’re settling in to start the TV show that everyone is talking about. Effort is minimal — the episodes play automatically, so you don’t even have to pick up the remote. All you have to do is watch. Then, as if out of nowhere…humiliation. A question glows across the screen: “Are you still watching?” You stare blankly at this accusatory message as it dawns on you: It’s now Sunday night. Which means that you’ve sat in the same spot for two days. What do you have to show for it?
Perhaps it’s the delusions that you could now perform surgery after watching a seasons of Grey’s Anatomy back to back. Or is it impulsive ambitions of becoming a lawyer because Suits made it look so glamorous? Ultimately though, the only thing you’ll have to offer during a weekend debrief is an impassioned retelling of seasons 1-3 of Game of Thrones. At that point, you start to wonder whether it was worth it.
Then comes a familiar feeling of guilt, which haunts us in a post-COVID culture. It’s a culture of constant pressure to always “seize the day” and to achieve all your goals immediately. Unfortunately, after a weekend spent in front of a screen, the only thing that has seized is your legs, and your sole achievement? The imprint on your couch. Needless to say, binge-watching has become a very popular way to watch TV. But where did it come from, and why do we do it?
Defining it
Binge-watching can be defined as the overconsumption of visual media. It occurs when someone watches a continuous stream of content in one sitting and in rapid succession. In an age of technology and decreasing attention span, this uninterrupted viewing is steadily becoming the preferred experience. Audiences are no longer satisfied with just one episode a week. In order to be “fully engrossed in the narrative,” they must watch a season at a time.
This way of watching came into full effect during the COVID-19 pandemic. People across the globe were staying at home and planting themselves in front of a screen. For those with the privilege of free time, it blocked out what was happening outside, serving as a form of escapism.
The Rise of the Streaming Service
Traction came with the pandemic, but binge-watching was first and foremost a result of streaming services. With sites like Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video, members have endless hours of television at their fingertips. Physical boxsets are all but obsolete, because who can be bothered to spend an extra 5 minutes setting up the DVD player?
Long before the pandemic in 2013, Harris Interactive conducted a survey on behalf of streaming giant Netflix. The results declared binge-watching to be “the New Normal.” It was already known to be widespread behavior, with 61% of TV streamers stating that they engaged in binge-watching regularly. The survey even tackled the common perception of the activity being a weekend-long pajama marathon. It found that a majority (73%) defined a binge-watch as between 2-6 episodes per sitting. Furthermore, nearly three quarters of streamers had positive feelings about their habit. A 2016 survey noted that in the United States, 70% of surveyed viewers engaged in “Marathon TV Viewing.” This meant watching an average of five episodes per session. Not too bad, right? It isn’t until you put it into greater context.
Take the Netflix-produced show Orange Is the New Black. Frequently cited as a show that introduced people to binge-watching, it has episodes of between 51-93 minutes runtime. This would make a five-episode binge last nearly 5 hours (at least). The hours clocked seem relatively mild when compared to Netflix’s 2018 analysis of viewing patterns. They found that new members would, on average, begin their first binge-watch 12 days after signing up. Most would go on to complete a season within three days.
The Binge-watching Brand
Based on these statistics, streaming services promote and encourage the binge-watching habit. Netflix now has a section dedicated to TV programs that you can “Watch in One Weekend.” During the pandemic, their “Top 10 TV Programs” reduced members to a state of FOMO until they too had consumed The Queen’s Gambit in its entirety (and bought a chess board). Other platforms have followed suit: Prime Video has its selection of “Binge-worthy box sets,” and the “Bingeable Series” collection is the first you see upon opening Disney+ — no scrolling necessary.
Friends: The most (Binge) watchable show?
Many see this development as a good thing, because it gives viewers the flexibility to watch on their own schedule, whereas before, they were confined to the television guide. If you missed an episode or a show passed you by, you had no choice but to wait for a rerun. Now, things are different. Most of Gen Z don’t know what it was like to have to wait *gasp* a whole week to find out what happened after Ross kissed Rachel for the first time on Friends — or even worse, having to wait months after he said her name during his wedding to Emily in the season finale. Cliffhangers feel like a thing of the past. The next season is already queued and ready to go as soon as the credits roll.
The altered viewing experience is of no concern to the streaming services themselves. How could it be? The eye-watering $100 million renewal of Netflix’s rights to Friends in 2019 was easily worth every penny. With a 10-season-long run, a heavy nostalgia factor, and a lighthearted narrative, Friends is the perfect storm of “bingeable” television. In fact, it consistently ranks amongst the most streamed shows today in the UK.
The Bear and encouraging the habit
Whilst binge-watching often means revisiting an old favorite, new TV shows have adapted to the concept. When the trailer for the new season of the Emmy-winning drama The Bear dropped, fans were most excited to learn that all episodes would be available upon its release. The news sparked a flurry of fanfare, and even a Reddit discussion called “Season 3 Release Watch Strategy.” One user shared their approach: “I’ll let my willpower on the day decide (which probably means binging in one very long binge session).”
In the case of The Bear, even the show’s cast haven’t been able to resist a binge-watch. In an interview with Stephen Colbert, Jeremy Allen White (who stars as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto on the show) revealed that he watched seven episodes of the new season in one sitting, “because it’s just…so good.” This encapsulates modern TV viewing habits. The promotion of a show as a “Bingeable Watch” is critical. Besides, if Jeremy Allen White binge-watched it, then why shouldn’t I?
Has it changed the way these episodes are written and produced? It certainly has in the case of The Bear, which wrapped two weeks before its premiere. Despite its undoubtedly quick turnaround (White himself called it “insane”), the show maintained the standards of its first two seasons. Perhaps this seemingly rushed process may become industry standard. Rumors have circulated since March that The Bear was quietly renewed for season 4. Production scheduled back to back with season 3 would certainly satisfy this trajectory.
Is it bad for you?
“If you watch too much TV, your eyes will go square.” That’s the consequence parents have been warning their children about since the invention of the television. The parental adage wasn’t a scientifically accurate claim; it was a cautionary tale to discourage children from spending too much time in front of the TV. Now, with binge-watching, your eyes may not go square, but the health risks are certainly there.
The article “Associations of Problematic Binge-Watching with Depression, Social Interaction Anxiety, and Loneliness” delves into such risks. Published in 2021, authors Jia-Ji Sun and Yen-hung Chang consider the burgeoning problem of binge-watching and its possible links to mental health.
However, it isn’t that simple. Sun and Chang describe the relationship between mental health and binge-watching as “under scrutiny.” Indeed, there are studies which have found that binge-watching makes the viewer more relaxed, more in control, and happier.
Addicted to TV
So is the jury still out? Not really. The research into the negative impact of binge-watching far outweighs that which champions it. In 2021, Northwestern Medicine published an article entitled “Binge Watching: Three Ways TV Affects Your Health”. Another title that speaks for itself, the article considers the “high” binge-watching can produce and the corresponding dangers. Whilst engaging in an activity we enjoy, the release of dopamine in our brains makes us feel good. It is a feeling also induced by drugs, and their addictive qualities causes your brain to crave more. In the article, Dr. Danesh A. Alam explains that, like other addictive behaviors, binging a TV show can create a “pseudo-addiction” to the show and its characters. Although that may seem dramatic, how different is just one more episode from just one more of something else?
Addictive qualities aside, binge-watching isolates as much as it brings together. Whilst the phenomenon has “fostered a sense of shared enthusiasm” in fan culture online, it is often a solo activity. It can be easy for the disconnect of binge-watching to become an alienation of the self. A study on its psychological effects found that those displaying binge-watching behaviors are much more likely to suffer from depression. Through the constant stream of TV, they can escape their “current state of frustration.”
Final thoughts
The concept of binge-watching denotes the dramatic changes within our media consumption over the last 20 years. Since the emergence of YouTube in 2005, the compulsion to watch several videos or episodes in one sitting has only grown. In the past five years, the number of streaming services available worldwide has risen to over 200. Growing statistics like these show no signs of slowing down, cementing binge-watching as the go-to way to enjoy our favorite shows. However you look at it, the way we watch TV has changed forever. But has it changed for the better?
