I’m Watching A Show No One Else Is, And It Is Pure Joy

This week I pressed play on the eighth season of a show I’ve been binge-watching since December. You see, I’m savoring this one. Every love triangle, every dramatic moment, every gifable quote that tumbles out of the mouths of my new best TV friends. And part of the reason why I’m taking my time, working through it at my own pace, is that no one else is watching.

The show I’m referring to is Made in Chelsea, a widely popular reality TV show in the UK, and really the British version of our own beloved MTV series The Hills. The reality series follows the lives of a handful of gorgeous, rich, outspoken brats living in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in London and I can’t get enough of it. Hulu added 13 seasons to their platform (the series is currently in production on season 15) right before Christmas.

And though it’s extremely popular in the UK, over here in the States? No one cares. Which is great.

I don’t have to have an opinion on any of the hookups or the arguments or the outfits. I can just enjoy them for what they are on my screen. Whether you’re catching up on a random ’90s sitcom or an early aughts critical darling drama or an obscure overseas import, the viewing experience can be entirely yours — a rare, if not foreign concept in 2018.

In my own Made In Chelsea viewing experience, I also cherish the fact that I’m years behind when all of this action actually occurred. The show started in 2011, so I’ve been up to seven years late to the party. Imagine starting Mad Men now for the first time. That lawnmower scene is still shocking (almost as shocking as the fact you didn’t hear about that already?) but most of us have already processed it. We’re not quite as jazzed about it as we were at the time, and that’s ok! It’s still a fun scene to discover by yourself, and now you don’t have to hear your co-workers’ hot take on it over coffee the next morning.

In fact, you don’t have to hear or read any hot takes. Watching a show that hardly anyone else is watching offers very few thinkpieces, let alone an onslaught of them as any other popular drama does today. No one is pointing out the significance of random scenes or quotes. They aren’t trying to convince you a character actually sucks, or isn’t really as evil as they might seem. And most of all, no one is trying to change your mind or open your eyes. What you see is what you get. No added chatter necessary!

Another bonus here is that there are no spoilers. Well, there might be a few minor ones if you start following all your favorite reality figures on social media platforms and get an update on their love lives and spinoff projects. For instance, if you start This Is Us late, you might already know Jack dies. Perhaps that softens the emotional blow! But you don’t have to avoid timelines for days until you can catch up with the episode. There’s an almost a quaint feeling to Googling a show and finding that the recent results aren’t quite plentiful and you’re… Left on your own! To just enjoy what you watched on screen!

It feels like a return to the good old days when you could retreat to your basement and pop in a VHS you’ve never seen before. It’s that distinct feeling of discovering a cult movie, one you’ve never heard a friend or a critic discuss before, just a brand new treasure for yourself. And then you watch it again, just to be sure. There’s something intimate and personal about it, especially today in a world that can feel awfully public.

But watching something just for you, with no intention of your viewing ever having a social component to it is oddly and wonderfully freeing. Go on, try it. May I recommend Made in Chelsea?