How I came to love watching TV shows really fast.
(I swear Im not a monster.)
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This article was originally published on August 3, 2021.
Were recirculating it for anyone looking to speed through 121episodes ofLostnow that its on Netflix.
Ever thought about watchingPeaky Blindersreally fast?
(Its fun.)
OrToo Hot to Handleat half-speed?
(Why would you?
To some, the addition was curious.
The companys official explanation for adding the new playback control was that it would make Netflix more accessible.
(Whether this was simply shrewd messaging doesnt make it any less meaningful.
But I have very much welcomed the feature into my relatively able-bodied life.
I suspect this admission may be reprehensible to you.
Totally, I get it.
That said, Im not arguing that everybody should be speed-watching for leisure.
This certainly isnt me presenting my preferences as a moral stance on behalf of some extreme consumer-empowerment ideology.
What Iamsaying is that speed-watching has helped me navigate a very specific problem.
People often say there aretoo many podcasts; thats supposedly a defining problem for the medium.
This is a boring persons interpretation of an interesting opinion.
Such abundance can be overwhelming, but its a wonderful thing.
Consider it a kind of bizarro FOMO but for cultural life.
But thats how my brain is wired, unfortunately.
So I have a go at get through things as quickly as I can.
Consuming media at accelerated speeds is not a new tactic for me.
(That it seems to be less frowned upon is a different matter.)
Im an aggressive speed-listener:1.5x for talk podcasts, 1.2x for everything else.
I feel an urge to read very quickly, often gliding past potentially meditative details.
With narrative-driven video games, I often skip all optional paths.
(To be fair, many games feel bloated these days.)
And with Netflixs playback-control feature, I happily speed-watch TV shows, too.
This may be a heretical thing to say, but I speed-watch a lot of anime.
At 1.25x speed, the dialogue on TV shows doesnt sound comically hastened.
To my ears, the speech just flows more freely, with an artificial layer of added pep.
Still, Im not an absolutist in my accelerative proclivities.
I wont speed-watch movies.
It just doesnt feel right.
(For now, anyway.)
Also, I revisit things constantly, and when that happens, I usually take my time.
Im not trying to defend myself.
Im aware that Im gleefully contributing to the further commodification of everything under capitalism.
But this isnt a perfect world.
In fact, its a world that largely sucks.
So Im trying to make the best of what Ive got.
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