I figured that now is the best time to do this, while the emotions are raw, while I’m sitting in my room currently devastated over the fact that I just finished my last season of a TV show on Netflix. I knew it was coming, but I just didn’t think it would come so fast. I am utterly heartbroken.
I here now present you with the very real, very emotional Netflix cycle.
Phase 1
After some appropriate time has passed from your last breakup with a show, you begin to search through Netflix, looking for things you may be interested in. You flip through a couple of suggested series and you see one that you recognize, so with slight consideration, you go, “ah, why not, I’m lonely.”
Phase 2
You’re in the first episode, and since you're still kind of attached to the series you just finished, you don’t give it much of your attention. Plus, the first episodes are rarely ever that good.
Phase 3
You’ve watched about two more episodes, and you think, “Hey, this is kind of good. I kind of like these people.”
Phase 4
You just finished the episode that has guaranteed that you will finish the whole six seasons of the show within, at most, a month. Your heart is full and there is no turning back.
Phase 5
You’ve laughed with the characters, felt angry with them, cried with them; you’ve been through a roller coaster of emotions with them. They literally feel like your friends, like you are one of them. The time you spend watching the show feels like you're hanging out with them. You even begin to miss them when you’re not watching the show. You are emotionally attached.
Phase 6
You just finished the last episode to the second-to-last season. The moment you have been dreading ever since you fell in love with your show has come; you only have one more season, and then that’s it… just gone. Forever. So basically, you make a rule and tell yourself only one episode every two days, so that dreadful goodbye doesn’t come too quickly.
Phase 7
You broke your rule and you indulged. You’re upset at yourself and you're upset with the writer of the show for not writing more shows.
Phase 8
You’ve watched every single episode up to the very last one. You actually wait it out this time. A couple days pass until you are mentally prepared to say your goodbyes to your fictional, yet at the same time very real, friends.
Phase 9
It’s done. You are sad and you are alone. You’re really not sure how you’re going to ever be able to find another TV show that will compare. You sit in your room and dwell and when people ask you what’s wrong, you tell them you just can’t talk about it yet.
The Netflix cycle is a very real and emotional thing. It can make you feel your highest highs and your lowest lows. I once thought I would never be able to get over a show, but after I put myself out there and tried out other shows, I was able to heal and move on quicker. I do have one thing to tell you though, and that is that you’re never going to get over your first, especially if your first was "Breaking Bad."
