Avid Media Marathoning blog reader (and behind-the-scenes contributor), Josh Perks, just sent me a CNET article that echoes last week’s “Beware the DVR” post. Writer Chris Matyszczyk provides further support that the time-shifting technologies are really time-eating technologies. He also seems to know the list of commonly marathoned texts quite well, referencing “quality TV” staples Downton Abbey (the subject of a December blog post), Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. At least one of our interviewees marathoned most of the shows he mentioned feeling guilty about not watching, Perhaps I need to start a new round of media marathoner interviews to capture the House of Cards phenomenon…
Because I have to take notes on these commonly marathoned texts for the media marathoning book project, I feel his pain about feeling overwhelmed, guilty, and out of the loop. It’s easy to read and take notes on the book series, but much more time consuming to cover the TV series. So far I have tackled Arrested Development, Buffy, Downton Abbey, Firefly, Gossip Girl, and Weeds, but I still have Battlestar, Dexter, Glee, Mad Men, The League, True Blood, and Walking Dead on my list. Perhaps Matyszczyk would like to divide up the titles and then share notes when we’re done watching? We’d both be able to pretend we are in the know. His bar chats would be much more pleasant, and I’d be done researching this book. (Yes, in some circles, watching TV is actually “research.”)
