A Year Without Cable, Week 9: Binge Watching the Past
Doing away with cable can mean doing away with current season TV for some. Rather than buy next-day episodes on iTunes or Amazon, these viewers simply rely on services like Netflix to stream episodes months after they’ve aired. This, of course, is how some wind up binge watching an entire season in a week. But the beauty in doing so is that, once you’re done, there are tons more shows to watch.
And not just the recent shows you’re following, either. There are some gems to be found in the deep libraries on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. And if the shows are several years old (or in some cases, several decades old), you might be able to watch an entire series without skipping a beat.
About two years ago, I rediscovered The X-Files, a series that became popular when I was a pre-teen. I wasn’t interested in it back then, but watching an episode at a friend’s place had me hooked. So I watched the entire season in about two months. Every day I would come home from work, put The X-Files on the TV and go until my eyes grew heavy. Looking back, this seems incredibly sad and pathetic, but it was cheap; the cost was $7.99 a month.
More recently, I did it with Doctor Who. In a few short months, I burned through four seasons and countless specials (I’m currently in a David Tennant mourning period). And there are still several more waiting for me once I’m ready to continue — and as long as the licensing agreements hold up.
I’m not alone in binge watching past seasons of TV shows. I’ve had friends watch season after season of shows like Frasier and The League. Cult hit Twin Peaks is there for your viewing pleasure, as is Columbo. Want to watch Everybody Loves Raymond? What about Coach? You can do it. By the way, I love Coach.
The beauty of cord cutting is that you can put TV on your schedule. For the most part, you can choose how and when to watch your shows. You can watch them the next day. You can watch them months or even years later. And you can even dig into the past and start watching a show you missed the first time around. This might be tough to do with shows that everyone talks about — can you imagine watching Game of Thrones in ten years without having it spoiled? For the others, though, it’s totally doable. The shows are just as entertaining now as they were then. The only thing missing? The $100+ cable bill.
Have you recently gotten hooked on a TV show from the past? Tell us about it below.