Reader question:

Please explain this message, with “binge watch” in particular: “I’m looking for a new TV show to binge watch tonight.”

My comments:

The message sender is going to spend much of the night tonight – if not all of it – watching quite a few episodes of a television show.

Again, if not all of it.

That’s what “binge watch” means. It’s a combination of “binge” and “watch.”

You understand “binge drinking”, don’t you?

Yes, binge drinking means having a lot of alcoholic drinks in a short period of time, such as five bottles of beer in an hour.

Binge drinking is harmful to your health.

Oh, I’m digressing. Let’s get back to binge watching. That means watching hours and hours of television on end. As you may guess, to binge in some activity is to indulge ourselves in it excessively.

Like binge drinking, binge watching is harmful to your health.

Again, I’ve digressed. Let’s again return to the main point of our discussion. For example, years ago, I binged watched Mad Men on Bilibili.com. Mad Men is about the lives of a group of men and women in the advertising business during the 1960s, or sometime around there. In actuality, that show ran in America from 2007 to 2015, probably a dozen or so episodes per season.

Anyways, sometime after its final season, I binge watched quite a few episodes after reading a few reviews that said it was good.

And, as it turned out, it was good. One of these days, I may binge watch some episodes again.

That’s an example of binge watching. You watch hours and hours of your favorite TV programme in one sitting because you don’t have the time or patience to follow the show in real time.

Secondly, we binge watch in order to really indulge ourselves in it, to really have enough of it this time, to get the feeling of being fully sated and satisfied.

Yeah, pretty much like a regular glutton (who eats a lot) and binge drinker, who regularly gets drunk and appears always to be recovering from a hangover.

Hangover?

That’s a headache or dizziness or any of the many ill effects from excessive alcohol drinks.

Like I said, binge drinking is unhealthy.

But it’s enjoyable while they drink, right?

Yes. That’s why they do it. They do enjoy themselves that way.

And so it is with binge watching.

Just don’t overdo it.

All right, here are media examples of binge watching:

1. Graham Chase Robinson, an ex-employee of Robert De Niro who made headlines last summer after the “Raging Bull” star claimed she binge-watched “Friends” episodes on the job, is asking a court to dismiss his lawsuit against her.

Robinson later counter-sued De Niro, accusing him of gender discrimination and fostering an abusive working environment. After filing, she released tapes on which the actor can be heard haranguing her and calling her a “spoiled brat.”

In the motion filed this week, Robinson’s attorneys say De Niro’s suit should be dismissed or stayed until a final judgment is rendered on her claims. Their assertion is that De Niro’s company, Canal Productions, filed suit first in retaliation after learning that she was pursuing legal action. They also ask the court to strike certain allegations, namely the one that Robinson spent a four-day period in January watching 55 episodes of “Friends.”

“These inflammatory accusations are scandalous and prejudicial – so much so that they ‘went viral,’” the motion reads. “The allegations are also irrelevant to Canal’s claims: there is no case law holding that purportedly watching television during work gives rise to liability under any of the legal theories Canal advances.”

Robinson is also asking the court to strike De Niro’s legal team’s allegations that she inaccurately reported her vacation days, taking “nearly half a year’s worth of vacation days on the sly.” Her attorneys claim the allegations are “inherently implausible.”

Robinson, who was an employee at Canal Productions from 2008 to 2018, sued De Niro for $12 million. The actor initially sued her for $6 million in damages.

- Robert De Niro’s Ex-Employee Asks Court to Strike Claims She Binge-Watched ‘Friends’, December 17, 2019.

2. It’s been almost 30 years since the day Michael J. Fox had to break the news to his wife that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at 29, but the memory of her reaction is still enough to move him to tears.

The "Back to the Future" star spoke with Willie Geist on Sunday TODAY about that emotional moment in 1991 with his wife, actor Tracy Pollan, which he also writes about in his latest book, “No Time Like the Future.’

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Fox, now 59, said. “One of the things I’ll always love Tracy for is that at that moment, she didn’t blink.”

“And she hasn’t since, has she?” Willie answered.

“No,” Fox replied while wiping away tears.

“It’s not the kinda thing you can do without a partner, is it?” Willie, whose father is also living with Parkinson’s disease, asked.

“It’s really great to have a partner,” Fox said.

Fox and Pollan, 60, have been married for 32 years and raised four children since first meeting on the 1980s NBC hit sitcom “Family Ties,” where Fox won three Emmy Awards playing Alex P. Keaton.

Pollan’s sense of humor has helped Fox endure some difficult stretches with his condition.

“Well, Tracy’s amazing,” he told Willie. “She’s there in the front lines with me every single day. She never pretends to know as much as I know. And the other thing Tracy does is, if there’s something funny, let’s get to the funny. We’ll deal with the tragic later.

“I just picture her talking to me, like, ‘So anyway, I’m going to the store, and oh, you’ve fallen down. OK, I’m going to the market, I’m getting – are you okay? OK, so I’m getting cheese, and I’m getting bread, I’m getting baguettes. Don’t get up. Just stay there for a second. I’m taking the station wagon. Not that you care.”

He really needed her support in 2018, when his trademark optimism waned during one of the darkest periods of his life. Fox underwent spinal surgery to remove a tumor, which forced him to relearn how to walk. Then four months later he suffered a fall in their home and shattered his arm.

“I was underneath the phone, against the kitchen wall, on the kitchen floor alone with a broken arm, waiting for the ambulance to show up,” he said on Sunday TODAY. “I couldn’t believe the amount of fury I had toward myself for being so careless to do this, and to let down my surgeons.

“I had been so stubborn about being independent, and my family, who'd been so patient during all this. And I couldn’t put a shiny face on it. I couldn't make lemonade out of this. In fact, I was out of the lemonade business. I just kind of felt more sorry for myself, and I’d never done that before. And I questioned my optimism.”

Fittingly for a man with five Emmy Awards, watching television helped restore his positive outlook on life. He binge-watched old Westerns from the ’50s and ’60s while recovering from his broken arm.

“I kind of realized that this happened before I was born, these shows,” he told Willie. “I’m part of that continuum. I’ll be survived by my reruns. That gave me a little bit of a dash of immortality.

“All these things were connected. And they all pointed me toward how grateful I was for my interaction with my kids. They’re all smarter than me, and all better looking than me, they’re all taller than me. And so I look up to them.”

- Michael J. Fox tears up recalling how his wife reacted to his Parkinson’s diagnosis, Today.com, November 22, 2020.

3. It’s no secret that Netflix prefers it when you binge watch its shows, though not everyone does. Now it sounds like Netflix has a plan to reward people who do watch multiple episodes in a single sitting. But only if you’re subscribed to Netflix with ads.

Netflix is offering a kind of “four for the price of three deal” from sometime in Q1 2024. Simply put, every time someone watches three consecutive episodes, the fourth will be delivered without any ads.

Netflix announced this new “binge ad” initiative in a blog post, commemorating the first anniversary of the streamer’s ad-supported tier. Details about this new feature are scant but the use of the word “consecutive” suggests that you’ll have to stick with the same show the duration – and switching to something else will restart the countdown.

It’s just one of many changes Netflix has implemented in its ad-supported tier over the past 12 months, no doubt in response to the increasing number of ad-filled streaming subscriptions on the market. This includes upping the basic resolution to 1080p, offering two concurrent streams and offline downloads – apparently available by the end of this week.

- Netflix is going to reward you for binge-watching – here’s how, TomsGuide.com, November 3, 2023.

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：張欣  編輯：丹妮）