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My new obsession - Binge watching television shows

R

Rasputin

ASD / Aspie
V.I.P Member
Not sure if this is common. I was recently introduced to Netflix, and find that once I get into a series I end up binge watching night after night. First it was the show Ozark, and now Jessica Jones. I was the same way with watching old X-Files reruns.

I know that binge watching TV for hours night after night is not normal. On the other hand, there isn't much to do when everything is shut down due the Covid 19 pandemic.

Is this behavior associated with ASD? Who else has similar obsessions?
 
I do this with some things, though usually not with traditional TV shows.

Generally, it's various series on Youtube (Salad Fingers is one example). Many such series arent particularly long, but still.

I dont watch a given thing all in one single night, but usually over a couple of nights.
 
Misery said:
I do this with some things, though usually not with traditional TV shows.

Generally, it's various series on Youtube (Salad Fingers is one example). Many such series arent particularly long, but still.

I dont watch a given thing all in one single night, but usually over a couple of nights.
Click to expand...

I do this also, but I might watch 5-6 episodes in a single night. It's just hard to stop watching.
 
I'd daresay allistics do the same, as the term 'binge watching' is a rather common one. I imagine it could simply be more obvious in a person on the spectrum however, should you become quite taken by the shows. I've got Netflix as well, and have had my share of binge worthy shows to keep me watching. All I can say is that once all the shows I wanted to watch had run out, I returned to the normal amount of TV watching and stopped with the binge watching :P
 
I mainly stick to comedy shows on Netflix and Amazon prime these days. That, and stand up comedy.

There are some amazing Netflix stand up comedy specials. No better time to be laughing right now:

Bill Burr
Jim Jeffries
Louis CK
Tom Segura
Burt Kreischer
Joe Rogan

Each of those have multiple stand up specials on Netflix. Very talented and hilarious stand up comedians. The first 4 are quite dark humour at times. But they have a wonderful way of making light of the darker sides to society and the human condition

Ed
 
Yes I sometimes do this, like I've watched all series of Brokenwood since the pandemic also Shetland, but prior to the pandemic I have watched all of Star Wars more than once, all of Harry Potter ditto, all of most of the Star Trek spin offs, lots of Bones, lots of Crime scene investigations etc etc.

I watched some great new to me films too, and also I have started having free games on my tablet like Mahjong and words searches which I do repetitively at times. It's a form of comfortable relaxation to me. I am rereading Harry Potter now, aswell as several other series and one off books at the same time.
 
As long as we don't get morally passive. Whatever we like in life, we can control it rather than it controlling us. In my 30s especially if a landlady was away, I would let the TV show me show after show out of what seems in retrospect less than curiosity.

Can you vary it by introducing some intellectual reading (taking a few notes as you go if you're daring), crafts, listening to old-fashioned (semi) acoustic music.

This would help balance the faculties & the neurology.

People (of all kinds) get like "it" because of feeling they don't have permission to "do things".

This reminds me - perhaps I should post my note-takings on science or history under "special interests" in this forum?

Also, if I was into TV I'd check out what were my own top priority tastes and concentrate on those.
 
Thinx said:
Yes I sometimes do this, like I've watched all series of Brokenwood since the pandemic also Shetland, but prior to the pandemic I have watched all of Star Wars more than once, all of Harry Potter ditto, all of most of the Star Trek spin offs, lots of Bones, lots of Crime scene investigations etc etc.

I watched some great new to me films too, and also I have started having free games on my tablet like Mahjong and words searches which I do repetitively at times. It's a form of comfortable relaxation to me. I am rereading Harry Potter now, aswell as several other series and one off books at the same time.
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Thanks- these are some good ideas. My job hasn't started. So l think this is the route l need to go.
 
Yes i do this a lot, watched 'The Good wife' and 'Orange is the new Black' back to back, hard to stop when 'next episode in 15seconds is there, 'Watch 'Wire in the blood' and other crime drama and films and 'The Accountant' on a regular basis, i find comfort in knowing the plots and Characters.
 
I have done this ever since I got into streaming lol. I never thought of it as an obsession, but I certainly have been watching the same series a lot.
 
I binge watch shows on Netflix, too, and I'm NT. I binged on "Call the Midwife" till I swear I could deliver a baby by myself, "Father Brown" till it stopped being on Netflix, "Agatha Christie's Peroit" until it stopped being on Netflix, "The Crown" till I got bored with it, "Anne with an E", and "Salt Fat Acid Heat" by Samin Nosrat. I also have bought a lot of DVDs lately from Amazon so I can binge watch "Midsommer Murders", "Miss Marple" with Joan Hickson, and other crime shows.

I think I do it because it helps me fall asleep. I used to binge on an awful old show called "Murder, She Wrote" because I would fall asleep within 5 minutes of a show starting. Then I'd start the same episode again the next night, and promptly fall asleep. My husband would come to bed and say that I had watched the same thing the previous three nights and I'd laugh and tell him that I still don't know who the murderer is because I always fall asleep.
 
I wish I could. I have the restless thing and cannot sit without a lot suffering. I do it, like now obviously, but I have to be doing other things. Probably a treadmill desk would be a lifesaver.

The other trouble is I have the issue with words or something else where I have to keep going back 10 seconds, back 10 seconds, back ten seconds........or something that I need to focus on so 30 minutes might take an hour. Can't do.

But still I try to watch stuff on Netflix. I watched some Schitts creek. And Kim's Convenience. I also tried to watch Cuckoo.

If anyone else has that problem -that horrible feeling that makes your limbs ache and have to move, let me know how you deal with it.

I never have. In school I had leg weights under my clothes and had to do like leg extensions in class or I would explode. Taking me to a movie=HELL
 
My wife made a very insightful comment regarding my binge watching. She said that as long as we have been married, 28 years, I can't stand for anything to be unfinished. She is right that I have a need to finish anything I start. To illustrate this point, I have worked 22 hours straight without taking a break to finish a task or project. No one made me do this, I simply could not stop until my work was completed. It's the same way binge watching shows on Netflix. I have a need to see the next episode and don't have the discipline to stop.
 
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Mary Terry said:
I binge watch shows on Netflix, too, and I'm NT. I binged on "Call the Midwife" till I swear I could deliver a baby by myself, "Father Brown" till it stopped being on Netflix, "Agatha Christie's Peroit" until it stopped being on Netflix, "The Crown" till I got bored with it, "Anne with an E", and "Salt Fat Acid Heat" by Samin Nosrat. I also have bought a lot of DVDs lately from Amazon so I can binge watch "Midsommer Murders", "Miss Marple" with Joan Hickson, and other crime shows.

I think I do it because it helps me fall asleep. I used to binge on an awful old show called "Murder, She Wrote" because I would fall asleep within 5 minutes of a show starting. Then I'd start the same episode again the next night, and promptly fall asleep. My husband would come to bed and say that I had watched the same thing the previous three nights and I'd laugh and tell him that I still don't know who the murderer is because I always fall asleep.
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People of all types, NT or ND, can have obsessions. In my case, my wife connected my binge watching to a need to "finish". I think she is right, and the need to "finish" I believe is an autistic / Asperger's trait.
 
Thinx said:
Yes I sometimes do this, like I've watched all series of Brokenwood since the pandemic also Shetland, but prior to the pandemic I have watched all of Star Wars more than once, all of Harry Potter ditto, all of most of the Star Trek spin offs, lots of Bones, lots of Crime scene investigations etc etc.

I watched some great new to me films too, and also I have started having free games on my tablet like Mahjong and words searches which I do repetitively at times. It's a form of comfortable relaxation to me. I am rereading Harry Potter now, aswell as several other series and one off books at the same time.
Click to expand...

I also watch movies and shows I have seen repetitively, and I enjoy them almost as much as the first time I saw them. Examples are the Star Trek series and old X-files episodes. I can watch X-Files for hours and completely lose a weekend.
 
Giraffes said:
Yes i do this a lot, watched 'The Good wife' and 'Orange is the new Black' back to back, hard to stop when 'next episode in 15seconds is there, 'Watch 'Wire in the blood' and other crime drama and films and 'The Accountant' on a regular basis, i find comfort in knowing the plots and Characters.
Click to expand...

I am the same way, and have watched the Accountant numerous times.
 
Rasputin said:
... connected my binge watching to a need to "finish". I think she is right, and the need to "finish" I believe is an autistic / Asperger's trait.
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yes perseveration doesn't mean we need to be given aversion to the thing we're doing, it means we need a strong excuse to go on to something else (like shut our eyes - hence the "phenomenology book binge reading")
 
Wolfgangus Faldestolius said:
yes perseveration doesn't mean we need to be given aversion to the thing we're doing, it means we need a strong excuse to go on to something else (like shut our eyes - hence the "phenomenology book binge reading")
Click to expand...

Now that you mentioned it, I also binge read books and binge research special interests. It seems I do everything in this manner.
 
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