15 Stages of Binge Watching Netflix

Watching a full season (or an entire series) on Netflix can take a lot out of you. Your emotions are thrown everywhere, and you waste a bunch of time staring at a computer screen instead of doing something productive.

But personally, I find finishing an entire show on Netflix to be its own sort of an accomplishment, so really, it is not wasted time at all.

1. You are still trying to get over the last show you watched.

After committing to hours and hours of a show, it is hard to move on from the characters and story line that you have come to know so well. You miss the awesome cast and you just don’t know how could possibly replace them.

2. You browse through all your options.

Nothing is catching your eye. You have an entire bucket list of shows to watch on Netflix, but none of them seem just right. Nothing you can find on Netflix seems like it could be as funny, adventurous, or heart wrenching as that show you just finished. No matter how much you browse, it is freaking impossible to settle on the show that will consume the next absurd amount of hours of your life. You are literally convinced there is nothing left to watch.

3. Finally you pick a show, but you are intimidated by the amount of time it will take.

FINALLY! You find a show and start to watch it, after searching for so long that it seems like a relief. You count how many seasons it is, how many episodes there are per season, and how long each episode is. You think in your head how long it is going to take to finish the whole series. You are nervous, knowing how much time you are going to waste sitting and watching a screen. But anything is possible right? You have done it before, so who says you can’t do it again?!

4. You get halfway through and then start to browse other shows because you got bored.

Ugh, you thought this show was going to be great, but you are already bored. You just don’t have those emotional connections to the people on the show. There is no real desire to pay attention to it when it is on. You just get flat out bored and are frustrated by how much wasted time it has caused you. You also get a little confused because you feel like you are missing out on the excitement and happiness that everyone else seems to be getting out of it.

5. Nothing caught your eye, so you go back to your current show.

You tried searching again, and of course, you could not find anything that you wanted to watch, so you go back to finish what you started. It’s amazing! You have no clue why you stopped watching in the first place. You get upset that you ever doubted your show picking ability. Of course you picked a certain show to watch, no one knows you better than yourself, and you did a good job.

6. You question why you even ever left!

Every single episode that you watch is a blessing. You cannot stop staring at the screen in awe of everything that is happening. Whether you are crying from laughter or in complete devastation, you are 100% emotionally invested. Why did you ever doubt the show’s ability to grab your attention?! After all, there are 12 seasons of it, how boring can it be? You can feel a new budding friendship between you and the series.

7. You start to fall in love with the characters and their stories.

Either you want someone on the show to be your girlfriend, older brother, or your best friend. You realize that you are in love with a fictional character. You also fall in love the the relationships that the characters are having on the screen. How in the world have imaginary characters captured your heart? Everything they do becomes predictable because you feel so close to them, almost as if you are a part of their made-up life, but it does not feel made-up, it feels 100% real. You feel the need to be a part of the show yourself. You are just as emotionally connected to the show as the characters are to each other.

8. You cry at least once- either from happiness, laughter, or sadness.

Your emotions are extremely far from stable. You go from hysterically laughing to full-blown sobbing. But then something happens! You cannot stop smiling and feeling so giddy because of a new love story unfolding right before your eyes.

9. You start to plan your day around watching Netflix.

Your Netflix show becomes your reward after a long day, something that cheers you up when you are feeling down, and the solution to all your boredom. You plan your daily activities around watching Netflix. After school or work, you look forward to finally opening your laptop and clicking the bookmarked tab labeled “Netflix.” You do not start to make dinner for yourself until you have at least three more episodes finished because obviously your show is more important than food.

10. You start to feel anxious when you think about your show ending…

Your new show consumes your thoughts, and you are not so sure what you are going to do without it in your life anymore. You know for a fact that you are going to be devastated, and slowly you start the grieve the end of the show before it’s even over.

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11. You finally get to the last and final season.

It is finally here, the season you have been waiting for. All of the problems are finally going to be tied into a neat little bow. The plot will come to an end and it is all going make to sense. No more cliff hangers!

12. You have to drag it out as long as you can.

As much as you want the show to end, you want to keep it going as long as possible so you can avoid the dreaded Netflix browsing process on top of having to say goodbye to all your beloved characters. So you attempt to watch only one episode a day (instead of six) in hopes to keep it going as long as possible.

13. But you don’t want to do that, because you need to know what happens now.

As much as you try to make it last, you just can’t. You need to know what happens, and you simply just can’t wait any longer. You have to know how it ends and where all of your favorite characters end up. Will they die or live happily ever after? You just have to know!

14. The last and final episode has finally ended, and you feel like you have experienced a loss.

Your show is over. It is finally over. That dreaded moment has come, where there are no more seasons to binge watch during your free time. You are beside yourself and have no clue what to do with your life except sit and go over all the memories in your head of what a great show it was. You grieve over the loss of all your favorite people and characters, there is nothing left to do, but grieve their in existence.

15. You continue to grieve the end of your show… but eventually recover and the process begins again with a new show.

You just cannot believe that yet another show has taken over your life, but you still want to find another one. The process repeats and you go through all the emotional phases from finding to finishing a Netflix show once again.