I’m not one of those ‘everything was better back in the day’ walking flesh bags of rose-colored nostalgia but hot damn I do try to resist the binge watching trend hard.
But, but, but it is so freaking hard because all the episodes are right there, up on the screen with still photos and little teasing blurbs, all queued up, auto-continuing and shit. You’ve got to physically press the Home Button or the Back Button or Exit or STOP or something to opt out of the binge watching in 10…9…8 seconds which makes opting in so deliciously tempting, like a warm buttered square of sticky bun sitting on a plate right in front of your face and watering mouth and waiting stomach.
We’re waist deep into the first 26 episodes of Trolhunters right now and I’m constantly “this is it, last one for tonight” and they are all “but we have to see what happens next!!” I’m weaker than watered down coffee when it comes to this incredible Guillermo del Toro show, so weak that things never even have to progress to the adorable sad pouty lip part of kiddie begging, partly because I think I want to see what happens next with Jim, Claire, Blinky, Toby, Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh and the rest of the gang even more than my daughters do. And that’s saying something because other than Hamilton, it is all about Trollhunters ’round here.
I grew up, probably much like you did, with exactly 6 days and 23.5 hours in between episodes and those cliffhangers were amazing. Okay fine, that kinda sucked, but the anticipation as the clock inched towards showtime the following week was palatable, memorable and worth trying to mimic today. Trying being the key word. Failing being another word.
I love the relationship Jim has with his Mom, I love that the teenager is a chef, I love the middle grade language of the show that has an edge without being crude or punchy for punchy-sake. Trollhunters is a marvelous gift for modern families looking for something fresh and fun to watch…but NOT to binge watch. C’mon, make it last! Spread it out! We can fight binge watching AND the Gumm Gumms together!
*OWTK is a member of the Netflix StreamTeam. All opinions and thoughts expressed above are honest and unbiased, as always.