I’ve lost appetite for TV binge-fest
HOORAY for delayed gratification! Okay, perhaps I have some nerve extolling the virtues of waiting when our freedom has been postponed for weeks. If you’re aching to see far-flung relatives, itching to shake your booty in a club, or are desperate to recline under a coconut tree in guaranteed sunshine, then I realise you won’t appreciate being told a new hiatus between your ambitions and their fulfilment has a positive side.
So I feel your pain... but I’m afraid I’m going to press on regardless.
“To journey hopefully is a better thing than to arrive”, wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. Lockdown has taught us that proximity to an overflowing fridge is a curse masquerading as a blessing, and that gorging plays havoc with the waistline. Similarly, binge-watching TV series ultimately flattens our spirits.
Finally, however, I feel we’ve seen the light. We have turned the saturation corner. We have realised that devouring every episode of Kate Winslet’s Mare Of Easttown in one gargantuan gulp was a mistake and that eking out the agony, prolonging the suspense and waiting a week for the next instalment turns out to be far better salvation for the soul.
Who would have predicted that we crave a gradual drip-feed of enjoyment, but also yearn for the collective joy of watching something sensational with our fellow citizens?
WE WANT feelings from childhood. We recall anticipation, and the sensation that we couldn’t survive another hour without knowing the next plot twist. We remember debating Dallas’s denouements at school.Who shot JR? Back then, we jolly well had to wait.
Our parents argued about family drama The Brothers (1972) and our grandparents adored Susan Hampshire as Fleur in The Forsyte Saga (1967). The great thing was being part of the excitement – a sort of permanent Euro 2020 buzz engulfing all of us at the same time, with the country agog at what would happen next.
Disney and Amazon have now twigged that keeping us dangling contributes to viewing satisfaction. Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston, appears every Wednesday and not a second sooner. Line Of Duty, unavailable to watch in advance, broke overnight viewing records.
We’ve drained Netflix dry and are riddled with indigestion. We’ve hit peak binge. We’re ripe for rationing.Appetites should be curbed. We’ve been voracious and we’re over it.