It all began on Valentine’s Day. Little did I know that for the next week I would spend practically 24 hours of my time staring at my laptop. The release of the second season of “House of Cards” inspired my choice to begin watching the first. And now a week later I’ve finished both seasons 1 & 2 (a cumulative total of 26, fifty-minute episodes, roughly 1300 minutes or 22 hours of content). HOW. DID. THAT. HAPPEN. 

Binge-watching—a new habit of television viewing, enabled by the likes of Netflix and HuluPlus, where life ceases to exist due to the availability of entire seasons and series of television shows online. You choose a show and watch episode after episode after episode until you finish the series, fall asleep, or lose interest. All three have happened to me and it leads to an interesting analysis of media consumption. 

First, a series is started for any number of reasons—whether it’s to remain culturally current, you’re bedridden with illness, or just bored—it begins as an innocent choice. A few episodes in and you’re cruising along, hungry and yearning for more drama. A note here on how binge-watching is much more enjoyable with drama series rather than comedies. “House of Cards,” “Scandal,” and “Friday Night Lights” are my three favorites mostly because their stories and characters draw you in and capture you so much so that you’re more interested in discovering how their lives pan out than living your own. 

After the initial binge where you watch maybe the first five episodes, you take a break and go about your daily business quickly becoming aware of your need to watch more. You succumb to the temptation and spend the following day watching the middle portion of the season partially because you’re interested, but mostly because you’re now invested in finishing the season so that you can chalk up your afternoon spent watching television as an accomplishment rather than a waste. And pretty soon as you near the end of a season, you ride the high and muster up your last bit of endurance to seal the deal and finish. It’s rewarding, yet also depressing as you realize you have nothing to look forward too until the next season—as is the case with “House of Cards”—or you realize your show is over and you’ll never see another new episode again (e.g. “Friday Night Lights”). You basically endure the emotional roller coaster show writers hoped to inflict upon their viewing audience over the course of a multi-week television season, in 7-8 days. This kind of emotional toll leaves you empty and depressed until you discover another show to binge on as a means of drowning that hollow feeling or you remember you have a life outside of your apartment. 

I remembered my life outside of my apartment and while the withdrawal is difficult, I know it’s only a matter of time before I become seduced by another series and the cycle repeats itself. Here’s hoping I have enough restraint…