"Speed watching": Hardcore fans watch series at double speed

The new season of "Game of Thrones" anyway, and season two of "Stranger Things" for sure. Plus, of course, "Fear the Walking Dead" and perhaps "You Are Wanted". Soon certainly "Star Trek: Discovery" and the fifth season of "Prison Break". And in the end, there's still time for a few rounds of "BoJack Horseman", "Big Bang Theory" or two or three "Simpsons" classics.

The only question is: how are you supposed to manage it all? Who is supposed to watch all the series when you have to work, shop, eat and sleep at some point? In the never-ending flood of episodes, the answer for some die-hard fans in the USA is now "speed watching" - watching series at twice the speed. The credo: if you watch twice as fast, you can watch twice as many episodes.

Brain supposedly gets used to it

If you believe the instructions of experts, the brain gradually becomes accustomed to twice the playback speed. If you first watch "Gilmore Girls" or "Westworld" at 1.2x and then 1.5x speed, you will eventually be able to watch it at twice or even more. Video players such as VLC and extensions for the Internet browser can help.

"Life is short. Don't waste it watching videos at low speed," writes the user of a corresponding extension for Google Chrome.

This is because producers from cable channels such as HBO, CBS and Fox, as well as streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, are not churning out hours, but entire days and weeks of series material.

"Peak TV" moment not yet reached

Even hardcore fans are struggling with the flood of exciting TV material. According to a study by broadcaster FX, 455 scripted series were released in the USA alone in 2016 - in 2010, there were not even half as many. The moment of "peak TV", when an oversaturated series market weakens and the number of productions falls again, has still not been reached. So some viewers rush through the offerings at double speed. The pleasure of watching a TV work of art in peace and quiet and fully savoring the pauses, lengths or slow-motion sequences intended by the director and scriptwriter may be lost during "speed watching".

But life is becoming more efficient, wrote the Washington Post last summer: four episodes of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" now fit into just one hour. There is more to watch than ever before.

Invented by mistake

Former law student Alexander Theoharis claims to have invented the method, which is based on "speed reading" (books) and "speed listening" (podcasts). A few years ago, he accidentally hit a button that sped up a running video, he told the Seattle Times in 2014.

Now he watches "Breaking Bad" at 1.6x speed and "The Office" at 2.4x speed with subtitles. He simply wanted to know what was happening in these series, but often felt guilty about the time he lost studying, said Theoharis.

The method may be practical for educational videos and online lectures. "Modern Family" even becomes funnier at twice the speed, writes the Washington Post, because "the jokes come faster and hit harder". You also no longer have to waste time with boring filler content.

Normal speed becomes unbearable

And who has time to watch five seasons of "The Wire" in a total of two and a half days? The Chrome extension "Video Speed Controller" has already been downloaded more than 235,000 times.

However, it may be that the brain can no longer tolerate a normal, slow narrative pace at some point. The enjoyment of a series at a normal pace would be ruined, possibly forever.

And, asks New York Magazine, if it's so much work to follow your favorite show, why watch it at all? (Johannes Schmitt-Tegge, SDA/DPA)