Have you ever done it? Have you ever sat down to watch TV, get up the onscreen television guide and then begin the process of clicking down and down and down, going and going until you get to the rarely heard of channels towards the bottom of the list? You have probably uttered those words, “We have over 100 channels and there’s nothing to watch!!”

Now you are entering dangerous territory…. in desperation you go to Netflix, Now TV, All Four, Sky and start browsing through the box sets.   You see something that grabs your attention either because someone has told you about it: “So and so said this was really good and that I should give it a try,” or that you’ve seen advertised: “Watch the whole series now on catchup.”

You click on Series One, Episode One and here we go!!   “Actually that was quite good,” and then you see the words on screen, “Episode two is starting in 18 seconds, 17 seconds, 16 seconds,” “I’ve got time, I’ll just watch episode two.”

Several hours later…

“Oh my God, it’s 1am, I’m on episode five and I’ve got to get up early in the morning.” And there you have it, you are now doing what is defined in the English Oxford Living Dictionary as, “binge-watch” meaning: ‘to watch multiple episodes of (a television programme) in rapid succession, typical my means of DVDs or digital streaming.’

My first encounter with binge-watching was Game of Thrones. I watched episode one, loved it, got Phil, my hubby to watch episode one and then we were off. Two, three, four episodes a night, no problem.

Second was The Walking Dead. I watched the entire series by myself as it was about ‘zombies’ and I thought it wouldn’t be Phil’s cup of tea. So every time he was working late or had an evening meeting, I would watch a couple of episodes. One day Phil said that he wanted to watch a series and I suggested The Walking Dead, never thinking that he would be interested, but again, he watched the first episode and was hooked. I had to watch the entire series again, but that didn’t bother me.

These two were swiftly followed by House of Cards, Timeless and Prison Break.

Our latest venture into the boxed sets was The Punisher. Granted it is only two series long, but there are 13 episodes in each.

This stars Jon Bernthal in the main role, he was also in The Walking Dead as Shane, but I have heard that Netflix has now decided to cancel the series.

And finally, the worst part of all, when you finish an entire series… “What am I doing to do now?   Wait for the new season? Watch ‘normal’ television and wait a week for the next episode?”  Nope, search for that next boxed set!!

Quote: “Netflix gives you 15 seconds between episodes to decide whether or not you’re doing anything with your life today.”