Lost in the Loop: My Binge-Watching Experiences

When it comes to movies, it's always a fun time for me to unwind, relax and free myself from a hectic day and activities, also when I don't feel like doing any task that day, I switch to watching movies. Another reason I resort to watching movies is when I am frustrated and annoyed, and for me not to vent my frustration on anyone or anything around me, movies help to clear my mind and feel good.

Like two days ago, I had issues with the MTN network and it got me pissed off, little did I know it was my data that had finished but my subconscious mind thought I had subscribed the previous day when I recharged my phone with the exact amount of airtime to subscribe, so I thought I had done the subscription.

I kept switching on and off the network and restarted my phone to see if the network would come back but it didn't. I got angry and decided to watch a movie I had watched a long time ago and downloaded on my Netflix account because I didn't want to delete it as part 2 would be released next year.

It was after watching the movie and my mind calmed down, that I thought of checking my data balance and that was when I knew I didn't do the subscription. I laughed at my foolishness.

What I am trying to say here is that movies have a way of settling our minds and calming our nerves when we are pissed, frustrated and annoyed, not wanting to commit something that we would regret later, another way to keep ourselves sane. Movies are a great tool for that.

One genre of movie I try to always avoid is Korean movies. These movies are always long with so many seasons and episodes that once you jump on one to watch, you would be tempted to keep watching because of the sweet suspense at the end of each episode and you wouldn't want to stop but to continue.

There was a time I binge-watched a Korean movie and didn't know it was late until I heard my neighbour's generator which they always put on at 7 pm. I couldn't believe I was tied down since I began the movie in the afternoon. I only said would watch 2 to 3 episodes and stop while I focus on other things and it turned to watching more than 7 episodes, and when I wanted to continue on the 8th, the sound of the generator brought me back to reality.

One thing about Korean movies is how it would hook you down and stop you from doing other things because of how interesting and fun they are and you don't want to miss what would happen next unless you can control yourself which I don't think so. It's like a charm that deprives you of doing other activities.

Their suspense is always a temptation for me and would always avoid watching except there isn't any other thing for me to do that day.

One of the Korean movies I have watched like that was Vincenzo with 20 episodes. It was during my 300-level examination, I already read some pages of the course I was taking the next day and decided to start watching the movie. I had it in mind to watch after finishing my last paper but the way those who have watched it were talking about it and giving out the spoiler alert, I couldn't stop them from talking about it and that tempted me to watch.

My mind was like, "I will watch just 2 episodes and continue reading." If only I had known, I wouldn't have listened to the spirit that lured me to start the first episode. It was the kind of action movie I love watching but I couldn't stop when the whole thing was making my adrenaline pump. The suspense at the end of each episode was something I couldn't stop myself from and till I watched half of the episodes and checked the time, it was already late and was tired to open my book.

I decided to wake up at midnight to read but the more I was flipping the pages, every interesting scene from the movie kept replaying in my head and would find myself smiling and imitating Vincenzo, the main protagonist of the movie not allowing me to focus on what I was reading.

Ever since then, I promised never to watch any Korean movie because of how long the seasons and episodes are but as time goes on, I still find myself watching once in a while.

Aside from watching Korean movies, I watched a movie — Vampire Diaries with 8 seasons one time like that this year, each season has more than 20 episodes and the day I started watching, I blamed myself. I left my work behind and focused on this movie. It made me inactive on Hive for a few days and I felt guilty about not doing what I intended to do.

Every time I wanted to pray, do a task or engage on Hive, the interesting scenes from the movie would keep replaying in my head and because I wanted to know what would happen next, would switch to watching and this took a lot of my time away from my activities.

I do suffer the consequences though and right now, I am always scared of watching those kinds of movies with long seasons and episodes knowing that if I try it, a lot would be affected and I don't want that. This is more like a guilty pleasure for me.

^{Both images were imagined with Meta AI}