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Comment by jdh | Hacker News Reader

I felt this way a decade ago when my wife and I rented Season 1 of the show 24. I never enjoyed it, but felt strangely compelled to find out what happened in the next episode, and would stay up too late watching. After one season I decided that was enough of that addiction.

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Here's how to avoid that: when you realize you're watching for that reason, go on Wikipedia and read the entire plot synopsis.

I really hated the politics and rhetoric of 24, but was somehow compelled beyond my will to watch every single episode. I knew it was unhealthy as I'd stay up way too late and ended up getting weird & anxious (head full of of right-wing fantasy combined with prolonged sleep depravation).

Unlike you I didn't kick the addiction & i've now seen every season.

Damn you and your insidious cliff-hangers Jack Bauer! :P

I didn't watch it because it got cliché pretty fast like LOST. The worst offender I reckon was Dragonball Z [0]. I realised this pattern and that greatly put me off many games and movies, eg WoW, FarmVille, etc. It was a grind. I want something novel.

[0] Do: Scream, build up tension, to be continued, until Infinity. Replace scream with drama (twists).

Ouch. I watched that back on TV a decade ago when I had no idea what I was getting into. Longest "15 minutes" ever. They're supposed to be fighting on a planet that's about to explode... but the planet patiently waits to blow up until their fight is over... which takes almost forever. Ugh.

Alias has the same problem. The best solution I have ever heard is to watch the first few minutes of the next episode to solve the cliffhanger.

But excessive cliffhangers are mostly what turned me of Lost.

In my experience 24 was pretty fun (we LOVED the main character) until they nuked the fridge in the later episodes.

Same thing with Warehouse 13.

But that wasn't boredom-related. Perhaps you just don't match with this series and should have stopped earlier.

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