Canadians take the crown in Netflix binging
From The Crown to Narcos to Ozark, we gobble up streaming TV as fast as anyone
It’s almost enough to make the most jaded of Royal Family skeptics monarchists.
No, not just the coming nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. No, silly sausages, The Crown.
Season 2 recently started streaming on Netflix, and it is virtually impossible to watch just one episode at a time. It’s as addictive as a heavily laced gin and tonic to lovers of all libations British.
One can’t help but be struck by the work of the remarkable Claire Foy as the young Queen Elizabeth II, first so naive and unprepared and then so quickly wizened to the ways of her world, not to mention to those of her wayward hubby, Prince Philip (Matt Smith).
Who knew such intrigue lurked within the palace walls? Who knew the true nature of the dastardly King Edward VIII (Alex Jennings), who abdicated the throne for the love of American divorcee Wallis Simpson (Lia Williams)? Or the true nature of belle of the ball, free spirit Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby)?
Sure, the casting of Yankee John Lithgow as the venerable, cigar-chomping Winston Churchill must have initially caused many Britons to choke on their kippers, but it turned out to be a master stroke and resulted in the one-time star of Third Rock From the Sun copping Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for his command performance.
Ah, the pomp and the circumstance and, of course, the Corgis.
I devoured Season 1 in a weekend. Season 2 in about a day and a half. What else is there to do in winter? Work out? Read books? Get real.
What about summer? Oh yeah, there was the dreaded Formula E, and there was no place to move.
More binging. Not necessarily proud, but I also gobbled up entire seasons of Ozark, Mindhunter, Orange Is the New Black 4-5, Bosch 3, Narcos 2-3, El Chapo, Stranger Things 2 and Broadchurch 1-2 — almost without coming up for air or sustenance.
Because of the constant viewing, neurons can get jammed on the cerebral highway. So much so that one can view a half-season of episodes only to realize one had previously seen them. This happened with Broadchurch. Curiously, filmmaker-turnedstandup Judd Apatow recounted the same experience with Broadchurch in his Netflix special Judd Apatow: The Return — which I caught last week along with Craig Ferguson’s Tickle Fight, also shot at Just for Laughs last summer.
But bingers should feel no shame. Not much, anyway. It seems binging — be it on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, CraveTV or whatever else is out there — has become a national sport in Canada.
Feel proud, Canada. In statistics gathered by Netflix, our dominion ranks second globally for members to binge on its streaming service every single day.
And now the stat that has some of our chests swelling with civic pride — albeit with our backs aching — Canada had the most binge racers globally on Netflix in 2017.
Yup. If binge racing were ever an Olympic event, it would probably be the only shot at a medal for many of us.
What is a binge racer? Simple. A humanoid who has completed an entire season of a TV show within 24 hours of its release on Netflix.
Other noteworthy Netflix factoids about Canadians:
The most popular day for streaming in 2017 was Jan. 1. Clearly, U.S. football bowl games and parades have lost their lustre for us.
And this is rich: One Canadian watched The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 361 times in 2017. Not sure if this Canuck caught the theatrical version of the 2003 epic at 201 minutes or the extended 251-minute version. In the case of the former, that would amount to spending the equivalent of 50 days; and in the case of the latter, 63 days. That’s some kind of commitment to Gandalf, Gimli, Gollum et al. Some might suggest another kind of commitment is necessary for this bug-eyed watcher.
The stats also differentiate between private and public binging among Canadians. Not surprisingly, air travel is the top setting for the latter variety of binging. Also not surprisingly, nearly half of those air-travelling bingers have caught a back seat binger snooping on their screens.
Shame. Then again, apparently 20 per cent of public bingers feel a sense of shame over what they have been caught watching.
The statistics regarding the shows Canadians most savoured in 2017 are rather telling and also rather odd. The Crown at No. 1 along with Ozark at No. 4 and El Chapo at No. 8 will make sense to many of us. But not so much the bizarro American-Japanese animated series Neo Yokio at No. 2 or the alleged comedy series Friends From College at No. 7.
Different strokes.
More proof of the aforementioned: Among the Top 10 shows that brought families together in 2017 were … Trollhunters and Ultimate Beastmaster? Oy, Canada! Perhaps therein lies some sense of shame.
More on the subject of shame is the category devoted to The 10 Shows That Got Us Cheating the Most in 2017. Shows we really couldn’t resist and watched ahead of our significant others — at potentially great peril.
I must plead absolutely guilty as charged to this heinous crime with regards to The Crown, Narcos, Orange Is the New Black, Stranger Things and Ozark — the latter both a riveting drama and a handy instructional on the dos and don’ts of money laundering.
But, please, keep this confession to yourselves.
What is a binge racer? Simple. A humanoid who has completed an entire season of a TV show within 24 hours of its release on Netflix.