On the prowl for a new show, a new past-time, and more importantly a new way to spend a boring evening only to find yourself stuck on the first season of a fifteen season show? Have you somehow found yourself stuck on the first season of a fifteen-season show? How do you escape the repetitiveness? Or the procrastination to keep watching or try something new?
Well aren’t you in luck because today, with streaming services at your side, it’s as easy as watching episodes 1..2..and 3!
Step one is to find the right show for you. There is no shame in watching one episode, getting bored and switching it out of the way. However, you don’t want to waste your time trying to find something that doesn’t immediately catch your attention. So locate a show that’s long, exhausting, and probably already finished being produced entirely.
“Usually friends refer a show to me,” says senior Faith Twigg. “I’ll watch the first episode to see if I really like it or want to continue it at all.”
It is just a show, so sit down, indulge in your bad eating habits, lay out on the bed or couch and get to watching. Don’t watch more than one season; however, you’ll get burnt out immediately. Bonus points if it’s a cliffhanger ending.
Now you wait a week before beginning the second season, sprinkle in a little movie or two, go outside, feel the breeze in your hair, and absolutely hate it. Once you master that last part, tv shows become really easy to complete.
“I think the longest I’ve ever binge watched a show was sixteen hours,” says senior Derek Waite. “My routine would roughly be putting on the show, nap, put back on the show.”
Following your disgust of the outside world without any real complex narrative, you can burrow your head into a pillow and start season two. Oh no! It’s been less than a day, and you’re already halfway through the season?! Well you’re in luck because now you have to shut down the TV for a while and begin to research more about the show–don’t watch it, but instead learn all about the actors, characters, and story as quickly as possible. Then wait ANOTHER week to watch the second half.
“I typically watch TV shows at night or when I have down time,” says Twigg. “I try not to binge watch and space it out, that keeps me interested and involved with the plot.”
Now that you are prepared a week later, find a day or two and have a solo watch party; set up snacks, desserts and planned dinners whilst you watch the rest of that season and the next season in one whole sitting.
“I prefer watch parties without a friend to be honest,” said Waite. “It removes the pressure of worrying about the other party being interested in the show.”
Now that you’re roughly three-to-four seasons through whatever show you chose, you can begin to repeat the previous cycle. Don’t rush a show, it makes it unwatchable, but also don’t wait too long, that makes you lose interest in the show. You have to simply rush some seasons and slow down others. It is a pattern after all until it ends. Then, you’re free until you find another show to take up your time constantly that ruins your perception of the world in the most intriguing and thought-provoking way.
“I usually don’t enjoy watching long TV shows because of burn out,” says Waite. “But if I have to deviate, my favorite show to watch is ‘Supernatural.’ It’s peak TV.”
