Which type of TV watcher are you?

The dump

One for the most dedicated of bingers. They are elated that Stranger Things season two is about to land in its entirety and are seriously wondering whether to book time off work to watch it. Only a fool would subject themselves to the outmoded horror of watching episodes week by week when the good people at Netflix have put every episode up so they can check in with Barb right away and commit to it.

This person doesn’t worry about what they will watch when they’ve made their way through the dump, or putting their social life on hold and going MIA while they immerse themselves in it — they are too preoccupied with what happened to Will in the Upside Down.

The slow burn

When you set aside an hour each week for your chosen programme, which you usually watch live, with the nation. Proponents of this method call this time slot The Hour, and it is sacred. The BBC is leading the way in Hour-appropriate shows at the moment with Sixties colonial drama The Last Post, gory Gunpowder and the hotly anticipated Blue Planet II, which kicks off on Sunday.

Advantages of watching this way include being able to discuss programmes on Twitter in real time and have something to talk about with colleagues the next day at work. Love Island showed us how watching like this can bring people together. But really it’s just more satisfying and makes the joy of the show last longer.

Edging it

Like the method above but with more self-control. The show you’re addicted to isn’t on in real time but you act like it is, only watching it for an hour a week. This isn’t because you don’t enjoy it — quite the reverse — this is edging your telly and savouring the drama.

You congratulate yourself on your vice-like self-control but actually behind that smug facade you are terrified of finishing the show because then you will have to make a decision about what to watch next.

Stream if you want to go faster

Fans of cult Norwegian web series Skam, left (which means Shame), will understand this one. You know that feeling when you are in a meeting or Snapchatting a friend and then, bam, you see an alert about an episode of Skam being broadcast live online. You have no option but to drop everything and tune into the show on your phone, otherwise you will be left out of the latest plot twists involving Isak and his James Dean lookalike boyfriend Even (together known as Evak).