Last week, I began a marathon. I had stretched, I had trained and I had spent precious minutes preparing my body. I was ready. And I have only one goal in mind. My marathon aim is to watch Charmed Seasons 1 to 8 all the way through, no skipping episodes, no jumping ahead. Because of the length of TV marathons however, they have to be partaken over a longer period of time, so as to not die of sleep deprivation. For the purposes of my TV Marathons, I always class it as a show watched in correct order, without pause for other shows or films, and without skipping any episodes (even the ones you don’t like). I think that’s fair, especially with a full time job. So depending on the length of the series and how much spare time you have, a TV marathon can take anything from a day (Firefly) to a couple of months. I once did a Buffy and Angel Marathon at Uni (watched Buffy for a couple of seasons and then as they split, watched them in correlation) and that took about two or three months to get through. However, even though Charmed is longer, I’m not planning on it taking me that long. I started last week and I’m already on Season 3. Score!
There’s this weird thing that happens with a TV marathon, even more so than the usual movie ones. You get an even deeper look into the characters than you would if you were just watching the program normally. Because you see the episodes one after the other, after the other, after the other, without breaks (or at least without ads) you have the chance to develop a greater sense of empathy for the characters and their situations. You can get caught up and more involved than if you were constantly being interrupted and drawn out of the story.
I’ve done Movie Marathons before and they’re generally suited to big epic trilogies; Matrix, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Star Wars. TV Marathons seem to have a similar genre distinction – I’ve done Buffy, Angel, Roswell, and now, Charmed. I have marathon-ed Sex and the City but those episodes are so short, you can get through two or three seasons in a week. So, TV has the genre divide too – it tends to work better with sci-fi and epics; I imagine Lost would make a great marathon. The genre thing must stem from there simply being enough action in each episode to hold your attention for however many hours it takes. SATC is a show that can be put on in the background on a normal day so imagine having it on from morning till night. Eventually, you’d get bored, and probably end up doing errands at the same time.
Even so, I think TV Marathons are the way forward. They’re not really as social as Movie Marathons unless you have housemates that share your interests and your schedule but they are a brilliant way to wile away a few weeks of spare time if your favourite new shows have gone on hiatus.
