Binge-worthy?

POSTED BY: JEWELSTAITEFAN
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 21, 2026 13:52
VIEWED: 26934
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JEWELSTAITEFAN

Monday, March 5, 2018 3:32 PM

I'm enjoying Humans 2.0 on binge.

GWEK

Wednesday, March 7, 2018 7:54 PM

I recently binged Altered Carbon, the most recent season of The Expanse, three seasons of Librarians, and the first half of season 4 of Rebels (although I had watched that one ep by ep first). I'm in the midst of a semi-binge of Future Man, doing 2-3 episodes at a pop.

In my experience, although any show these days is better binge-watched than not. I've been binge-watching TV for decades (before it was called binge-watching, my friends referred to it as "pulling a George," since I was well-known for watching a season over a weekend and watched Freak & Geeks in a single sitting).

As long as there is supporting continuity, the show benefit from watching episodes in close proximity, even if it's primarily episodic in nature.

In my experience, there are a few different kinds of shows that don't benefit from binge-watching:

1) Formulaic shows with only limited supporting continuity. I imagine there are some newer representatives (maybe Scorpion?) but most of these shows are older. Chris Carter, Joss Whedon, and J.J. Abrams really changed what an hour-long show looks like, but older shows can be rough. Much as I enjoy it episode by episode, a binge of, say, Remington Steele is a brutal slog, and I couldn't do two episodes of The A-Team back-to-back.

2) Comedies, especially older ones, for many of the same reasons noted above. Although they make good "background noise," a real marathon of many sitcoms becomes pretty rough unless it's done as a drinking game. The main exception is The Office (and arguably comparable shows like Parks & Rec, Community, 30 Rock, and Great News). The Office is so nuanced with character relationships that grow and evolve that it does stand up.

3) "Vote 'em off" reality TV. Even if you're watching it after the fact, the impact of the vote-off is significantly reduced if you're plowing through a bunch of them in the same night. You can even see this on the 2-hour episodes of Survivor, where often the first half is completely forgotten 15 minutes into hour 2.

4) Deep shows. There are some shows that are better when you have some time to stop and think about them. In most cases, I think maybe 2 episodes could be good (even great) but a real marathon reduces quality. The O.A. comes to mind, and I imagine that if one were binge-watching Lost without never having seen it, it might be too much.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Wednesday, March 7, 2018 10:58 PM

I can watch multiple consecutive episodes of Due South and Six Million Dollar Man although I usually watch selected favorites. $6 Million did break many molds of the Episodic template.
I'm not sure if Outer Limits is considered Deep - I rarely thought so. But certainly episodically independent.

BRENDA

Wednesday, March 7, 2018 11:05 PM

I'm binging a bit on "Miami Vice" Hot Don Johnson, Hot Castillo, cool cars, cool cigar boats.

QUESTARIAN

Thursday, March 8, 2018 7:12 AM

For me...

If it's new and/or they release the season at once, I'll pretty much Binge every thing.

There are series that I'll rewatch at least once a year, and totally Binge if the mood hits me:

"From The Earth To The Moon" (HBO)
"Doctor Who" (BBC)
"Red Dwarf" (BBC)
"Chobits" (Anime)
"Tenchi Muyo!" (Anime)
"Invader Zim" (Adult Swim)
"Venture Brothers" (Adult Swim)
"Battlestar Galactica" (scifi)
"Farscape" (SciFi)
"Game of Thrones" (HBO)...

Recent Binge worthy series:

"The Tick" (Amazon 2017-2018)
"F Is For Family" (Adult Swim)

As Far a being best "live":
"LOST"
"Game if Thrones"
Because of massive amount of fan conversation it generated.

-John-

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Friday, March 9, 2018 4:32 PM

Been zipping through Spartacus. Didn't realize Jed & Marissa had produced it.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Saturday, March 10, 2018 2:10 AM

Here's a list of good binge shows, IMO. Most of them are pretty old now and a lot of people have already watched them all. I only bothered listing ones that I do plan to watch again some day.

Fringe
Battlestar Galactica
Breaking Bad
The 100
The Vampire Diaries / The Originals (No more CW, I promise)
War of the Worlds (from the 80's)
Fargo
Killjoys
Dark Matter (before it's premature cancellation)
That Scientology documentary with the Queen of Queens
Firefly (of course)
Jessica Jones
The B from 23

I'm sure I could think of more. Just what was off the top of my head. I haven't watched Netflix or Kodi for about 3-4 months now, so I forget what shows I had in the queues.

One show I haven't seen since I was a little kid and I didn't understand at the time that I think could make the list is Max Headroom. I recently watched a 20 minute youtube video on the show and man do I want to watch it again. I only liked watching it with my dad to see him acting nutty on the TVs. I'm not a fan of remakes for the most part, but now that almost everybody walks around with a computer in their pocket that has more power in it than the entire television network that Max Headroom was in on the show, I think it could make an excellent reboot if it were done correctly.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

BRENDA

Saturday, March 10, 2018 4:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Here's a list of good binge shows, IMO. Most of them are pretty old now and a lot of people have already watched them all. I only bothered listing ones that I do plan to watch again some day.

Fringe
Battlestar Galactica
Breaking Bad
The 100
The Vampire Diaries / The Originals (No more CW, I promise)
War of the Worlds (from the 80's)
Fargo
Killjoys
Dark Matter (before it's premature cancellation)
That Scientology documentary with the Queen of Queens
Firefly (of course)
Jessica Jones
The B from 23

I'm sure I could think of more. Just what was off the top of my head. I haven't watched Netflix or Kodi for about 3-4 months now, so I forget what shows I had in the queues.

One show I haven't seen since I was a little kid and I didn't understand at the time that I think could make the list is Max Headroom. I recently watched a 20 minute youtube video on the show and man do I want to watch it again. I only liked watching it with my dad to see him acting nutty on the TVs. I'm not a fan of remakes for the most part, but now that almost everybody walks around with a computer in their pocket that has more power in it than the entire television network that Max Headroom was in on the show, I think it could make an excellent reboot if it were done correctly.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Battlestar was great for its time and now that Richard Hatch is gone is well worth a watch.

War of the Worlds one of the first shows filmed in Canada.

I enjoyed that one too when it ran originally.

I haven't seen Max Headroom since it originally ran. I've seen the DVDs in the stores though.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Sunday, March 11, 2018 12:24 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:

Battlestar was great for its time and now that Richard Hatch is gone is well worth a watch.

War of the Worlds one of the first shows filmed in Canada. I enjoyed that one too when it ran originally.

I haven't seen Max Headroom since it originally ran. I've seen the DVDs in the stores though.

Richard Hatch :(

My brother actually met him at a convention years back and somehow ended up meeting up with him and a few of his friends to play some board game in his hotel for a few hours. My brother is way different than I am, for sure. He's got all sorts of pictures just hanging out with celeb types. I wouldn't even go up to talk to one, especially if they were sitting behind a desk charging 20 bucks for their autograph. My bro said Hatch was a great guy.

It's hard for me to rank TV shows or movies, but Battlestar is definitely in my top 5. Maybe my top 3.

War of the Worlds was awesome for its time. I watched it every week with my Dad for the whole run. I was about 9 years old and had a huge crush on Rachel Blanchard's character Debby.

The funny thing is that me and my Dad didn't really care for the second season that much when it was first on, but we had both independently binge watched it many years later without knowing we were and got to talking about it and we both said we thought the 2nd season was actually better. Strange.

I'm going to see if Max Headroom is on Kodi. If it's not I'm going to see if maybe I can buy a used DVD copy. The 20 minute youtube video I saw about the show filled me in on all of the "adult" themes that were way over my head when I saw it as a young kid. I think I'm going to love it on a rewatch since it's right up my ally of the most enjoyable types of shows and movies.

Makes me wonder if somehow it left it's mark on my subconscious even though I have very little recollection of the show at all.

BTW... Speaking of shows that were made in Canada, have you ever seen the show "You Can't Do That on Television" for sale in any format? That's a show I've always wanted to watch again, at least a few episodes, but I heard because of the copyrights being all over the place that it would probably never get released.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

BRENDA

Sunday, March 11, 2018 5:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:

Battlestar was great for its time and now that Richard Hatch is gone is well worth a watch.

War of the Worlds one of the first shows filmed in Canada. I enjoyed that one too when it ran originally.

I haven't seen Max Headroom since it originally ran. I've seen the DVDs in the stores though.

Richard Hatch :(

My brother actually met him at a convention years back and somehow ended up meeting up with him and a few of his friends to play some board game in his hotel for a few hours. My brother is way different than I am, for sure. He's got all sorts of pictures just hanging out with celeb types. I wouldn't even go up to talk to one, especially if they were sitting behind a desk charging 20 bucks for their autograph. My bro said Hatch was a great guy.

It's hard for me to rank TV shows or movies, but Battlestar is definitely in my top 5. Maybe my top 3.

War of the Worlds was awesome for its time. I watched it every week with my Dad for the whole run. I was about 9 years old and had a huge crush on Rachel Blanchard's character Debby.

The funny thing is that me and my Dad didn't really care for the second season that much when it was first on, but we had both independently binge watched it many years later without knowing we were and got to talking about it and we both said we thought the 2nd season was actually better. Strange.

I'm going to see if Max Headroom is on Kodi. If it's not I'm going to see if maybe I can buy a used DVD copy. The 20 minute youtube video I saw about the show filled me in on all of the "adult" themes that were way over my head when I saw it as a young kid. I think I'm going to love it on a rewatch since it's right up my ally of the most enjoyable types of shows and movies.

Makes me wonder if somehow it left it's mark on my subconscious even though I have very little recollection of the show at all.

BTW... Speaking of shows that were made in Canada, have you ever seen the show "You Can't Do That on Television" for sale in any format? That's a show I've always wanted to watch again, at least a few episodes, but I heard because of the copyrights being all over the place that it would probably never get released.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

It is sad about Richard Hatch but he wasn't a young man and it was cancer again. :(

Cool for your brother. I haven't managed to meet any celebs. I would love too. Oh maybe one day. Close as I have come is having talked to Adam Baldwin on the OB for Firefly and getting messages from celebrity Chef Robert Irvine and Paul McGillion on a tv movie that he did and was filmed up here. :)

What I remember most about "War of the Worlds" was being upset when they lost Richard Chaves character of Colonel Paul Ironhorse. I wasn't impressed with Adrian Paul then.
Funny thing about "War of the Worlds" is that Philip Akin and Adrian Paul both went on to star in "Highlander" the tv series and that was filmed in Vancouver for a lot of its run.

I liked Max Headroom when it ran. Just quirky enough for me back then.

"You Can't Do That on Television", I think I have seen for sale on DVDs. Don't think I ever watched it unless I caught the end of it waiting for another show to come on.

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