Binge watching ravages middle class

Fears for white-collar Brits hooked on American product

The UK's white collar community is being destroyed by its addiction to US TV, warns a new report. "These decent, reasonably well-off people are in the prime of their lives, holding down steady jobs.

They just want to wind down in the evening, so they stick on a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad and bam! They're hooked" claims the report's author, Simon Davis.

"The situation has been declining over the last decade, but it's now hit a tipping point.

It all started with The Wire, which was like crack for middle-class suburbanites. It was particularly dangerous because its addictiveness crept up on you. For the first two or three episodes you're thinking 'Sure, this is okay, but I can handle it,' then before you know it, it's 4am, you've finished the last episode and you're jonesing for your next fix.

But now the situation has escalated, with the emergence of online dealers such as Netflix, who enable users to binge watch directly over the web, bypassing the need for physical media at all. This also makes the product more addictive, as they don't cut it with ads.

Suddenly, previously law abiding people are visiting illegal torrenting sites to download pirated versions because they can't wait a week for the next episode."

Davis warns that the dealers have now upped their game. Previously, they released dangerous stimulants such as Mad Men or Game of Thrones in small weekly doses. But now they're releasing entire seasons at once. Many addicts have lost entire bank holiday weekends mainlining whole seasons of House of Cards or Daredevil, failing to finish that important work report or play with the kids.

As Davis cautioned: "Recreational viewing is fine in moderation. I myself enjoy an episode of CSI once or twice a week, and who didn't experiment with a bit of Buffy at college? But for your own sake, stay away from the hard stuff."

~ A.M.

Illo: S.C.