Im Looked at Funny for Not Binging Movies
So bad they're good. Credit: MASHABLE COMPOSITE; NETFLIX, LIFETIME, GETTY IMAGES/JIM SPELLMAN/WIREIMAGE
In Binged, Mashable breaks down why we binge-watch, how we binge-watch, and what it does to us. Because binge-watching is the new normal.
No shame? Sorry, I've got plenty of shame. And it involves Ballers.
We binge three kinds of shows. First, there's prestige TV, the kind you sign a blood oath to watch the minute you get home. Also, comfort shows like The Office and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which aren't big important serious dramas, but are warm and funny and everyone publicly admits to binging them.
I'm not here to talk about those shows. I want to explore the things we binge in the dark when nobody is around. Gotham. Teen Mom. Shows where brooding teens wear knit hats and have supernatural powers. Anything starring Mario Lopez. Trust me, you have not known shame until you have finished the final episode of Merlin.
At least I'm not alone. Everyone has a secret shame.
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
A few embarrassing shows were more popular than others. In response to my tweet, Fuller House, Jersey Shore, and Drop Dead Diva kept popping up.
The appeal of Fuller House is obvious. No reimagining or rebooting here. Just pure, uncut '90s nostalgia, drawn from the same well that brought us Urkel and Bronson Pinchot in a vest. Remember when you were a kid and Gak was a thing? YOU CAN BE THERE AGAIN. No Trump. No mortgage. Just Uncle Joey telling people to "Cut. It. Out."
Jersey Shore lets us indulge our hidden desire to be out-of-control assholes while also reassuring us, "Hey, you're better than these people."
"Can't there be a place for lovely garbage?"
I asked my girlfriend why people watch Drop Dead Diva — which (seriously) is about a model who dies and is reincarnated as a plus-size lawyer. "People have an innate need to look at car wrecks," she noted.
But then she touched on a theme that a lot of other people brought up.
"We're unwilling to admit that we like something," she said. If we find value in these shows, should we really be embarrassed by them?
My coworkers don't seem to think so.
"What's wrong with some sweet fluff as an adult?" said Vicky Leta, a Mashable illustrator, talking about her love of Hannah Montana. "Can't there be a place for lovely garbage?"
Kellen Beck, one of our entertainment reporters, watches something called Freaky Eaters.
"People binge shows they find embarrassing because they like them," he said. "For one reason or another, either society looks down on something, or people have been told that something is supposed to be bad or a waste of time, but that doesn't matter."
They have a point. There should be a place for lovely garbage. It shouldn't matter whether people look down on you for spending your free time watching something you enjoy.
And yet I do. Arrow is terrible. So is The Magicians. Ditto shows hosted by Gordon Ramsay. And I refuse to feel good about watching them.
Shame can be hurtful and destructive. But without shame, I'd probably be dead under a pile of Flamin' Hot Cheetos bags. Some people have the ability to binge a few episodes of a show, put it aside, and then focus on something productive. More power to them.
But I'm very easily sucked into binges. Once I'm watching a show, it's hard for me to put the brakes on. And so the things that actually make me feel good — meeting with friends, reading a book, talking a walk — get pushed to the side.
I'm not here to condemn binging bad shows. I'm just saying when it comes to TV, I personally don't have a lot of self control. That's bad enough with Game of Thrones — but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. But nobody can convince me slogging through a season of Iron Fist benefited my life in any way.
Netflix and other streaming services know how to hook me. They've studied my viewing habits and engineered their apps and websites so that I can't escape the pull of another episode.
With good shows, I don't care. I'm getting something out of it. But with bad TV, sometimes only shame can save me.
Related Video: The folks behind this 'Game of Thrones' tapestry stan harder than you
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Source: https://mashable.com/article/why-people-binge-embarrassing-tv-shows
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