The lost joy of seeing a movie twice

Simple question - how many times have you seen Home Alone?

I would assume more times than you can count.

Actually, replace Home Alone with any of your favorite movies. You would have seen it repeatedly until you knew the dialogues by heart and what exactly was going to happen in the next scene.

Still, you watched it.

Sometimes out of boredom and sometimes because you actually enjoyed watching it more than once.

Back in the day, life was a whole lot simpler.

There was one television per home which everyone fought for.

There existed only a handful of serials (as we called them back then before they metamorphosed into series).

And you either saw a movie on theatre or HBO or Star Movies.

Remember when the programming schedule of the week appeared in the Sunday newspaper and this allowed you to plan your TV watching time? And sometimes, if you didn’t find anything interesting, you would gladly resort to watching a movie you have already watched, again?

I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen Sholay. And the Shawshank Redemption. And Roja. And Goodwill Hunting. And the Lion King.

Now ask yourself – which was the last movie, or series, you saw twice?

The advent of streaming apps killed the joy of watching something twice. Or thrice. Or countless times. By the time you’re done with one, another new series has started. And by the time that new series is over, another streaming service has started.

Flipkart, Apple TV and Disney have announced their foray into the streaming service. I won’t be surprised if Doordarshan got into the fray and announced that they were beginning their own streaming service.

All of this means one thing – the odds are stacked against us.

Watching something twice when instead of checking out that new series that Netflix has put up billboards for?

Watching something twice instead of signing up for the first month free of that new streaming service?

Watching something twice instead of spending an hour figuring out what to watch, flitting between Amazon and Hotstar and Netflix?

The lost art of watching something twice has meant that we are constantly in FOMO mode, wondering what we have missed. And with no TV guide to help us plan, we will never catch up, anyway.

When you watch a movie countless times, it becomes a part of you. It’s like wearing your favorite pair of jeans. It’s like your comfort food.

In a world where there is something new being made every minute, it’s your favorite movie that never gets old.