When Netflix published the entire first season of the Americanized “House of Cards,” it was considered a radical act. Netflix has recognized how people recently have been “indulging” in “binge viewing” of old TV series, opiners said. At the root of this phrase is a Puritanical attitude that television is supposed to be watched piecemeal, in dribs and drabs. You’re not supposed to watch an entire season at once, you heathen! You’re indulging! You’re binge viewing!
What nonsense. Considering that Americans have watched on average 34 hours of television a week, how is spending a third of that watching a 13-part series “binging”?
Charles Dickens originally published his novels as serials. One chapter at a time was (written and) released. Only later were these assembled into novels. Given that, if you read the entire A Tale of Two Cities, are you “binge reading”?
Watching a lot of television is not new or extraordinary. For better or worse, it’s normal. What’s new is the ability to spend all that time on one series, instead of a dozen. Binging? Hardly. If there’s any binging happening, it’s Netflix’s bulk publishing of the entire series in one fell swoop. But I wouldn’t call that binging either. I’d call it good business.
For the record, I think the new series is one of the best things on “television” – though it’s technically not television now, is it?
Now please excuse me while I “binge” on work for several hours on my computer.