A couple of days back when I was feeling particularly low I decided to list the number of web series we have watched ever since we got Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney Hotstar. Before I tell you what that did, I have to provide some background.
TV Watching History
The first time we got a television at home was when I was 16 years old and was studying in 11th std. The only thing that we would watch on TV was news and Chitrahaar. Then we got to see some tennis matches that were telecast by Doordarshan. We got hooked onto “Hum Log” and “Nukkad”, the first TV series. Then Ramayan and Mahabharat were made into TV series which we watched without fail.
When dad got posted to Jamnagar, the TV caught some signals from the Middle East and we could watch someone making halwa and some WWF fights. Amma and I were terrified that these fights were real !!! That’s how naive we were. This is in 1986-87.
I came to Hyderabad in 1987 to complete my degree and for a short while I stayed with my Periyamma (Mom’s eldest sister). No time to watch TV except for cricket matches because I was in college and forever out of the house. For a year+ I stayed alone and did not have any television, so just lost the habit of watching TV.
Once we got married, Krishnan and I bought a TV but again we would watch news or a movie. Cable TV started with Zee TV in 1992 and I don’t think we got cable till 1994 or 1995. By that time we were deep in trouble in our business venture so couldn’t watch any TV. Again, the time spent watching TV must have been a few minutes a day except for cricket matches.
Once in Delhi we have always had a TV at home but with both of us working, there was hardly anytime to watch any web series. By this time (1997) ofcourse Cable TV was big and we did get a subscription. Krishnan loved to watch National Geographic and Discovery Channels and both of us liked watching series like Tiny House Nation and Masterchef Australia. Again till 2015 our TV viewing was restricted to the weekends.
As soon as we quit full time work, we started our road tours for ShikshaDaan and had no time for watching any web series. Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Hotstar became available in India from 2016 and till Covid hit in 2020, we never got onto them. We were happy watching some movies on Tata Sky (now Tata Play).
OTT Platforms
We first bought the subscription for Disney Hotstar because we wanted to watch Masterchef Australia when it was telecast in Australia and not later in the year. This was in May 2021. Then my friend wrote about Chicago Fire, the web series on Netflix. Well, that started the OTT binge journey for us.
Following is the list of web series that we have watched in the last 3 years….
Netflix -
The Lincoln Lawyer - 30 episodes, 3 seasons
Suits - 134 episodes - 9 seasons
Designated Survivor - 53 episodes - 3 seasons
Fauda - 48 episodes - 4 seasons
Money Heist - 48 episodes - 5 parts
Blacklist - 218 episodes - 10 seasons
Fool Me Once - 8 episodes
Jamtara - 18 episodes - 2 seasons
Caliphate - 8 episodes
The Sinner - 32 episodes - 4 seasons
Inventing Anna - 9 episodes
Maid - 10 episodes
Dear Child - 6 episodes
The Railway Men - 4 episodes
Asunta Case - 6 episodes
The girl from Oslo - 10 episodes
Pine gap - 6 episodes
Outback Truckers - 30 episodes
Prime Video
SWAT - 84 episodes - 4 seasons
Chicago Fire - 217 episodes and still counting
Panchayat - 24 episodes - 3 seasons
Seal Team - 104 episodes - 6 seasons
Citadel - 6 episodes
Fargo - 40 episodes - 4 seasons
Reacher - 16 episodes - 2 seasons
Treadstone - 10 episodes
Chicago PD - 90 episodes - 4 seasons
Mind your language - 42 episodes - 4 seasons
Newsroom - 24 episodes - 3 seasons
Family Man - 19 episodes - 2 seasons
NCIS - 15 episodes
Disney Hotstar
Bones - 142 episodes - 7 seasons
Freelancer - 7 episodes
24 Jack Bauer - 205 episodes - 9 seasons
White Collar - 81 episodes - 6 seasons
Jio Cinema
The Pill - 8 episodes
I will save you the trouble of adding it all up –
So far, we have watched 1812 episodes of various web series and at an average of 45 minutes per episode, we have spent 81,540 minutes sitting in front of the idiot box.
What have we learnt by binge watching these web series ?
- Americans drink daily – more when they are happy or sad. Happy hours at pubs are important and almost everyone goes to their favourite pub to hang out.
- Americans are eating something or drinking something all the time …
- Parents abandon children, new born babies even.
- US Government is forever brewing up conspiracies (well, this may be true 😜)
- American movie makers and web series makers have no clue about Indian names … strange names are given to characters that portray Indians.
- Everything is about a deal. Lawyers are out to make a deal, criminals are making deals and ofcourse politicians are making deals.
- Everything is also about making money…. and staying in power.
- Relationships are subsumed to careers and casual link ups. Everything can be solved by recreational drugs, sex and booze.
- Friendships are important, family is important but divorce is common. Almost every character is married several times and has children from different relationships.
- People of colour are discriminated against. White Supremacy is a thing.
- Nearly everyone owns a gun or several guns. Accidents keep happening.
- Having a police record is common.
- Drug cartels are almost always Hispanic and drug runners are mostly Black.
- Neighbourhoods are segregated …
- The Emergency services are outstanding – Fire, Police etc respond in time and the equipment they have is top class.
Could we have done without these learnings ? Heck yeah. Ofcourse there are several new things that we learnt too but the list above is not anything new. The new things we learnt could have been learnt through books or the internet as well without spending as many hours.
We did try giving up on Netflix and the OTT addiction but it didnt last beyond a year. Do read – The OTT Addiction. When I re-read my blogpost I realised I have missed the entire Jack Ryan series from the list above… just means another 50 odd episodes get added to the list. 🙁
Please find a way that works for you and stop binge watching web series. You lose precious time that could be used for something better – a walk, or reading a book or speaking to a friend or meeting friends in person, travelling. These 81,450 minutes meant we could have walked 95,02,500 steps. 🤦🏽♀️ These 81,450 minutes meant we could have read 1300 books assuming each book took 10 hours to read.
What a waste of time !!! But am glad good sense has returned. At least going forward time won’t be wasted on inane web series.
End Note : It is 4 days since I compiled this list. Haven’t watched a single episode of any web series. As the Master of Masters Osho says, the binge watching habit just dropped. Don’t think we will go back to it ever.
PS – as always I made a mistake while calculating :). 1812 episodes of 45 minutes each means 81450 minutes of watching these web series … I wrote it as 81,450 hours !!!