John Reid has another antisocial activity to tackle. We’re not just splurging on alcopops and fatty food; the recent wave of US TV dramas has led to a new and worrying phenomenon whose effects reach far beyond the Asbo classes – the DVD binge. In neighbourhoods near you, otherwise normal, responsible professionals are waking up bleary-eyed and late after watching “just one more” episode after another of West Wing, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under . . . the list is endless.
The trend started, appropriately enough, with 24, the series in which Special Agent Jack Bauer has a day to save the US from various forms of terrorist attack without ever sleeping, eating or going to the loo. The first series didn’t do so well. But when the second series came out, curious viewers bought the DVDs of Bauer’s first outing and found when the cliffhanger endings came that they were tempted to watch the next episode, and the next and the next.
From the West Coast of America to Southern France, South-East Asia and deepest Islington, wherever DVD series are to be found people are succumbing to this new addiction. It has been compared with crack. Short of throwing away your TV, there is only one answer: admit that you have a problem, then “just say no”.