On Replacing TV with Comics

Last updated on 2023-11-20

Every time I think about watching a TV show, I think to myself, "Am I ready to comiit 8–16 hours of my life to watch this season?" Because that's what you're signing up for. Every show you choose to watch is a commitment to watching around a half-day's worth of content. One season of a show will come close to half of an actual day or at least half of a day's waking hours.

Over the last six months, I've culled the shows I watch and become ruthless with what I allow myself to watch. I've started a few shows in the last few months that I had my doubts about, but they were spin-offs of shows I liked before. As soon as I started to feel like they weren't "Hell yes"-kind of shows, I dropped them. I also dropped a few shows that I had been watching for multiple years but they lost my attention or I realized I was just watching them now because I'd put so much time into them already and I was going to watch them until they wrapped up.

I replaced that desire for storytelling with comics and audiobooks. I listen to audiobooks instead of podcasts now and I read comics instead of watching TV. Even if a huge comic or long audiobook can take a long time overall, they're much easier to dip into as time allows and typically more satisfying.