Opinion

Claire Simpson: Coming out the other side of extreme television watching

Cranston's Breaking Bad chemistry teacher-turned drug manufacturer Walter White has become one of the most recognisable characters in television
Cranston's Breaking Bad chemistry teacher-turned drug manufacturer Walter White has become one of the most recognisable characters in television Cranston's Breaking Bad chemistry teacher-turned drug manufacturer Walter White has become one of the most recognisable characters in television

The language we use to describe our TV habits has become a little disturbing. Viewers have admitted to ‘binge-watching’ their favourite shows, many saying they can’t rest until they’ve seen the next episode.

More than ninety years after TV was invented, television shows seem to have an increasing grip on our free time, thanks mainly to the rise of streaming and on-demand services, including Netflix and BBC iPlayer. An Ofcom report found that eight in ten people in the north have admitted to watching back-to-back episodes of the same show, with around a third doing so every week.

In difficult political and economic times it’s no wonder millions of us have turned to the relatively cheap entertainment that TV provides to calm our minds. TV is a fairly passive activity - even the most complex shows demand much less of our brains than reading a novel or listening to a radio discussion. Reading is something we need to actively engage in, whereas lying on a sofa and watching a series of images requires almost no effort.

We’re often told we’re experiencing the golden age of television. Series including Mad Men, The Wire, Line of Duty and Breaking Bad have been held up as the pinnacle of the art form. In the last few years, shows have become more immersive, the storylines more involved. No wonder that Oscar winners are turning to TV roles at a time when mainstream cinema seems obsessed with endless ‘superhero-smashes-things-as-tall-buildings-fall-in-slow-motion’ films.

Growing up, TV was decidedly not in its golden age. But it was something of an obsession - mainly because one of my Granny's main goals in life seemed to try and stop me from sneaking into her front room to watch it. Despite her frequent claims that it would give me square eyes and rot my brain, I couldn’t resist turning it on. No matter what was showing - incomprehensible test cricket, terrible Australian soaps, American talk shows where family members screamed at each other for an hour - I’d watch it.

Given the option of revising for my school exams or watching the World Snooker Championships 'Live from the Crucible’, the snooker won every time. As a university student in Dublin, a frightening number of hours were wasted flicking through all the channels I hadn't previously been able to watch. As it turned out, there was nothing on any of them either.

Then there was the year I lived with my younger sister in a damp flat in south Belfast and spent every night glued to cheap reality programmes about other people's dating disasters, badly-behaved children, very badly-behaved pets, and filthy homes.

And then it all stopped. TV, like the needy, demanding friend you didn’t mind losing touch with, lost its appeal and books took back their rightful place. I could re-read The Hobbit in much less time than it took to watch the disappointing film trilogy. Watching Game of Thrones seemed less of a draw when I’d already read the books.

At its best, TV feels communal, a shared experience friends and families can use to fuel conversation. But ‘binge-watching’, like bingeing on anything really, doesn’t sound positive. A friend has said she feels slightly disgusted after a TV binge but doesn’t seem to be able to stop watching just one more episode. People have admitted that excessive TV watching has stopped them from sleeping or doing more meaningful activities. When our minds are constantly stimulated, it can be difficult, literally, to switch off.

Of course when TV first became popular, it was blamed for making us more stupid, just as video games and smartphones have been in subsequent decades. The rise of mental disorders in the west may have nothing to do with the development of the internet and on-demand services. But having an unlimited supply of anything doesn’t seem terribly good for us. Human beings often don’t choose the best habits and technology knows this. Why else would streaming services allow us to watch show after show, lining up the next episode before the previous one’s credits have even rolled? They seem specifically designed to become addictive and jab at that small part of the brain that says “just one more”.

The fact is that technology is moving so fast, we won’t know its effect on us until years later. We seem to be living in an age of extremes, TV watching being one of them. Maybe we need to go through this extreme phase before we realise that spending ten straight hours watching The Walking Dead wasn’t the best idea after all.