Never underestimate the laziness of people. Binge-watching has existed since the advent of TV series on DVD, but it didn’t truly take off as a phenomenon until streaming services cut out the onerous task of getting up, putting in a new DVD, and hitting play all over again. Once you could access an entire season of a series with a click or two of a remote, all bets (and social life) were off.
The problem with binge-watching, of course, is that viewers gobble up series in whole servings. Which means that when the holidays come around and you’re sitting in the airport waiting for a delayed flight, your viewing options are now severely limited. Except they’re not. Because while Netflix’s original series were hogging the limelight this year, a handful of other series debuted on streaming platforms. All you need are a few memberships and Wi-Fi access and your next prolonged stay on the tarmac won’t seem quite as endless.