Some Thursday Thoughts:
NETFLIX CHEATING IS A THING AND IT HAPPENED TO ME
Sometime last year, I was dating a certain lady for nearly a month. Things seemed to be headed in the right direction but of course it was too early to really tell. At the time, I was watching the popular television series Outlander. Having resisted its allure for a while, I found myself hooked on the combination of romance, history, fantasy, and violence. The show came up in conversation with this person and she expressed interest in watching it with me. I was fond of the idea and offered to wait till she caught up with watching season one so we could start season two together. Soon, some of our dating time was taken up by watching a couple episodes. It was fun to discuss the characters, the twists, and guess what might happen next. We agreed to either watch episodes together or at the very least to watch the same one separately and wait for each other before moving on…
The thing is, I’ve never been a binge watcher. Not only do I lack the appetite to watch TV or movies back to back for hours and hours but the idea of digesting something I love over a longer period of time is much more appealing. Anyway, a week after we’d made our “Netflix oaths”, I got a text asking me how far I was through season two. “It was too busy this week for me to watch anything,” was my response. Moments later, she confessed that she was much further along than she’d like to admit. “How far?” The truth was revealed: she’d binged the rest of season two and started season three. I was pretty astounded by her lack of self-control and communicated that it “wasn’t cool”, reminder her we agreed to watch it together. I no longer have the text conversation but I believe her response was “LOL” or “Haha”. I sat there, contemplating why I felt betrayed over something so trivial. However, the feeling didn’t go away and in the morning I told her I wasn’t interested in seeing each other anymore.
Crazy? Maybe. It certainly wasn’t the only issue between us but it was the one that pushed me over the cliff. And to this day, I think her streaming infidelity was probably a good sign things wouldn’t work out in the long run. I referred to the incident jokingly as “Netflix cheating” and was not aware until starting this piece that I am not the only person writing about or experience this modern phenomenon. Here is an excellent article (among many you can find) from the Guardian about Netflix Cheating: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/15/netflix-cheating-ultimate-breakdown-in-marital-trust
I guess I’m not the only one who considers this to be a “a basic abuse of trust” but from that article, it sounds like it’s pretty common to be unfaithful with your favorite streaming service. So when I started watching the new show THE OLD MAN with my current girlfriend Heather, I told her the same story I just told you. I wanted her to know what she was getting into. Thankfully, that show has adopted the classic notion that it’s best to release one episode per week instead of catering to the binge addicts. And so far, she’s lived up to her end of the bargain. For me, there’s no temptation. I’d much rather sit next to someone I care about and share the viewing experience than indulge my solitary curiosity any night of the week.
