Series and movies are my means of escapism. Whenever I’m frustrated, I usually find myself going online and starting to watch them. If it’s the weekend, I might even spend 24 hours watching one episode after another… man!
The way they craft these series near the end of an episode, you are hooked to find out what happened in the next one. Just like that, I can’t even step outside to see the sun.
For me, it’s a good and bad habit at the same time. It helps me be in another world for a few hours, and when I come back, I’m totally refreshed and sometimes have new ideas.
It’s a bad habit because when I’m sober and accidentally stumble on a trailer for a good series, you are going to count chunks of hours I have wasted in the whole week just watching episodes. I hate this. But I also like good stories.
To avoid wasting time, I decided to watch ongoing series with episodes released weekly. But here is the problem: you watch the first episode and it’s very good. Usually, I would go to the next episode, and the next, and the last thing I remember, I have already consumed several hours which could have been used somewhere else productively. With ongoing series, I have to wait until next week. Argh, it’s so painful :) especially when I have started to love the series, but still, it’s better than binging episodes all at once.
At first, I couldn’t handle it well, but after several weeks, I started to accept the fact that there is nothing I can do to watch it right now; I have to wait until next week.
Shockingly, I have started to enjoy watching series. I get to see this story I like for about one hour once a week, and as a result, I start to treasure every minute of it. The attention I pour into it is very different than when I was binge-watching all the episodes at once.
The most important thing I learned is I have no power over the distribution channels. They have my fate in their palms (to watch the series I like). I can’t complain and tell them, “Hey, release four episodes per week.” I have become humble to them so I can enjoy my series, even if it’s for 1 hour per week.
I have realized that even in my real life outside of movies, I am not like this; it’s like I’m always shouting at life to give me what I want immediately. But everything is like the distribution channels of my favourite series: I can’t force it, or else even that one-hour episode might disappear. I have to wait, and when the time comes, enjoy the episode of the week.
I have to wait.
Here are the ongoing series I’m watching weekly. Mostly they are Korean series