binging and snacking

[molly1216]

I picked up Animaniacs S3 and Pinky and the Brain S3 and Keep putting them on the box and then taking them out again. What I am finding is that these, and some of the other half hour comedies I own, F-Troop, Addams family, bewitched etc..I can only watch about three at a time. After that I stop paying attention. - don't know why, I love them and don't want to sell them. And when I do put them in the box, I an enjoy them. I just find that they aren't meant for marathoning.

Some dramatic shows I own, Farscape, firefly, buffy/angel, Battlestar Galactica are more conducive to binging, watching one after another sometimes for an entire week.

and oddly I find Futurama and Family guy are shows i can binge on...still don't know the why about that.
And Moonlighting is an hour long that i found I just couldn't take through more than 2 or 3 at a sitting - in the end I sold it off - perhaps for that reason.

I am trying to figure out the difference between shows I snack on and those I pig out on.
and the closest I can get is that the brainless stuff gets boring after 2 hours - and if it's not mentally stimulating it is just white noise.

any thoughts?
which do you snack and which do you binge?

[maintcoder]

I find I snack more than binge - the last things I watched that I binged on was I, Claudius and Jeeves and Wooster. Maybe the continuity aspect helps for the binging?

[BrettCullum]

Continuity and quality usually determine if I snack or binge.

The sitcoms were never meant to be seen in marathons, but shows like Arrested Development, Weeds, and The Comeback all lend themselves to the "many in one sitting" approach. Part of that is they are funny and continue a story. When that is the case I can get sucked in.

Then if the quality is high - especially satirical material like The Simpsons I can usually watch many at once.

I too love Bewitched and The Addams Family, yet after two or three shows I am done for a while. Usually I can only pop in one episode. But these are great when I only have 20 minutes.

Course my lifestyle prevents much binging anyway. Rarely am I in front of the TV for more than two hours, and that is only on certain days. I really try to limit my time in there.

[J.M. Vargas]

The Sopranos works for both binging and snacking. There's so much subtle stuff packed with each episode that just viewing two or three episodes again (even after knowing what happens) opens up a world of references, performances and tributes previously only glanced at. On the other end of the spectrum I find the brain-dead appeal of the Stargate shows work best when watching four of more episodes at once to even the odds of something fun/interesting happening; one or two episodes and chances are both will be too low-brow even for an undemanding science fiction fan. And just yesterday (July 4th) I watched six back-to-back episodes of Dexter on Showtime on Demand (I was only planning to record on DVD the first two) because frankly I couldn't help myself and needed to see what happened next. Yes, the show is that damn good and I can't wait to watch the remaining six episodes sometime this weekend!

[Eric Profancik]

I don't sit and watch a lot of TV on DVD, but when I do reviews, I've found that Las Vegas is exceptionally easy to binge on. Quite the soap opera, it is.

[mavrach]

What Brett said. Serialized shows like Buffy demand that you treat entire seasons as if it were one movie. Watching only a few episodes is like stopping a movie in the middle.

Non-serialized shows like sitcoms are almost never serialized and every episode could stand on their own. There's usually little motivation to continue through the whole show in one shot, I usually get distracted by something else.

[tucco]

i like The Office for both snacking and binging.
Also the Sopranos and All In The Family
in my old age i love it when a "new great must-see" film comes out, and just HAPPENS to be not too long.

[J.M. Vargas]

Well, I don't know how strong your stomach is but mine just went through a binge of the last six episodes of Dexter (on Showtime On Demand) that I was planning to watch on the weekend. I made the mistake to watch just two more episodes early this evening, and one of them revealed the identity of the Ice Truck Killer. From that jaw-dropping point on I had no choice but to watch the remaining four episodes just to see how the whole saga unfolded. In just two days of binging "Dexter" has gone from a curious show concept to one of my favorite TV shows of all time. God bless Showtime (and On Demand cable). Weeds and Brotherhood are next!

[fred kite]

Binging:

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Monty Python's Flying Circus

My Name Is Earl


Snacking:

Sanford And Son

Venture Bros. Season 1

X-Files

Lately we've been watching the BBC House Of Cards Trilogy, which I guess could be considered snacking, since we can only watch 1 episode per night... any more and I start to o.d. on all that rich British writing, acting, and overall quality. Kind of like eating too much caviar, or foie gras (although I've never even tasted either one!), best consumed in small amounts.