I’m starting to wonder if there’s something wrong with me. I could possibly be broken. At the very least malfunctioning. My lovely wife and I wrapped an intense binge-watching of all things Ozark about two weeks ago, maybe longer I don’t fully understand how time works anymore, and since Run the Jewels started blasting during the season three finale… I haven’t binged watched anything since. Granted, we’ve watched alllll of The Floor Is Lava but we watched that as a throw on. I wouldn’t call that a binge though. More like something to watch when there was nothing on the Food Network. We’ve also watched a handful of episodes of Unsolved Mysteries but we’ve decided to go with a little bit of lightness in our lives as of late. You know, a show where not everyone is murdered or goes missing. All this lack of binging has me wondering though, did Ozark break my ability to binge?

For the record, I know that Ozark didn’t break my ability to binge, I’m just being dramatic, but to some degree, I think it might have affected my ability to invest in something else. At least currently. Nothing else seems interesting enough for me to dive into at the moment. I already know for a fact that I’m not going to find another Marty, Ruth, or Wendy anywhere right now. Or if I do it won’t be to my satisfaction. I’m not ready to say goodbye to those characters, even though I already did a few weeks ago, but I also want to duplicate those Ozark vibes. I’m talking that chest anxiety that almost tore me apart during the last three episodes of season three. I’m talking about the stress that caused my wife to stand up from the couch and watch ten minutes of television on her feet. I want that in my life again and I just can’t think of anything that’s going to give me that. Why can’t I just watch Ozark again? I mean, I could but I already know the beats so I’ll be re-watching as a fan looking to further appreciate the show. That’s fun too but also not what I’m looking for. Ugh, why is this so complicated?

Yes, maybe I’m just holding out for the second season of The Umbrella Academy and I’m trying not to invest in something before then but that doesn’t sound right either. I feel kind of listless not watching anything. You know the feeling. The day is over, you want to relax, and instead of instinctively knowing what to throw on you have to spend the majority of the night figuring out what to watch. Thus usually resulting in the same episodes of The Office or Community. I think I’m just suffering from a binge-watching hangover. I suppose it was bound to happen with the amount of television we’ve watched since quarantine started. Maybe Ozark was this emotional crescendo that came crashing down during the season three finale. Maybe I should be taking this time to rest and get ready for The Umbrella Academy.

It’s not like I’ve been sitting around doing nothing. I finally caught up on all of the comic books sitting on my shelf. Even the ones I bought on a whim that have done nothing but collect dust. The ones I said, “yeah, I’ll read those eventually” but not actually meaning it. Turns out eventually actually arrived and I am literally caught up on all my books. It feels rather freeing and comforting in the same way changes the sheet on the bed does. A clean slate. Naturally, this resulted in me buying a whole bunch of new comics to read buuuuuut up caught up on those too. I barely understand who I’ve become.

I’ve read a couple of books in my post-Ozark life. I’ve watched a bunch of Marvel movies again kind of doing an out of order re-watch of sorts. I’ve gone swimming. I’ve gotten invested in Triple G food tournaments. I watched Palm Springs on Hulu and fell head over heels in love with it. But what I haven’t done is binged watched anything new. This hangover runs pretty deep.

So now I turn the mic to you Geeklings. How long does a binge hangover typically last? Does it depend on the awesomeness of the series? Does it depend on the length of the series? Does it depend on… well, anything else? Sound off in the comments or throw me a line on Twitter @iamgeek32. I’ll be curious to see how long your hangovers have lasted and if you’ve done anything to shake your dunks.