“What should I watch on Netflix?”: A question asked by nearly every millennial at some point in their lives. Both a blessing and a curse of the online entertainment-streaming behemoth is binge-watching. If you’re dedicated enough, you can watch in a single week what took the rest of the world several years to consume in the pre-Netflix era. A blessing, right? Well, yes and no.
A few weeks ago I found myself asking this question of what to watch. After fielding several responses from my friends (Archer, The Office, Narcos, Breaking Bad, Peaky Blinders, etc.). I settled on the first episode of what my brother had just binged – Shameless. It took about twenty minutes of episode one before I was hooked, which is ironic because the show has a lot to do with substance abuse. The show follows the Frank Gallagher and his kids – Fiona, Lip, Ian, Debbie, Carl, and Liam – living on Chicago’s South Side. Fiona is taking care of everyone because Frank is basically a walking substance abuse problem. Every week there’s new drama, usually involving Frank’s poor parenting skills.
Within two weeks I had finished all six seasons available to me on Netflix. I had seen every escapade the Gallagher family had to offer, from every crazy arrest to each wild scheme. I watched all of Frank’s benders, every (horrible, awful) thing Debbie had done (seriously, she’s the WORST), and seen each character grow for better or worse into some new version of themselves.
This was both wonderful and absolutely horrible. Because I watched one episode after another (after another, after another, after another….), it was much easier to keep up with each character’s story line. This was especially helpful with Shameless because things get weird, and they get weird often. For those two weeks, I felt like a Gallagher. I was at the table with them for their family meetings, helped them drag a passed-out Frank out of the house, had been a part of every fight and every party.
Not having to wait a week in between episodes was also great because I’m an instant gratification kind of girl. However, this proved to be problematic when, about halfway into season six episode 13, I realized that Netflix did not have another episode to auto-play for me. What was I going to do? How was I going to react when the credits ended and the catchy theme song didn’t start up again? Did I wait until next year when Netflix uploads season seven? Did I try and find an illegal stream online? I’ll leave you to figure out which one of these scenarios actually happened. For now, I’m stuck anxiously awaiting the next season to premiere on Showtime. I can’t wait to be a part of the family again. And for those of you trying to decide what to watch next, pick Shameless.