Binge Watching is the Worst When It’s Actually a Good Show
I would like to believe that we’re all on the same page that we binge-watch because it is a good show, but honestly, there are plenty of shows we steamrolled through because either we heard it would get better, one character is hot, or everyone else is watching it.
Not to reopen old wounds, but I’m sure we collectively watched Tiger King because of how insane it was, or everyone was talking about it.
I was the latter, and I also naively thought it would be a good conversation starter once quarantine lifted. Talk about underestimating.
My definition of binge-watching seems more of a sane practice than sitting on the couch for 8 hours straight, but semantics. I do a 2 episode rule. Even if you watch a weekly show, I swear by the two-episode rule. First off, who would ever want to watch just one episode of anything? Second, if it’s the pilot or the start of a new season, or the season finale, a double feature is the ideal viewing pleasure. Its just the perfect amount of time all the while you can be excited to watch it tomorrow. If you don’t agree with me I’d love to know your stance.
So this is what I do: I’ll watch two episodes a night and as hard as that it is sometimes with a great show, it practices self-control, which I lack.
Even though I did this method for Veronica Mars, I felt like I was breezing through this show! I felt like I finished three seasons with 22 episodes worth in a month (and if I did the math right that is probably true), but it felt insanely fast. So to find out that season 4 premiered in 2019, over 10 years after the nail-biting season 3 finale, I was gutted. Turns out CW canceled the show. Then the fans paid for them to make something else because #JusticeforMars, so they made a movie in 2013. I didn’t want to spoil myself by digging any deeper, but a fourth and final season released in 2019.
The CW and I have a very toxic relationship (I’ve watched 16 of their shows at this point) so the fact that they canceled this cult favorite of a show and kept others, (cough, Supernatural, which I watched nine seasons of, see I told you its toxic), is so their style. Veronica Mars was such a gem of a show. I laughed, I cried, I gasped at the many twists and turns I was not ever expecting. While I had a low-grade fever over the fact that Wallace was the best black friend to a T, the show tackled race, sex, assault, and other topics I was not expecting for the early 2000s.
So when I sit down two days ago to click on season four to see what happened during spring break, my jaw drops at the now decade older (yet seemingly ageless) Kristen Bell back in Neptune. For a moment, while I’m spiraling to figure out how to carry on, I feel like I wish I knew what happened. I was not prepared to feel so sad about essentially not knowing that the show technically ended. Maybe I would’ve just watched one episode a day (fat chance). Maybe I would’ve somberly watched the finale knowing that this was goodbye. But instead, my binge-watch had me at a full sprint not realizing that the ground was no longer under me.
While I didn’t have the chance to say some parting words, I don’t regret a single minute. Not knowing what I know now, I anticipated each day with more excitement than the last. Some days I had to watch other shows just to slow down. You have so much power when you can rush through a show. But a good show? When it’s a good show, you have to be careful because you might not even realize that it’s already over.
I already want to rewatch it again, but nothing is like the first time right?
*Update: I have since watched the fan movie as well as started season four. IMO the movie was a fairly good wrap-up.
