Television Addiction

I’m taking the opportunity to discuss something a bit different and that is my addiction to television! The thing is.. I love movies but I’m addicted to television shows!

I honestly believe I need help when it comes to television shows because I, in 98% of the time, watch TV shows alone but with movies I’m more or less able to share the experience with somebody. This all makes sense if you think about the fact that love, in most cases, is a shared feeling but addiction is more of an individual struggle. I’m not stating that I’m struggling with television shows because I’m not, there are way too many good ones out there to be struggling and I stay far away from Kardashians and Real Housewives, so no actual struggling is happening! But I do think my social life has gradually faded into a distant memory of those people I used to hang out with, what were their names again?

The reason I adore television shows so much is the fact that their story line has a much longer life span and it feeds my addiction in the nicest way possible. When I get attached to a character, I get attached and when that character is taken away from me too soon, there’s no way of telling when the tears will actually end. Few weeks ago I found out that In The Flesh won’t be returning for a third season (petitions are circling, there’s still a slither of hope) – this is bullshit! Now, granted, there’s a slight possibility of some other network picking it up because it seems the show has a large fanbase, but still! BBC 3, the original network it ran on, has funds for one primetime show and they didn’t pick In The Flesh! Not sure what they picked and frankly, don’t care anymore because In The Flesh!!

Being addicted to a television show is more dangerous than loving a movie because you’ll never know when it’s all going to be taken away from you. Movie ends and that’s it, it will forever live on as a complete story, possibility as a part in a trilogy, but it will have closure – unless it purposely has an open ending. When a television show ends, there’s no way of telling whether the end feels natural or forced. Friends ending is probably my favorite because it was a natural progression that happened throughout the season. How I Met Your Mother (though I have not seen it) caused a madness with its ending. Kyle XY didn’t even get an ending, In The Flesh was robbed from its ending and shows like Supernatural run for 11 seasons because the true ending was after season 5 but everybody ignores that!

What I’m also saying, or at least trying to say, is that it’s completely natural to be addicted to television shows because they are designed that way! You can be addicted to a genre of movies because that allows you to binge watch hundreds of movies but I’m more or less certain you can’t be addicted to a movie. That would require you watching a single movie (or a trilogy) for the whole day while not leaving your room – which I sometimes do with shows. I only leave my room for obvious human needs but that’s about it! That’s addiction!

Yes, it’s bad for me and yes, I should be going out (to the cinema to watch movies) but I simply don’t care. There’s the comfort of characters and a plot that most likely ends with that long awaited romance between two leading characters but of course, not always. I say I’m addicted to television shows but what I’ve yet to reveal is that I’ve somehow started to maintain a healthier addiction. Meaning – I stopped watching countless amount of shows because they weren’t feeding my addiction as successfully as others (Bones, How I Met Your Mother, The Originals, The Big Bang Theory, Supernatural, 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, Criminal Minds, Parenthood, Suits, Once Upon A Time, American Horror Story, Downton Abbey, Homeland, Revenge, Revolution etc). Also, some shows just hurt me too much to care anymore (Grey’s Anatomy). But there’s always a possibility of binging  some of these shows when the time feels right (Suits, Supernatural)!

That brings me to emotions and feelings which always might not correspond with my TV schedule because I’m an awfully moody person. I might want one thing in the morning and then crave for something else 2 hours later – this is why I’m never able to binge watch Orange Is The New Black because I’m never in the right mood! Luckily, there’s a show for every mood and that means discovering new shows out of the blue! Man, that’s rough considering I have enough shows on my plate during regular broadcasting, having to go back and binging all the seasons to catch up – that’s dedication but it’s also a hardcore addiction!

Going back to old classics in terms of movies has, in the contrary, been my biggest struggle. I never seem to complete the Blind Spot series nor have I’ve been able to watch a lot of European cinema. Binging on classical movies is probably a thing I’ll never do and it makes me sad. I love movies but I’m not able to love the ones from the past, while clearly, I’m able to go back to Roswell and enjoy it’s horrid sci-fi set design like there’s no tomorrow?! Addiction people, it makes you do all sorts of crazy things but love is sometimes blind as a bat.

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This post is a Coffee Talk post, a series where I write and ramble about emotions, feelings and decisions behind my process of watching things and blogging about stuff.