I spent 6 months watching season 1 of shows and never finishing them

I finally realized last week that I was treating TV like a chore list instead of actually enjoying it. I'd start a new show every night and bounce off after 2 or 3 episodes because I was looking for something "perfect" (whatever that means). My buddy pointed out that I was complaining about having nothing to watch while sitting on a pile of 12 half-finished series in my Netflix queue. Has anyone else caught themselves doing this, or am I the only one who treats their watchlist like a to-do list?

3 comments

3 Comments

sean_barnes2413d ago

Read an article that called this "content paralysis" where people get stuck in the browsing loop instead of actually watching anything. It said the brain treats picking a show as a low-stakes gamble and keeps chasing the next dopamine hit. I had to force myself to sit through one full season of a mediocre show just to break the cycle. Now I stick to picking one series a week and actually finishing it before moving on.

the_alice12d ago

Oh man that dopamine hit thing is so real. I actually ended up cancelling all my streaming services for a month last year just to reset my brain because I was spending more time scrolling than watching. Ended up borrowing my neighbor's DVDs of some random British baking show from 2015 and binged the whole thing out of pure desperation. Honestly kind of worked because having zero options forces you to commit haha.

the_eric12d ago

Oh man, I've been there too. What finally worked for me was setting a hard rule: I pick one show on Sunday and watch it until either the season ends or it really loses me, no hopping around. It sucks at first but after a couple weeks you actually start looking forward to the show instead of treating it like a task.