What video program are you binging/did you most recently binge watch?

[kphoger]

Remember reruns? Nothing worse than getting all settled in to watch a favorite show, and you realize in the first five minutes that you already saw this episode three months ago.

Actually, maybe the best thing now is being able to watch the first couple of episodes of a show, when you'd only ever seen later ones on live TV or as reruns.

[kphoger]

I should clarify that we don't actually watch shows by the typical definition of "binge watching".  That is to say, we don't watch more than one or two episodes of anything at a time.  Rather, we stream-watch one show from beginning to end, but we might watch four episodes in a week or only one episode in a week.

That would still be binge watching by historical standards, where a 26-episode season would be viewed over the course of nine months or so.

It still doesn't feel right to call it "binge watching", because it's just... the way we watch TV now.  I haven't had cable TV in more than a decade.  Watching one series at a time (or maybe two) is the only way we watch shows anymore.

[Ted$8roadFan]

i wouldn't call it binging, but I recently watched multiple episodes of Ozark and Better Call Saul in a relatively short time.

[J N Winkler]

My wife and I just started, last night, on S1E1 of Burn Notice.

That's a fun one!  (I think I watched it about a decade ago.)

As for my own viewing, the last thing I watched was a random episode of Poldark (the BBC's 2015 adaptation).  I had just gotten into the series (was about to start the second or third book) and was curious about the casting choices.  It's actually been years since I watched a TV series from start to finish, though I followed Outlander through season 4.

Completism used to be the posh term for what is now called binge-watching.

[Scott5114]

Completism used to be the posh term for what is now called binge-watching.

I mostly associate that term (or, more accurately, the variant form completionism) with video gaming, where it's common vernacular for a willingness on the part of a player to tick off all the boxes in whatever sort of checklist the game tracks. (Getting 100% in the most recent Legend of Zelda title, for instance, involves completing all 150 shrines, finding all 900 korok seeds, visiting every named bridge in the country, etc.)

[kphoger]

We've limited ourselves to just one episode per week, but my family has been watching The Chosen.  I'm sure a lot of you have heard of it but, for those who haven't, it's about the life and ministry of Jesus and his disciples.  Now, I'm exactly the sort of person to be highly critical of a show like this, from several different angles, and yet I cannot recommend it highly enough.  I'm sure it's no surprise to any of you that my natural inclination would be to pick it apart and criticize it at every turn.  But we just finished the fourth season, and nothing I've seen so far has dissuaded me from giving the series golden reviews to anyone who asks.

Potential reasons for me to dislike the series, and why I don't:

1.  With any artistic depiction of Jesus, there is the risk of making him out to be what we'd like him to be, rather than how he is actually depicted in the Bible itself.  He could be shown as too nice, or nothing more than a teacher, or a crazy radical, or not radical enough, or a whole host of other pitfalls.  However, in my estimation, the show does a very good job at finding the appropriate balance between Jesus' down-to-earth humanity and his self-awareness of his divinity, between his humor and his seriousness, between his tolerance and his zeal, between his patience and his frustration with others, between his living in the moment and his mindfulness of his ultimate mission—all of which come through in the Bible itself but are brought to life so vividly in the show.

2.  It's produced by Dallas Jenkins, son of Jerry Jenkins, and I have a theological bad taste in my mouth from having worked for a company that published some of Jerry's bestselling books.  But I have no complaints from a theological perspective about The Chosen.  In fact, considering that it's about Jesus' earthly life, there's really not a whole lot of theology to begin with.  And, inasmuch as the show ever does touch on theological truths—which it tries not to do too much—it only asserts basic things that most any Christian would agree with.

3.  Christian movies have historically been poorly produced.  This has probably been mostly due to low budget, but perhaps also lack of talent.  In stark contrast, The Chosen is very well produced.  There's never any reason to cringe or groan, but on the other hand there are plenty of truly emotional scenes and lovable characters.  It's intellectually engaging, emotionally appealing, historically scrupulous, well written, well acted, and consistently good from one episode to the next.

4.  The show combines conversation straight from the Bible verbatim, dramatization of biblical stories, traditions of varying reliability, invented story lines about biblical characters, and invented story lines about invented characters—all with no indication of where the lines are between fact and fiction.  This could (and surely does) very easily lead people to think that some made-up story line or character is actually part of the biblical narrative.  However, the show does a meticulously good job at only incorporating non-biblical traditions that have a well-established history within orthodox Christianity, and at making sure the invented story lines complement and support the biblical narrative rather than work against it.  In short, it walks that razor's edge of artistic license with unmatched skill, never falling into either heresy or rigidity.  Coming from me, a devoted Christian with a high regard for the Bible, that's high praise indeed.  One of our best friends from church, in fact, said she expected me to be dead-set against the show because of how high a bar I must set for it, and I quite surprised her and her husband by just how strong an advocate I've become of it.

5.  Considering all the glowing praise I've given the series in the first four points, one might expect the show to be too overtly preachy to appeal to non-religious viewers.  But I don't imagine that to be the case.  The story lines are very relatable, even if you don't believe Jesus is the Son of God.  The dramatic tension between Jesus, his disciples, the Jewish leaders, and the Romans is as captivating as any good period drama would be.  The attention to historical and cultural detail makes for a show that's both academically and visually appealing.  If you have even the slightest casual interest in Jesus and the world in which he lived, then you should enjoy this show.

6.  Considering that last point, one might expect the show to stray too far into the realm of historical fiction to appeal to Christians.  But this has certainly not been my experience.  My whole family is hooked, as are some of the Christians I respect the most in my own church.  Multiple Christians have mentioned how it takes the same biblical texts they've heard their whole lives and brought them to life in a new and refreshing way—allowing them to see them in a new light, or rather in the same light but more brightly and vividly than before.

[Max Rockatansky]

I started watching The Boys last year after I heard about the gruesome Season 4 oven scene.  The first season took awhile to get going but hit its stride by the finale.  More than a super hero deconstruction the show is more about megalomania and unchecked debauchery.  It made my wife nauseous more than a couple times.

[Takumi]

We've been rotating between Futurama, Gilmore Girls, King of the Hill, and Outlander, and in times where I'm at home and my wife isn't, I watch the Shout Factory DVD release of WKRP In Cincinnati, in which I'm finally up to season 4.