For the past 18 months or so, I have been delightfully bingeing new and old TV shows, courtesy of my new Roku and companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Question is, is this a good or a bad thing?
First, let me say that I have been enjoying it a great deal. I started out with shows such as The Tudors, then to the Harry Potter movies, Mission Impossible (the TV show, not the movie), on to Supernatural (to get caught up before the new season) and the Star Trek TV shows (yes, all of them). Having exhausted TV shows I knew, I searched for other scifi/fantasy shows. I found Firefly and Continuum that way. Again, I really enjoyed both.
Then came Grimm. TNT started running four episodes each Wednesday night. I thought it was a new show with a new idea. Taking advantage of the bingeing trend to present a new show. Eventually, through Twitter and also just by checking the descriptions on FIOS of each episode (what do you mean Season 2 — this is a brand new show, isn’t it?). Well, as soon as I learned that it was an old series that would start its new season on NBC in the fall, I figured I needed to catch up even quicker. Voila! I discovered it on Amazon Prime — free for the taking for any Prime customer (me!).
So, now I’m watching 3 or 4 episodes a day, rather than a week, get to Season 4 and BOOM! Season 4 costs money – $1.99 per episode for non-HD. Netflix offers it on DVD, but it’s not available yet. So, here I am sitting around, missing Grimm — Nick, Monroe, Isabelle, and the rest, wondering when I can see a new episode.
Yes, I know. It’s kind of like the old days when you had to wait all summer for new episodes. But somehow this is different. The Star Treks are available — I can watch them any time I wish. As to Firefly and Continuum — I knew they were limited series. I hesitated watching them for that reason. But that’s OK because I knew it going in. In the meantime, I’ve watched the movie Serenity which ties up loose ends for Firefly, and I’ve heard there will be another season of Continuum.
I think the point is I really miss Grimm, because I was watching several episodes a day, and it was abruptly taken from me. I figure eventually Amazon will release the episodes free on Prime and Netflix will release the DVDs. And if not in time for Season 5 on NBC, I’ll DVR those and just wait. (I can do that — look at how long we’ve waited for Star Wars 7).
So, back to my original question — to binge or not to binge. I say, go ahead and binge — you get a chance to enjoy hours of a TV show you like. Just realize that it may be taken from you and you might miss it sooner that you expect.