LifePedia |Anand Sharma
Binge watching, as per the Merriam-Webster is “to watch many or all episodes of (a TV series) in rapid succession”.
It could however, also be defined as that ‘behavioural addiction’ which has very nearly destroyed the beautiful habit of ‘reading’ (books or otherwise), as well as having killed the primordial human instinct of socialising with fellow human beings and emerged as an addiction so potent that it has blurred the cyclical change between day and night between our waking and our sleeping hours.
Little wonder that the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, remarked, “Our biggest competitor is sleep”.
Some binged out of stress and angst (existential or otherwise) and depression that led them to their screens, while others it seems, embraced that state post their mega consumption.
It’s getting hard to tell which one is the cure and which one is the cause; but Binge watching is certainly the ‘Disprin’ of our emerging lifestyle.
And yet, in this paradigm lifestyle shift, is there anything that could possibly shine as the silver lining in these proverbial dark clouds?
One can only thank binge watching and surmise that finally human beings are no longer scared of being ‘alone’ or lonely, of coming back to an empty house or to a lonely bachelor pad or to an empty nest, since there is always the option of chilled beer and infinite hours of OTT content, well aided by uninterrupted wifi connection and food delivered at your doorstep (pretty much 24/7).
In this heady stupor, the fears of ageing alone or slipping into the pitfalls of toxic human interactions are conveniently shrugged aside.
Whether in 2020 BC (Before Corona) or post 2020 AD (Atmanirbhar Days) wherever you look- lives are stressful.
Buddha couldn’t have surmised it better when he laid out the eternal laws of life: Life is suffering. And so, in the midst of all this suffering most of which incidentally stems from PST (Persons Situations Things), why should binge watching live with such a bad repute, especially when it transports us to such a wonderful albeit temporary 8-12 hours (of) make-belief world – one that brings a smile to a face or leaves us bedazzled in suspended animation and on other occasions, introspective?
Also, is binge watching really a ‘new’ entrant?
Well, there was a time when people were watching Doordarshan TV non-stop, they had to. TV or the Audio-Visual medium was an alien but addictive concept that was soon followed by the arrival of VCR days. Again we were enticed and glued, and the reasoning was simple – it was a novelty, and now you could pick and choose the content. And for the first time back then, VCR broke the shackles of ‘appointment viewing’.
Of course the monetary aspect was that you were renting tapes on a 24 hourly basis and the best way to amortise your expense, was to finish off as many tapes as you could in that 24 hour cycle. The home-movie sessions also doubled up as a full-fledged picnic with home-cooked delicacies, the company of family and friends, without actually stepping out and burning fuel.
Gradually VCRs gave way to CD players, then DVD players to pen drives but insofar the content was mostly movies and the oft heard term was – movie marathons, the precursor to Binge watching.
Yet nobody complained of our new lifestyles then, owing primarily to its temporariness, a far cry from the current times when the OTT landscape spreads across acres of content to choose from, followed by a solitary lifetime to consume.
What kicked off with the HBO series, ‘Sopranos’ DVDs with multiple episodes, paved way for the ‘House of Cards’ (2013) digital launch of the complete series in one go, and just like with peanuts we could never stop at one. Circa 2020 planet earth has never looked the same again.
Our lifestyles have been altered seemingly, to the point of no return. Suddenly the weekend getaway to the nearest theatre for a 2-hour film followed by overpriced food courts and the incidental mall shopping, has been nullified by the trimmed purses and rationality of staying home away from traffic and ‘parking’ woes, option of online shopping and finally binge watching in the comfort of your bedroom knowing well enough that it’s just a matter of time before the Friday release will sooner rather than later find its way on one of the OTT platforms.
So is binge watching really a menace? Or a part of our new lifestyle? With a slightly cynical outlook amidst a dystopian landscape, I lean towards the affirmative.
We Indians might have been the last ones to board the bandwagon but it is definitely a stinking reality where people have drifted apart in their parallel universes in the company of Walter Whites and Jesse Pinkmans or the Jon Snows or the local Gaitwandes to name a few, yet looking none the lonelier.
At the end of the day one makes a simple calculation/comparison: Was binge watching a time well-invested? Was it better than braving traffic potholed roads interacting with our social circle over unhealthy debates about everything under the sun and since these days almost everyone knows everything about, you guessed right- everything.
The world for each one of us is looking toxic. Gone are the days when people followed the good old rule of agreeing to disagree – but now everything is seen through binary lenses only: it is either secular Congress or Right Wing BJP, Capitalist Ambani or benevolent Guruji or the Sachin bhakts v/s Kohli fans, and this toxic climate (besides other things) is one of the catalysts that has pushed many of us social-beings to wholly and solely embrace the netherworlds of Pataal Lok on our screens where we reside in our ‘aham brahmasmi avatar’ – I am the absolute, complete in itself. Right in front of our OTT platforms.
Is binge watching then the new normal? Or will Covid-19 push it towards its saturation point? Are we yearning for human contact all over again?
Earth calling…….Lifestyle Retro.0!
Anand Sharma is a media professional, associated with leading names in the Indian TV industry for almost 18 years. He has worked with broadcasters like Star TV, Channel V & MTV India and for production houses like Miditech and Colosceum, to name a few. He specializes in Content creation in his parallel roles of Director, Creative Head and Writer (for TV production houses). His range of creative expression shifts seamlessly between tongue-in-cheek humour, emotionally-charged writings and stark satire. Some of his articles have been published on Bonobology.com, The Indian Express, connectedtoIndia.com and Little India.com. He has also written an audio-book for Storytel Originals, titled – “Tinderella in Jyotishland”