With all of the televisual options at our collective fingertips we’ve been forced to face a grim fact which previous generations never had to face: runaway climate change. And also, pure entertainment fatigue.
More to the point, with quality television on multiple services and networks it’s impossible to just keep up with everything that’s out there, much less dip back into the vast catalogue of established classics.
When you’re trying to keep up with whatever’s just appeared on Netflix and Stan or the on-demand options on most of our traditional stations, are you ever going to swing back into the library of old favourites? Especially since Disney+ is just around the corner and you already know that you’re just going to stream The Simpsons over and over and over?
In any case: the fact is that you’re almost certainly not going to start Game Of Thrones for the first time now.
At least, that’s the finding of my completely unscientific study, which involved going on social media and asking “so, what do you think you’d like but won’t ever get around to watching?”
Hundreds of votes were cast in a massive triumph of democracy and it turns out that the biggest television drawcard of all time is now The Thing You Should Have Watched At The Time But Missed Your Chance.
Just shy of 20 per cent of the votes cast were for everyone’s favourite Not As Good As the Book Dragons show (18.9 per cent, to be specific).
That’s also true of other prestige dramas, like Breaking Bad (thirteen per cent), The Sopranos (8.5 per cent) and The Wire (seven per cent). Everyone knows they’re classics. No-one has time to start slogging through that many seasons now.
What’s weird is how many people nominated shows which are relatively recent – BoJack Horseman, Fleabag, Killing Eve, even Brooklyn Nine-Nine which isn’t exactly an episodic series.
But the fact is that our numbers clearly tell us that nobody will start Game Of Thrones at this point. Who has the time to commit to six whole seasons and a legendarily unsatisfying ending? Life’s too short, frankly.
if you have a show that you want to watch but never will, let us know. We’re just going to sit here, feeling guilty about that unopened pile of Friday Night Lights DVDs.
The GOAT Never-Going-To-Have-Time-To-Watch-This Top Ten
- Game Of Thrones
- Breaking Bad
- The Sopranos
- The Wire
- The West Wing
- Mad Men
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- Rick And Morty
- Deadwood
- The Crown