The One with All the Netflix

Abstract

Workplace lawsuits bring work cultures into view by writing into the record what usually “goes without saying.” This essay examines a lawsuit filed by Canal Productions against an employee over “bingeing, loafing, and theft of time,” as well as a counter-suit filed by the employee, Chase Robinson, claiming she only binged the television show Friends while falling asleep at home. Using these suits as its case study, this article points to the methodological and political challenges that are raised in asking how, where, and when an alleged binge happened. First: In the moral and political economy of loafing, what kind of loafing is it if someone binges television at their office desk? Second: What does sleep do to accounts of bingeing? Nair argues that Robinson’s binge-sleep-stream was generating value for Netflix, for the showrunners and stars’ residual contracts, for Canal—and for her.