If you're like me and my wife, you and your significant other have a few shows you both record and watch as a couple. Or you're in the process of catching up on older shows you missed when they were live, binge-viewing episodes of Battlestar Galactica, The Wire or Breaking Badon HBO or Netflix. Right?
But what happens when one of you gets ahead of the other? When one of you, for whatever reason, knows more than the other about the arc of the season? Trouble! That's what. While it might seem like the stuff of a Larry David running gag in Seinfeld or Curb, "Episode Drifting," as I've coined it, can actually put real distance between couples.
For starters, leaving your partner behind in most situations in life is just plain unpleasant. How would you feel if you were both standing in a long line to get into Space Mountain when suddenly she said she was skipping ahead of you because she spotted a friend you never met from her college days and the friend is letting her cut so they can ride together, leaving you all alone much further back in the queue? Same with watching TV together.
In fact, Episode Drifting can be so problematic, I've heard of couples actually using this as a way to fight back in the middle of a row. You might have been there yourself. If you're fighting with your wife or girlfriend, getting ahead on a show you watch together is holding the upper hand, right? It's like a digital slap in the face.
My advice: don't do it. No matter how angry you get, don't fall victim to Episode Drifting, because it just leads to more problems. And if you must episode drift from time to time, whatever you do, never, EVER get ahead by more than two episodes. One is bad. Two is horrendous. Three is grounds for divorce.
With one caveat: The only time getting ahead by more than two is permissible is if, and only if, you're going away on a long business trip where you know she'll have 7-10 days to watch those extra episodes and close the Episodic Drift.
But more to the point, loyal readers of GeekDad know how much fun it is to binge-view together, as a couple, side by side, rooting for the protagonist together. And then when the episode is over, using your combined, superior intellect to guess what's going to happen in the next episode, or even the next season. And it can be funny, too. Don't believe me? Just ask Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. (Public confession/apology to my wife: I'm two episodes ahead of you now on Portlandia! PLEASE forgive me! Please catch up!)
