TV's Bingewatching Model Is...

On the rise of single-day TV releases, cultural oversaturation, and the Dracula fan project that might help a bit. Let Audible help you discover new ways to laugh, be inspired, or be entertained. New members can try it free for 30 days. Visit audible.com/sarahz or text sarahz to 500-500,
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[@ManCarryingThing]

This video inspired me to read the Pickwick Papers as it was originally intended: huddled over a cast-iron stove, waiting for father to come home with a cooked goose, and dying of a now-easily preventable disease. Thanks Sarah!

[@SarahZ]

Always happy to help!

[@darthmalgus786]

The goat himself

[@allot5530]

I just imagine the father reading the last page of the book to his lost child grave That never got to finish it Then breaking down crying at their grave

[@aazhie]

@@allot5530 damn that hits tho

[@UnreasonableOpinions]

Turns out it was originally titled the Pickwick Porpoise but they couldn't hold the dolphin still long enough to write it down.

[@lightsideofsin8969]

I'll say one thing and one thing only: BBC Sherlock's fandom had way too much time between episodes. So much time that they went crazy with theories.

[@raymcgregor1783]

Honestly I feel like it was bad for the writers as well? Too much time to read internet theories and try to dodge them.

[@camzoman]

@@raymcgregor1783 Are internet theories something which should be dodged? It seems like the writers of Sherlock decided that, but I think that a mystery having enough clues that some fans are able to solve it is a big plus. It's less surprise for those guys of course, but they also get vindication that they managed to figure it out. It also adds rewatch value since all those clues are more obvious in hindsight for those who may have missed it the first time.

[@IAmTheUltimateRuler]

maybe it's nostalgia goggles, but I look back at the post s2 hiatus as a great time to be a sherlock fan. there was so much enthusiasm and speculation about how he survived - I remember one tumblr post pointing out that the show had turned its audience into detectives. It makes s3 such a bigger slap in the face tbh

[@lightsideofsin8969]

@@camzoman it felt more like it made people hail the show runners at genius when that's absolutely not the case. A lot of season 3 and 4 was plot twists for the sake of surprise and not anything that brought the story along in a satisfying way. It was years of waiting for a slap in the face.

[@LadyGameProfessor]

@@camzoman - Agreed. I don't think creators understand that fan theorists actually WANT to be RIGHT. There is an excitement to figuring out a mystery that these showrunners perpetually attempt to deny fans because they prioritize the need for twists and surprises - even if it destroys the show for everyone.

[@Uneclipsed]

Sarah Z: "Unless you're one of the those freak hermits who goes out of your way to avoid using twitter..." Me: **sweating**

[@arthurr.r.lucasspublicdoma5621]

I guess I am one of those freak hermits.

[@kashiichan]

freak hermits (affectionate)

[@dorrud]

Yeah I felt called out too

[@DeaDiabola]

Freak hermit gang

[@a.captiveaudience]

Havent been on twitter at all and I never will 😌

[@canderizzo8261]

I was actually discussing this with a friend in regards of Stranger Things season 4. As much as it annoys me that the last two episodes will be released in a month, it gives people who don't have time to binge watch it a chance to catch up before the big showdown without getting major spoilers.

[@holeblocker]

Cynically… I believe Netflix split up the seasons of all their Major shows (Stranger Things, Ozark) to slow down the masses leaving Netflix

[@WarlordM]

@@holeblocker can't even blame them, they invented binge so they're fully entitled to kill it slowly or quickly

[@graciemarshall0]

also to prevent people from just signing up for a free trial, binge watching the show, then never paying for it. to be honest, it’s probably just for the money, unfortunately.

[@kilimanjaro5537]

@@graciemarshall0 hmm, good point 🤔.

[@finleysmurflton4851]

BEFORE THE WHAT?! BRO SPOILERS

[@saulwiner2999]

Adding on to this, the anime community has a concept called "Netflix Jail" - when an anime is picked up by Netflix for international publication they often hold the entire season back until it's been aired in Japan and then translated/dubbed before they publish it. Many good shows have suffered for it and it's only been recently that shows like Komi-san have started to escape that. They primarily suffer because the social aspect of anime discussion ties *heavily* into the seasons that anime air in Japan alongside weekly discussion of the new episodes. When a series falls into Netflix jail it makes it so that the international viewers cannot take part in the weekly discussions without pirating the episodes. Mother's Basement has a video published a few years ago on this subject that people who enjoyed this might also want to watch.

[@MiloKuroshiro]

Netflix is killing their Anime releases. When it's not Netflix Jail, we have Stone Ocean dropped in a big episode block and then nothing. It killed any hype and engagement. No staying power

[@lucasmilone5902]

@@MiloKuroshiro and that’s not even mentioning the terrible quality of their translations and signs

[@chuckbatman5]

@@MiloKuroshiro I kept thinking about Stone Ocean as this video went on, particularly when Sarah talked about the window of time between seasons of shows being and feeling longer when everything is dropped at once. If Netflix had released those first 12 episodes once per week, the gap between "Part 1" and "Part 2" of Stone Ocean would still be ludicrous, but it would be like 10 months instead of a whole year. I don't think Netflix is entirely to blame for this, something has to be going on behind the scenes that explains the massive gap between these releases, but Netflix's binge model of dropping shows has exasperated the problem and killed any discussion Jojo Part 6 could've had even while it was still airing new episodes weekly in Japan.

[@justhereforcats9183]

@@MiloKuroshiro Jojo fridays were an event, like a weekly holiday of discussion, memes, hype and engagement, and they killed it. Now we have to wait until fall for the next batch, people will talk about it for a couple of days and then back to waiting again for months. I'll smash something if they butcher sbr the same way.

[@Asummersdaydreamer14]

Thanks for sharing this! I knew this was a thing, but did not know there was a term that succinctly describes the social inertia that some anime go through. Not sure if this is too unrelated, but this type of situation reminds me how I need to see if there is a fan GoogleDoc on how to register for this one Mandarin language site since a S2 of a donghua is going to drop later this year and I don’t know if I can wait for Netflix or maybe even Funimation since they control the sub & dub versions rn, respectively lol

[@anniejankovic8056]

I find a lot of the binge shows also end up "trimming the fat", so to speak, with things like silly episodes or character driven pieces outside of the main narrative. Not every show needs it, but sometimes I'm watching something where the pace just feels relentless and I'm like, "can we just take an episode to breathe?" But when you release it all at once, that can often be seen as just wasting time

[@BlaineTog]

Conversely, the arbitrary runtime of streaming-native shows also leads to the opposite problem for individual episodes, where they end up with unnecessary longshots at scenery, or they'll just stretch out scenes of characters looking at each other just because they can. They have plenty of time for artsy nonsense but no time for fun, because filming your characters just staring is Artistic and cheap, while filming a beach episode is "dirty fanservice" and requires its own budget. Restrictions breed creativity.

[@hyenaedits3460]

I feel like Stranger Things REALLY would have benefitted from those kinds of episodes because I feel like Will and Robin got shoved to the background. Although that might be homophobia.

[@zephaniahgreenwell8151]

You can always take a break. No one is forcing you to watch the whole series at once. You can pause mid-episode.

[@BlaineTog]

@@hyenaedits3460 I don't think that's really a fair assessment of Will and Robin this season. Will's been a little sidelined, but that's a consequence of being part of the D-story. Mike and Johnathan have been just as sidelined while the three of them deal with stuff out west. The happenings in Hawkins, Nevada, and Russia and simply a bigger deal right now. Will also already got two seasons of prominence (albeit he was physically absent for most of season 1) so with a cast this big, it makes sense to reduce some characters' roles in some seasons. As for Robin, I have actually really enjoyed her scenes so far. She's not gotten a whole lot of development for herself but she consistently makes herself heard whenever she's around. I love her, "I kinda know what I'm doing but obviously not as much as these other people who've done it 3 times so far but I'm trying my best and doing pretty well all the same"-energy. That said, if we don't get some kind of closure with her crush on Vickie during the epilogue, I will cut a bitch at Netflix.

[@ddjsoyenby]

agreed.

[@Princess_Weekes]

The Green Mile is one of Stephen King's best novels because it was written serially, but because of that it has such good energy the entire way.

[@bbear2695]

did he write it that way or just release it that way tho

[@ddjsoyenby]

yeah.

[@MisterCasket]

@@bbear2695 I was buying those real-time back then. As far as I know it was not entirely written yet. The releases were very far apart, and irregular, not with a set date. It was pre-internet, so the next chapter was just 'suddenly' there in the bookstores.

[@dylanrodrigues]

@@bbear2695 I’m pretty sure he intended for it to be a serialized, “chapbook” format from the very start.

[@kereminde]

@@dylanrodrigues That is what I recall hearing about when it was being advertised in places...

[@eliwithluv]

this really makes me think back at when Wandavision dropped in 2021. I didn't realise why I loved it so much until I realised it was because it was a weekly event. Everybody was talking about it, speculating and rewatching. Every week I would meet up with my friends to watch the new episode together and then we would just hang out and talk about our theories. As someone who doesn't really remember a time before binge tv it was such a nice experience to have what seemed like the whole internet obsessed about the same thing. I really don't think it would have had the same impact on me if it had been released all at once.

[@wesreleases6346]

The combination of a mystery with the format of an evolving sitcom felt tailor made for a weekly release. The story wouldn’t have been the same without it.

[@Dr.ghostbuster]

I honestly wish it was released as a whole. The mystery wasn't that much of a mystery to me. I just wanted to see the order of events. Not really interested in the mystery because for me it was obvious. The finale was underwhelming but cool as well because to me it was a spectacle but the effect the end had on me was just underwhelming to me because she turned to magic because she is the strongest magic user. The weekly release of shows is good if it pays off, and if it doesn't then it's a giant waste of time. It's not just the hour of television a week lost but also all of the conversations about it and online conversations about it. This is me personally. I didn't find talking about it fun. Especially in my circle when people watched it, they dropped it just as easily. They didn't like the layout of the show and how in the beginning they dedicated it to the history of television.

[@sylvy16]

i had kinda the opposite effect. since i was very into all the potential fan theories and marvel was hyping the series up with every week having more world changing events, i was extremely tired by the time the finale released and it left me so dissatisfied, especially because i was so invested in it

[@neonradius]

@@sylvy16I second this. It made me enjoy the show more at first because I was theorizing so much, but all that buildup meant that I was way more let down by the ending. The weekly format led to me getting more invested, but being more invested in something means there’s a bigger letdown if the ending doesn’t hold up (especially if the reason you liked the show was because it was a departure from the usual superhero formula, but ended with a very formulaic superhero ending and if the resolution to one of the biggest mysteries was “oh they just got this actor to mess with Wanda and the audience there’s nothing else to it” but I’m not bitter or anything)

[@emelinering1656]

This newfound desire for serialized fiction reminds me of Wordle being such a phenomenon this year. I think the hype around it would have died down a lot sooner had it not been released only once daily. It created a culture around where everyone who played was on the same page with one another. There’s certainly a lot of enjoyment to be gained by not being able to binge on a good thing!

[@chuckbatman5]

And there's always other websites to binge those kinds of puzzles if you want. I never thought of Wordle as an example of "serial" content, but it REALLY is

[@AlexHider]

Funny story, I had to unfollow Sarah’s Twitter because I was so fn sick of wordle all the time 😭

[@QuinnArgo]

And, even though I got out of it quickly because I'm simply too stupid for it, there was this urge to play the next one. But instead of being allowed to play 50 games and then quit forever, wordle required me to remember to come back the next day, and in the meantime, why not guess what the next word will be, and why not come up with a strategy already, etc

[@alisaurus4224]

I still wish you could play previous puzzles, not just the one every day

[@suddenllybah]

It's kinda funny, because Worlde's format already existed for Roguelikes like Spelunky (the HD version).

[@Chemist_Tea]

As a cosplayer, the way media cycles very quickly has made it almost impossible to cosplay anything popular. If I like a character from something popular, it's almost certain to have completely faded from public consciousness by the time I've finished making the costume. I know this isn't a huge deal, and cosplay is about the love of the character and not popularity, but it's still very frustrating

[@erikdaniels0n]

As frustrating as it can be, if you love a thing, you should continue to cosplay it, popularity be damned. Chances are, even if much of the general public has moved on from it, there’s still a sizable fandom or following that will love the cosplay content

[@UnreasonableOpinions]

This sounds sarcastic, but genuine question: why does it need to be a thing the general public knows? 90% of cosplaying occurs in fan spaces, the exact places where the people who were affected by a show and do remember it well are going to be. At a convention or show, there's going to be people who do remember the thing. Is it important for your enjoyment or for professional reasons to be widely-recognisable while in costume?

[@paleimitator6474]

@@UnreasonableOpinions i think a big thing is that, if someone is attempting to make a career online out of cosplay, it's important to have characters that the algorihm recognizes & will actually promote. cosplay as a hobby is definitely more personal and "intimate" if you will, but cosplay as a career has higher stakes & honestly less creative freedom

[@dreamyful]

@@UnreasonableOpinions The real answer is most people doing cosplay these days are doing it for the clout / social media fame instead of a genuine love for the fandom/characters. Sucks

[@colinmiller6649]

This is why I have so much anxiety about what to cosplay when I do due to the short love I have for projects before moving on to next media

[@LowUpsideCJ]

I think an important aspect of Breaking Bad blowing up on Netflix is that it was very difficult to watch past episodes elsewhere. The show was a critical darling but unless you had been in on it since episode one of season one it was pretty inaccessible (through legal means). So the binge of it on Netflix was in a lot of ways only ever used as a portal to catch up out of a desire to watch it serialized. Very different than later streaming binge shows where the “goal” was to start and finish ASAP. Personally I’m glad prestige tv is returning to a more serialized structure

[@wisco9er536]

You've guessed it! The Last of Us has been thriving thanks to this

[@zombietrash416]

yea i watched the first episode the night it first aired then forgot to watch it the next week so i stopped cuz i didnt wanna only watch it sparaticly.

[@charlsreyn]

Friends got added to Netflix when I was in high school, and I remember there being this weird thing where a lot of us were watching it, many for the first time, and everyone was at different places in it. I've never seen so many watching so much TV all at once. But even though all of us were watching it, we couldn't really discuss it at all with each other because everyone was watching it at drastically different paces.

[@Gemnist98]

That’s definitely a weird feeling. I watched Friends on my own time shortly before it moved to HBO Max, and because I invested myself in the fandom (and had already been spoiled on many of the major plot points) and watched the whole show over half a year, I was able to appreciate it significantly more. Even now, three years and several other sitcoms later (Friends kind of started a “sitcom trend” for me), I can still vividly recall many jokes and plot lines, even more so than sitcoms I watched far more recently; only The Office and Community have managed to have that much staying power for me.

[@kevinholmes1048]

I was also in highschool when friends came out. Once a week for several years, so I was also in Jr high and college. Every week at a precise time I had to be home to watch. It's interesting to me that newer generations don't have that now. There were a lot of big shows where it was like a watch party for 30% of the country and you just knew who in your life was getting the popcorn ready just as you were also scrambling to the seat with family or friends who came over to watch it together. The next day if it was good it might be the topic a few people talk about or half the country. Literally huge sections of the country would experience some important stories at the same time and have conversations in their lives with all kinds of people about it for days sometimes. Like the first time a big show everybody watches is going to admit a character is gay, or addicted to drugs. These big sweeping societal conversations. There were only really 4 channels most people got at the time, and only two were usually any good at one time and then one was PBS which had a variety of public service content from bob ross to sesame street to Cosmos. Sorry not sure what my point was you just got me rambling in old person. I think it was about how your experience reminded me to share the extreme of when TV made us feel connected.

[@Tashax405]

That's funny, I was a teen as it was airing week by week on Friday Eve and you had to watch it or you were going to be left out of conversations on Monday back at school!

[@i8dacookies890]

I think there was a film theory episode about this and there was some studies that showed that what leads to the highest enjoyment was the happy medium of a single episode a day.

[@dsc9894]

I’ve always felt that makes the most sense. Realistically, most shows aren’t going to be thought provoking enough to keep you thinking about it for a whole week, but doing one a day means you at least spend some time thinking about it rather than going straight to the next episode

[@Avi2Nyan]

An episode a day is just perfect 👌

[@smeatar]

I haven't seen that video but I was going to say that people should stop trying to pick one extreme or another and find their goldilocks zone

[@TheGeorgeD13]

That’s what my parents do every night. They figured that shit out years ago. Watch an episode of a charming British mystery show and then off to bed.

[@hailey7871]

@@smeatar This! If you don't want to watch it all in one day, don't, but don't get in my way of doing it

[@esthershi]

Another example: shows like Lost absolutely thrived on being week-to-week. The very nature of that show relied on people having discussions about it while it was airing. It was The cultural event in 2004-2009.

[@antoniospappas2575]

OTOH it would have benefited from the cohesion single-day TV releases can bring and not have such a wild last season.

[@hrd2h1t]

Gravity Falls was sooooo fun in that aspect, there were so many hints and contradicting theories

[@esthershi]

@@antoniospappas2575 Definitely agree in that sense. Older TV shows suffered heavily from fillers, and going on for way too long. But I also think that sometimes the experience > pure quality. Its monumental impact on TV was partly thanks to how it was released, even though I wish it wasn't so messy in the end.

[@AJratcliffe]

Season 1 of Homeland was so good, purely because of the speculation between episodes too

[@kells4315]

I agree for viewership number purposes and for cultural significance, but actually I watched Lost all in one chunk for the first time this year and ended up loving the last season much more than any of my friends who watched it as it was coming out. People had way too much time to try to think about what the mystery could be that they ended up being majorly disappointed in what actually happened. I didn't have time for all that part so I was super into the ending they chose.

[@tamaravsthevoid]

I have to say, the way you referenced/explained the plot of Breaking Bad without risking demonetisation was absolute perfection.

[@munstify]

As someone who sometimes engages with fandom, I think the binge model has made it harder to get involved just from an interest standpoint. I'm less interested in writing fic for a fandom where the entire thing is immediately available because it feels so temporary overall. When a show comes out week by week people are looking for fan content to tide them over during the wait, but when everything is resolved in the show all at once, a lot of people don't feel the need to seek out fic unless it was an intellectual property that they really connected with for other reasons. It's hard to explain. I just know that I've never felt the need to write a fic for any show I've ever watched that released all at once and then I binged it. It's just not enough time to connect with something in that way.

[@gloop7458]

I always connect more with series that release all at once and focus on it better. When it's serialized, I tend to lose interest before the conclusion or forget what has happened so far while it's still releasing (even things that release serialized that I'm interested in, I wait until the season conclusion and then binge it on my own) I don't typically rewatch stuff unless I really like it, so unless the serialized media is really good, I'm not going over it again But also: I'm not much of a fandom person. I only like it in very confined cases. (1) I feel the media is lacking and want to see fanfic authors fill the void. However, this only really exists in a realm where the writing is good but lacking, because the media's writing tends to impact the fanfic author's writing. It's a very specific middle ground that I've only ever had MHA fall into. I also only ever like fanfics for the purpose of expanding on the original work in interesting ways. Anything that isn't canon compliant isn't really my cup of tea (2) I'm completely done with my analysis and feelings about the show and want to see other people's analysis and feelings about it. This can only ever happen when the show is completely done. There is no new season. There is no epilogue. There is nothing left (except maybe unrelated spin offs that don't really impact the original series if you don't want it to. Think of A:TLA and LoK) I don't like speculation on what's to come or seeing analysis before it's done because I want my experience to be MY experience (3) Fan artists are cool. Although, I generally only go into fan art/edits when the series is done. It's a nostalgia journey I watch a lot of Sarah Z's content because I like learning. (Hell, I am basically the personification of hidden talents) She brings up stuff I don't know about and makes informed arguments about them, which is cool, mentally stimulating, and refreshing. Even if I don't agree with her 100% of the time, it's nice to have something to think about and I respect her opinions. It's also just hard to find long form content that isn't about petty drama I would also watch long form content about sports if it had the same amount of care and accessibility put into it (guess I should preface that the only thing I know about basket ball is ball in other team's hoop gives points plus team with most points wins and my knowledge is similar on other sports. I'm just not interested) That and the only social media I'm really ever on is KZbin so it's really easy to dodge spoilers Its just different strokes for different folks

[@ukchanak]

This is actually what i realized recently. I haven't felt into fanfic writing for a long time and i thought it was me! But i think it's the plot being too tight because they don't serialize and I'm binging stuff

[@flatline-timer]

I intentionally stagger my watching over a few weeks because I get burned out, but that's it for me. Probably because I don't engage with fandom much.

[@rimurutempest4945]

Arcane for me was the best blend of binging and weekly. It was sectioned into 3 arcs of 3 episode each, with each arc telling it’s own part of the story. So there was enough content to bing each week while also having enough to fuel discussions.

[@milkfries]

That is exactly the strategy shows use. Release a couple of episode each week, so that you are content after watching it but still excited for next batch of episode to come.

[@Hyperversum3]

I mean, it's almost as if it is a perfect middle ground between "1 a week" and "BINGE ABSOLUTE CHAOS". I personally like to watch single episodes of some series, but I like to watch some one after another if the plot is very dense and full of connected interactions. Arcane is a perfect example of this second situations and why releasing all episodes together would have been bad. C'on, you can't binge episode 3 and 4 together. 3 is meant to be a climax.

[@mikvance]

You nailed it.

[@salthesteamengine]

i… watched arcane in one afternoon

[@Volvagia1927]

Yeah, Arcane was smart. To make a food metaphor? Most serial binges: Hey, bet you won't choke on the world's longest string of spaghetti. Arcane's release format: Here's three normal length strings of spaghetti. Episodic show binges: How many chips do you feel like today?

[@robotrain1607]

I'm really torn on how I feel about this sort of thing. In general, I'm bad at sticking to schedules, so I fall off weekly shows pretty easily (even when I like them). On the other hand, I _absolutely_ understand binge fatigue. I'm the kind of person who will finish an entire box of candy or pint of ice cream if you put one in front of me, and I'm often the same way with media. When I got into _Doctor Who_ in high school, I watched the six seasons that were available on Netflix in six days. As a consequence, I feel like I've registered TV shows as "a huge commitment" in my brain, which might be why I watch so few of them.

[@amarachiisaac9420]

Same. I never finished Hawkeye because I fell behind and didn't feel like catching up. Same with Wheel of Time. And I tend to watch the first two episodes of a tv show and never return to it so I feel if I don't watch it all at once I won't be able to complete it.

[@GoofRebelMusic]

I love a good binge. But, prob only because it's rare a show is that compelling. I actually really like to watch lots and lots of just pilots. But, if I really enjoy it I'll keep watching it.

[@justas423]

I feel like this is an ADHD thing, but I ain't sure. I say thus because I have the exact same problem. I was watching Firefly (something that isn't even being released on a weekly basis), but when my pace dropped off, I just sort of stopped watching the show.

[@thylionheart]

I feel this. The number of cable shows I’ve dropped because they went on winter hiatus and then I could never get back into the rhythm and pick it back up

[@kuman0110]

this is so me

[@sallylee4924]

Couple other intersting case studies: 1. With Arcane, Netflix kind of did an in-between thing and released 3 episodes at a time. Since 3 episodes form an arc, it captilized on being bingeable while building up some hype with anticipation between drops. 2. In Revolutionary Utena, repetition of stocks scenes and images is integral to one of the central themes of the show. If the show is binged, the repetitions get really difficult to get through. The weekly release format makes each repeated scene feel more significant and thematocally relevant.

[@PrettyTranslatorSarahMoon]

Mother's Basement first brought this concept to my attention a while ago and after some thinking, I think binging is good for shows you've already seen, and a daily or weekly release is good for shows that are new to you.

[@disasterdrvid]

This is actually something that's come up when I talk to a lot of my professors (film major w emphasis in screenwriting and critical studies). One of my professors--a former Disney employee--noted that as television has become increasingly less serialized, film has done the opposite. So while you see television become far more self-contained as a result of season drops (like you pointed out, 13-hour movies) film has become serialized as a direct result of a sequel-saturated market. Infinity War is basically the example everyone gives, where the serialized nature of the series means you'd have to watch every film to understand the full plot and the cliffhanger resembles a season finale more than anything else. There's a swap happening between the two mediums and I think this can explain why people are drawn to serialized film despite all the issues things like the MCU represent.

[@WakiTheCroc]

As someone whose only prior experience with MCU films was the GotG movies, I went along to see Infinity War just to see what the hype was about. And yeah, it didn't connect with me at all because I didn't really know most of the characters and the film didn't really do anything to introduce them, it just kind of assumes that you're super familiar with every single thing all these 50 different characters have previously done. I'm sure Tom Holland is nice but he did absolutely nothing worth speaking about in the entire movie, yet still the film clearly expected you to have an emotional connection to him. I didn't end up seeing Endgame, had no interest in it. Just feels really weird that we have this MASSIVE SEMINAL BLOCKBUSTER FILM that is getting all this talk and hype online, and you go see it but you literally get nothing out of it because you were supposed to have studied all the relevant material beforehand. Like look at older "sequel" films. Stuff like Indiana Jones, you can pick out basically any film in the trilogy and get a pretty good idea of what's happening and be invested even if you haven't seen the others. Simple, self-contained setups and payoffs. Meanwhile film and tv media is devolving into an "extended universe" culture where EVERYTHING has gotta be connected, from major plot threads and character arcs to cameo appearances (and don't get me started on cameo appearances - I think the pure idea that films and tv series are just instantly made better because they include a character name that fans can recognise is seriously detrimental to the medium. I don't want to watch the Kenobi series because it has all these sneak peeks of "ooooh here's a character you know from the films but in a DIFFERENT TIME!", I'd want to watch a series that had self-contained plots which deal with a guy learning to live in exile and stave off Jedi hunters or something, and actually critically examine the Jedi philosophy that landed them in that situation.) and it kinda sucks.

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

I had this issue with the last James Bond. I was used to every episode being self contained, and not having seen any of the other Craig era Bond really let me on the dark.

[@k80_]

BBC Sherlock was kinda both. Essentially a mcu-lite style series where you get 3 movies every 2 years. The show would probably have been better if they approached it as a cinematic universe style movie series with characters in common instead of a tv show with an overarching plot. Not that it would have been “good” this way, just that it might have been better if they didn’t try to fence sit

[@Member_zero]

Yeah it sucks. Every movie now a days must be a series. And everything must have it's "verse". Every blockbuster that does not become a franchise is not a blockbuster. And the worst thing is they get remade within a few years of each other. New director comes along and boom, lets reset Spider Man. Nolan's Batman was good. Let's remake it again a year after the trilogy ended with origin story again. Because of this everything blends in, movie space is oversaturated with sequels and remakes, and I don't even know what is canonical anymore. Which Batman is the "real" one? Nolan's? Burton's? Or perhaps Snyder's? Or, maybe you are like me, and prefer the goofy Dozier's version with Adam West. At least with that one you knew you were getting into a series. I miss the times when movies were just movies, and series were series. One lends itself better to go watch with friends in the theatre, and the other is better to watch at home. Ironicaly, somehow we ended up going full circle. To a time back in 20's and 30's when TV's weren't a thing and people had to go to the theatre everytime they wanted to see the next 20 min episode of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. Now that was some BS!

[@jeffbrownstain]

This is literally the only argument that anyone has ever made in the history of every universe that justifies saying the MCU movies are anything close to 'good'. When you start thinking about it as a reversal of cultural norms, it's actually kinda cool.

[@ONCEFORVER12]

I’m always torn about binge watching… on the one hand I hate cliffhangers/having to wait for the next episode. But on the other hand, binge watching each episode back to back lessens the impact of plot twists and makes the show last for way less time.

[@TheMysteryDriver]

Netflix doesn't even cliffhanger most episodes of the show. I'll tell you the most obvious able to see the difference is watching Longmire. The way the episodes hit and end from AMC to Netflix are really telling in the way writers and producers know people consume series.

[@EmmsReality]

You forget more of it also.

[@fimmliam]

What I usually do is I stop watching the episodes on the middle. Usually they have this rest moments when the action slows down because the tension of the last episode's cliff hanger is resolved and the next tension is yet to occur. It's not a perfect approach as sometimes you will forget important information but it lessens my stress

[@pureorangeness]

I hate watching shows that were built for binge watching because you can always tell that they’re purposely leaving stuff out of the first few episodes to stretch it out for later. You don’t have to turn every movie idea into a show, just please give me a complete story every episode

[@siener]

We usually stop ten minutes into a new episode to avoid the urge to binge watch

[@charlotteforte91]

I felt the downside of binging with a friend from work and The Witcher. When I found out she also enjoyed the show I got so excited because season 2 had just aired and I had already watched it so I REALLY wanted to talk about it with someone, face-to-face like I used to as a kid, but then she told me she hadn't watched it yet and she has such a busy schedule she probably wouldn't until much later, and it was... kinda of a big let down. It's no big deal obviously, but it made me realize how much I missed the weekly format. It's actually one of the reasons why I only follow two or three shows tops these days, whereas when I was a teen I followed like ten of them at the same time. I just don't have the energy, time or patience to watch SO MUCH DAMN binging anymore.

[@BoiFluffyFurry21]

Well sure it can have its downside. I personally find the streaming show convenient because, I don't have to worry about missing the show when it aired live, and I don't have to worry about the time it airs because work. Example I'm very busy and the show I love so much airs at my working time. When I get back I might have miss the episode, and can't watch it again. Atleast for streaming services, I can watch without worrying about missing out on it. As for watching with friends, we can talk about the free time we have or watch it on the weekends. That way both of us wont miss out on anything.

[@Lawnie]

One issue I have with serial fiction is that as an autistic with ADHD, I have to be in The Perfect Mindset to watch new content and that's not always the date or even the time that a piece of serialised content is coming out. I remember when I was into Doctor Who, I'd never watch the show on the day it aired: I'd watch it on iPlayer in a rush before it disappeared the following week. It's less of a problem if the archive is still there, but with shows getting taken off Netflix and the like, it's difficult to find myself in the correct headspace to watch a weekly show as it comes out week to week and you never know when it might disappear. That's why I like just re-watching KZbin video essays over and over again. My favourite form of binge-watching is sticking on something really old and unimportant, like Kitchen Nightmares USA, and watching that in the background.

[@beansiemcgee]

I am the same way. It becomes less of a binge and more of a comfort sound sometimes.

[@quincyquiz]

I'm autistic and I feel the exact opposite - to me binge stuff is too big of a commitment at very random times, and you have to basically dedicate an entire day of you life to it to not get spoiled, even if you're not particularly in the mood for it, while I love the routine of week to week episodes and they often just end up as part of my routine, and if I'm not in the mood for the show that day I'm only behind an episode so there's less spoilers and its much faster to catch up funny that we have very similar reasonings for our fondness of these two opposing forms of tv show release formats lmao

[@sofiem8936]

Oh god, same hat.

[@rope9568]

I feel you. i always hated serial publication because I can never follow them. So it was on the one hand sad that I started pretty little liars when there were already 3 seasons publicated and I couldn`t speculate with the community but on the other hand I watched it and had fun with it xD So I absolutly get the arguments for a serial publication but I can never benefit from the positive sites so the binge model is the best one for me

[@maevem316]

I have the same problem with keeping up with serial stuff, but I still prefer it despite that. I just can't really stop if I start binging something new (thanks hyperfixation) and then it's over *so* quickly and without me feeling like I ever properly just... took a moment to process it all. It's a very frustrating feeling that, despite sometimes having problems falling behind, I never get with serial fiction. I guess they both have pros and cons, lol

[@Speederzzz]

As someone who has never had Netflix, this feels like some sort of documentary about an interesting foreign culture

[@milkjug4237]

...Is that 9S?

[@Speederzzz]

@@milkjug4237 yes, with a shirt that says "emotional support twink"

[@luisf2793]

Me too I normally don’t watch a lot of Netflix and when I do it’s because a movie I like just happens to be there. Mostly a week to week person and to things that are binge able I usually watch one or two episodes and then wait for the next day. I like to savor stuff I don’t know why

[@bernebelmont1857]

Based profile picture

[@jordanjones8721]

I can’t imagine what a show like gravity falls would have been like if it was released for binge watching. So much of the enjoyment was in deciding cyphers and looking for small details and theorizing. I started to rewatch it recently and it feels so different all at once. Still enjoyable but less so without the fun theory factor

[@Nightthade]

I was literally thinking about how Gravity Falls's release schedule gave it such staying power even now, the entire video

[@vazazell5967]

Meanwhile everyone who never engaged with fandom be like: that's how i saw the show?

[@atticwit2622]

I didn't watch gravity falls until very recently but when I looked up when it was released I was genuinely shocked at how old it was, like I really thought it was much newer because of how much I saw people talk about it even so many years after its release. I think that speaks to how much staying power the release schedule gave it

[@anshagrawal254]

@@vazazell5967 yeah feels weird to read that comment because i didn't have disney tv back then, so i literally couldn't have consumed the show other than binging it years later

[@GoofRebelMusic]

I am about to start Gravity Falls and y'all got me wondering If i should keep it to one episode a week. Or is that only relavent when u are watching it at release and discussing it with people.

[@foxley5374]

This whole dracula daily thing reminds me of when I was originally reading heaven official's blessing, a chinese webnovel that was at the time being translated by a fan called suika. Every day they would upload a new chapter to the google doc and we'd read it then go discuss the new chapter in the (small at the time) twitter community. It was a really great way to read and engage with the novel and I wonder if I would have loved it as much if I'd binged the whole thing or read it as several longer books. Now the series is getting its official english release and suika is the official translator which is an amazing conclusion.

[@juniawetmann1311]

I think something interesting to analise about binge watching is anime. Anime fans still have a tendency to follow weekly releases and tend to like accompanying the four yearly seasons while discussing and making content between weeks. And I think Netflix is losing public by not understanding that. There were some good anime they licenced to foreign distribution that went completely under the radar bc by the time they released it in one batch months after the Japanese release people had already moved on to the newest season and didn't pay much attention (and some pirated to watch weekly since a lot of those released weekly in Japan)

[@thetaarakian]

I guess I just never used the binge format for actual binging. I prefer the binge release schedule cause it allows me to set my own schedule and pace for watching the show. Want to watch one a night after dinner? Fine. Watch one every couple of days when I find time? Also fine. I think a mix of release methods are just fine. I know many these days that simply wait for seasons to end before watching the show so they can set the pace.

[@icelessgreen6160]

Yep this is my approach to it as well! It works out well for me cos I rarely have the time/attention span to watch more than a single episode at a time

[@Avi2Nyan]

Same! We do one or two eps a night at most and usually there's days or even a week or three in between days of watching, so it's pretty spread out. It's just very nice to be able to pace it yourself. And I'm not really someone who's up to date with all ongoing stuff, I'd much rather calmly but steadily finish a multi season show rather than watch a season and wait 1-3 years for the next. More convenient, no need to rewatch inbetween and no surprising cancellation (or the horrible disappointment that was BBC Sherlock post S2)

[@tempesttossed6029]

Yes. This exactly!

[@davidwave4]

Yeah, this. I honestly don’t have the attention span for an 8-10 hr commitment.

[@dseviour2]

oh so you're one of those functional humans with the self-control who don't go "eyeball dopamine pictures are better than meals and sleep - yes, all at once please".

[@freelancescientists]

I know this was a throwaway line, but hearing Breaking Bad described as a wacky odd couple comedy is absolutely WILD to me.

[@luelou8464]

Most of the cast were known for their comedy work before it was released, and if you just heard the premise than it does sound like a comedy setup. I think it was pitched as a comedy, but they realised it worked better as a more serious show when they got to shooting.

[@freelancescientists]

@@luelou8464 While some of the cast had previous experience in comedy, Breaking Bad has been over for almost a decade and I think we've all had plenty of time to figure out that it wasn't a comedy show.

[@Avi2Nyan]

Yeah, that gag almost killed me, is2g

[@celestee2264]

Lmao never watched Breaking Bad and the joke actually made me go "oh didn't know it was a comedy, cool" until I read this comment

[@Avi2Nyan]

@@celestee2264 beautiful

[@m00nrac00n]

This Video made me feel SO old as a 23 year old who never got into Streaming Services, but remembers the Culture, Relevance and Rise around them. The fact that this phenomenon is already starting to "burn out" (before I even got into it) really shows the acceleration of our consumption. Feels like having missed out on an Era.

[@Bladieblah]

It's one opinion piece by one content creator, these series and services are still very much doing the binge format. This "era" is far from over, you're not missing out on anything

[@societycrumbles]

It's a double edged sword for me. On one hand I like watching the whole season in one sitting cause I don't have the same patience and memory I had at 18. On the other, weekly releases give me time to process what happened, and if I'm in the fandom, I get to see pll's reactions, theories, predictions, etc. and that can be fun too. Sometimes I even wait for a new show to end, so I can binge it in one go. I am tired of keeping up with 10 different shows on a weekly schedule. Back in my high school days when binging wasn't a thing, I had to keep a calendar of all my shows.

[@Prinnamon]

me at 18, already lacking the patience and memory to keep up with a weekly series: sweats profusely this is very true, though!! based username as well

[@TheSongwritingCat]

I definitely enjoy the luxury of devoting my energy to one show at a time.

[@hannahsflahnnels]

as someone who is awful at truly binging things, the k-drama format of 2 episodes a week works really well for me. there's enough time between episodes to process each one, theorize about future episodes, discuss with friends if they're also watching, etc. but i can still remember everything that happened in an episode by the time the next one comes out and episodes come out often enough to keep my attention (and if i do fall behind, i don't have to rush to catch up)

[@bixiella7830]

i was looking for comments about kdramas!

[@chuckbatman5]

Yeah I think 2-3 episodes a week works really well as a release format. I've ended up watching certain shows this way just based on the time I have available to me, for example I only watch Succession when me and my friend have time to watch it together meaning we would watch 2-3 episodes at a time spread out by a week or more. Sarah talks about the show in this video as an example of a show more enjoyable to watch weekly, but I think binging that show a few episodes at a time gives you enough content to not be craving for more while also not feeling the slog of a weekly episode where not as much happens.

[@Dolphinhi2]

I wish I could live watch kdrama more bc I love reading the episode discussions on reddit but every time I live watch the drama ends up being disappointing :/ (looking at you king the eternal monarch)

[@Asummersdaydreamer14]

Heck yeah, I was looking for a kdrama comment. Business Proposal was my comfort watch for Spring 2022, and the weekly fan discussion really made it a more engaging experience.

[@charlsreyn]

I have to say, watching Asian dramas, which so rarely will drop an entire season at once, has really been nice for how I've been able to discuss them with other people online, especially since there is often a show that everyone seems to be watching. I remember when Start-Up was airing and absolutely everyone talking about who they thought the female lead should end up with.

[@just-a-random-person-on-utube]

I thought Arcane's 3 episodes-a-week (which is probably the ideal model for me) strategy was Netflix starting to move away from the binge model, but I guess not...

[@chuckbatman5]

I think it was more a testing of the waters and a lot of people, myself included, didn't hear about the show or end up picking it up until after it was all already aired. Hopefully Season 2 of the show (whenever that comes out) airs in a similar format and Netflix can see that this strategy works if you actually bother to market the show.

[@Swordprincess777]

Even with Arcane though, I feel like the plot itself was definitely catered towards the binge model. Absolutely no time for simple character interactions or slow moments, no "fat" if you will, which left a lot of characters without any fleshing out. Like Vander, Mylo, and Claggor. I was already sad about what happened, but I would've been sadder if I actually got to spend more time with them. The kids especially had like 3 scenes and we barely got to see their real dynamics. Like, how is Vander with any of his kids other than Vi? Is Mylo ALWAYS mean to Powder/Jinx, or were there times they'd get along, like those siblings that are always mean to each other but will throw hands if someone tries to pick on their sibling? Or Claggor? He spoke like, twice. A lot of stuff is largely left up to interpretation, which can be cool if it's not literally every possible interpersonal relationship besides Vi and Jinx. But we never really get to see any of it.

[@just-a-random-person-on-utube]

@I don't Know honestly based on the way the show was promoted (heavily by riot and less so by netflix, from what I've seen anyway) that seems possible.

[@BambiLena666]

@I don't Know I think this was a Riot decision too. The season is split into 3 acts of 3 episodes and thats how it was released. As far as I remember it was marketed as releasing Act I first.

[@SoulDevoured]

​@@Swordprincess777 tbf that may be riots fault. it took them years to fully commit to the show and then were very uncertain about it. many things released alongside the show flopped. many of their experiments flopped. and fat/filler is already not something seen as desirable in media.

[@Skelepun]

As an icelandic person who read my grandmas old Dracula as a teen, I was really confused years later when I read Dracula in english for my english classical-literature elective.

[@Freffs]

I like that Stranger Things 4 has split itself into two "volumes", it kind of gives it the best of both worlds of binge media and serial narratives. You get a big chunk that you can dive into and feel satisfied by but then you also get the suspense waiting for the next part. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up seeing media adopt this approach more and more.

[@hannahbun]

That's what I think should become the new standard. I don't like serialization at all, but I agree with some critiques of a full season being dropped at once. Splitting seasons into two or three volumes with a month between seems like a far better system.

[@0oidiedinatimemachineo024]

When entire series started getting all released at once at first I thought it was cool but nowadays I legit find myself missing shows that are just released weekly and more episodic shows and all that.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

One of the things Prime gets mostly right. Drop two or three episodes so people can decide if they like the show up front, then weekly releases for the rest of the season. Although, they could stand to do more than 8 episodes per season..

[@adrianhv3083]

Same with Disney+ It's also a good move for them (the companies), as it ensures their shows would stay in the public conciousness for longer and people would talk about it for way longer. I doubt that something like Wandavision would have had even half the impact it had if they just dropped the entire season at once and called it a day

[@vanessar.6085]

Having the series released all at once kind of killed my memory, to be honest. I can't remember characters names and don't bother to, because I'm just going to finish it in a few days anyway. If I wanted to discuss anything, I had to ask what episode people were on and found myself saying "I'm not there yet" if they were ahead of me. It disengaged us. I miss weekly releases and discussing shows with coworkers or friends and asking if they saw last night's episode. I love some Hulu series due to that. there was a delay.

[@arthurr.r.lucasspublicdoma5621]

@@Jane-oz7pp Seriously, why is practically every TV show/streaming series released nowadays only has 8-10 episodes.

[@maybehere_]

very surprised you didn’t talk bout euphoria. since it aired every sunday it was trending every week while season 2 aired, keeping it in peoples minds for a whileee. and even creating an event around “euphoria sunday.”

[@augustlunaonline]

I thought of euphoria as well! I think those weekly episode airings helped keep it in the public’s minds longer, too!

[@dawnofthefairies]

Sarah hasn't watched euphoria and knows 0 thing about it

[@yourresidentanon4169]

And then immediately after it disappeared from everyone’s minds.

[@okate251]

@@yourresidentanon4169 two months of staying power is more than other shows though.

[@davidalexallen]

I'm only about halfway through, but your discussion of "processing and examining new experiences together" really reminded me of the HP fandom back in the day, when the books were still being released. The whole reason HP meant so much to us back then was the community, and the community spent its time parsing the books for clues, discussing theories, writing and creating content for each other. What made HP a phenomenon was that community, and the ways we all interacted and built each other up. It's very hard to describe what it felt like back then, but this video brought it back up in my mind. I can't imagine if something like that was made today, dumped all at once on Netflix or Prime or Hulu.

[@mr.hidden9242]

Binge-watching is a blessing for folks like me who can't seem to catch these shows when they first become popular, but want to absorb it all later without having to wait for reruns on cable TV. I really think the binged shows are in their infancy, and as time goes on, show makers will get the formula closer to right, with an interesting experimental period happening in the meantime.

[@katherinemorelle7115]

As someone who reads very quickly, I find having to wait for the next instalment in an ongoing series to be extremely frustrating and basically unbearable. Because you wait a week, fortnight, month whatever for this update, and it’s gone and done in two minutes. It’s not worth it. It’s why I wait until the entire thing is finished, and then I read it in one go. I don’t think it counts as binge reading. Just normal reading.

[@michaelbodell7740]

Waiting a month would be a dream scenario in some situations: George RR Martin and Patrick Rothfuss's ears are burning. I was waiting on Wheel of Time to be done before starting and Robert Jordan died before finishing (from a readers POV sort of the book version of show cancelling - although obviously much worse from a human level) with Sanderson finishing it sort of like a Netflix revival for books. I similarly had read A Game of Thrones but was going to wait until the full series was finished before continuing, but once HBO was going to be doing the series, I knew I needed to read the books to stay ahead of spoilers - but we are still waiting for the books to end (and hopefully better than the TV series).

[@samuelray7271]

I feel that an alternative thesis to this could be: our collective attention spans are short enough already and digesting a show through serial episodes might make for a more mentally healthy way to consume a drop of the ocean of content at our fingertips

[@SomeDudeQC]

Only read half your comment. Too long.

[@TwelvetreeZ]

A pecularliarly British example: The Archers is a BBC drama series about farming that's been broadcasting since the 1950s, and it's one of my mum's favourite shows. It's serialized as 15 mins episodes that tackle one day in the life of ordinary farming folk in a fictional village, Ambridge. Things happen very slowly, and the events of the shows are usually 2-3 months behind the real world's time line, so you can listen to the growth and changing fortunes of several families over many years in almost real time. The only time I personally got invested in it was a few years ago, when they had a domestic violence plot line that aired over the course of about 18 months. It allowed them to explore a lot of the nuances found in abusive relationships, partly due to the format. It also generated a shit ton of media discussions about domestic violence, emotional abuse, and other surrounding issues. It was kind of fascinating (and horrible) to listen to how Helen and her young son made it out of her disastrous marriage to Rob as it happened over a year and a half

[@rileysoflesbian1471]

This perfectly explains why I love some of my fav shows Take my favourite: The Owl House It's been a weekly release whenever a new part of a season. It's a constant of plot threads, mysteries, representation and amazing characters to the point "TOH SPOILERS" was trending every week because of how well handled the shows structure is for a constant lasting mystery! And that all culminated last Saturday with the season 2 finale that was so huge and amazing it got The Owl House number 1 trending in the US

[@ShadowMewEmberX]

I agree! Love this show to bits. It'll be interesting to see how engagement changes since season three is gonna be so different, format and release-wise.

[@somebodynowhere]

While I dont have a problem with binging in theory the amount of shows I've watched over the course of a couple sittings and then have been forced to wait a year or more for the continuation(if the show gets another season at all) can be really rough. You touched on it but wanting to talk about a show that dropped all at once that you're still in the middle of but not wanting to risk spoilers is also something I really don't enjoy.

[@jaybee4118]

Why are people so much more bothered by this with TV than with serial movies? Maybe it’s because I grew up with British TV that had average series of 6 episodes, but it never really bothers me waiting for a year or more.

[@socialistbatman1211]

I could never relate to this. I only consume media if I know what happens beforehand and I don’t have to wait for all the episodes. Which is why I could never watch live sports

[@Jane-oz7pp]

And the fact that people have to publicly broadcast key moments over the internet the day things release has genuinely made me just not watch several movies and shows because... well why watch something if I already know everything that happens?

[@socialistbatman1211]

@@Jane-oz7pp complete opposite for me. I hate surprises.

[@somebodynowhere]

@@jaybee4118 I don't like the wait but the uncertainty of an additional season that can come with it is what can make it especially bad. I don't follow the industry closely so I often don't about a follow up until Netflix adds the info tag about a new season or shower thoughts make me remember a show and I look it up to find it was cancelled

[@InfiniteAnvil]

I think the rise of serial fiction podcasts was enabled by so much of TV moving to a binge model. There was a week-to-week itch that people wanted to scratch, and since fiction podcasts were/are dominated by indie creators who don't have the resources to create a whole season at a time, the serial fiction fans moved to that medium.

[@TrulyMadlyShallowly]

I believe there was a step in between: length. People were used to length of series - as opposed to movies. Podcasts were originally 'supposed' to be twenty minutes and ep, according to common wisdom. All the serialized podcasts broke that model, and they could because people were used to it.

[@killthelynchpin977]

lol and i'm the person who waits to build up episodes then listens to a bunch in a row. time, man. i have so little of it.

[@ya9thelatinogringo]

@@TrulyMadlyShallowly are they tho? Sure the daily is, but the world's most famous podcaster makes 3 hour long episodes. All the podcasts I listen to have 1-1.5 hour long episodes

[@BiggestCorvid]

I believe we all love serialization. We love tearing a page off a desk calendar and seeing a new day. But you can also read ahead, and I always read ahead. Exhausting resources as rapidly as people will let you to are maximum short term profit is what a toddler does when they eat all the cake and demand more. Capitalism wants us miserable and exhausted.

[@TrulyMadlyShallowly]

@@ya9thelatinogringo No, they're not, that's my point. People are very willing to listen to stuff way longer than that.

[@Sirvaria]

Honestly being in a fandom that is getting serially released episodes right now, this video really resonates. There is a staggering amount of fan content and discussion happening each week, with so many interesting meta observations that i am honestly blown away. I really didnt think fandom could be this way, it really does feel like a huge community discovering new things about our media of choice every day. I also think it has much bigger reach like this, since each subsequent episode leads to a spike of content and discussion, which in turn broadens the fandom's sphere of influence. It's the kind of exponential growth you would expect from any good series, the only difference being that it never can sputter out as long as the show is still airing. As soon as the frenzy dies down it inevitably gets resurrectef again. Not to mention, the kind of depth that i can see being analysed right now also feels like something that could never happen with a binge release. Why would you ever go through each minute of every episode with such a fine toothed comb if you can just watch the next one; or concentrate on the most cinematic ones. But with a serial release you really have a lot of time to discover nuances you would otherwise overlook.

[@lordoftheducks332]

I’ve been downright obsessed with Dracula for almost 3 years, and when Dracula Daily popped up, I had a… truly comical amount of people who know me as their “Dracula friend” individually sending me messages asking if I’ve seen what was going on over on tumblr. I had. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’d been dealing with generic Sparknotes memes or stuff about the Coppola movie (which I fucking despise) for years, and people were finally being funny about my favorite book. My favorite part of the Dracula Daily phenomenon was that I was able to find other people like me. A bunch of people were waking up, looking at tumblr, and suddenly seeing that their hyperfixation was suddenly relevant, so I very suddenly had access to a community of people who I could share research with and joke amongst ourselves like “wait until they see the cowboy lol”. I also love how accessible the book was becoming. I have ADHD, and it was actually pretty difficult to get through my first reading of Dracula. It’s a thick book, all those words can be overwhelming, so the fact that there’s only a single, easily digestible email that doesn’t feel invasive in any way meant that a lot of people were finally able to read Dracula, and more importantly, they wanted to talk to me about it. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that Dracula is my only hyperfixation that I didn’t initially experience in a serialized format. The other two big things for me are What We Do in the Shadows and Our Flag Means Death, and I watched both of those as they were released week by week. I like being able to watch things in chunks and talk about those chunks with people. I also like having time to actually process whatever I just watched instead of immediately moving onto the next episode. Seriously, I’ve been made fun of quite a bit for how I’ll watch and rewatch the same episode of a show over and over and over again while waiting for the next one to come out.

[@kashiichan]

It's honestly incredible how goddamn refreshing the OFMD fandom has been.

[@RariettyC]

OFMD's (or just HBO Max as a whole's) release model of 2 or 3 episodes per week of a show over the course of a month is a really good in-between of the binge and weekly-release models imo. It allowed episodes to build into each other in little arcs that feel more substantial than single episodes alone, which really helped emphasize the character and relationship development that was happening across them. Still, it also encouraged creation, discussion, and speculation among fans in a way that I've rarely seen in any recent first season of a show, and it allowed the final two episodes to hit harder due to everyone reacting at the same time (and that extremely strong, positive word of mouth from that finale is the reason why I personally decided to watch the entire show the day after it ended, as the reaction invaded my social media TLs in a way very few TV shows in 2022 that I don't watch do). The fandom will also likely continue to thrive during the hiatus between seasons due to being conditioned to wait and speculate. Even though I binged all the episodes at once, almost 3 months later, I'm still invested in the fandom to the point of reading fic, which is a level of fandom investment I haven't occupied in years, and that's at least partially because the fandom is still just as excited as they were almost 3 months ago. I'm so excited about the idea of watching season 2 as it gradually releases so I can continue contributing to the ongoing hype.

[@bernebelmont1857]

Hating the Coppola movie is great and perfect

[@settheworldonfire94]

When Disney+ started releasing the Star Wars shows on a weekly schedule, it reminded of how much I loved and missed the serialized approach. I remember going into school eagerly awaiting my freshman biology class because my teacher also watched Lost and we’d theorize together each week. I also like having something to look forward to each week. It just makes getting through a tough work week so much easier. I had Obi-Wan on my calendar for literal months as something getting me through the end of the school year, and now I get to have that feeling every week? It’s just nice.

[@jessieFSD]

i feel exactly the same way, i love watching shows weekly instead of binging.

[@lipeeefl]

Netflix killed the hype of jojo stone ocean by releasing a bunch of episodes at once and delaying the rest. A lot of anime are aired weekly and it's pretty fun, some however I'd probably rather watch all at once while others are heightened by being weekly, such as OddTaxi, since the theories discussions on the foruns were half the fun

[@calemr]

I don't think this would be a problem if they went the other way, either. Drop the whole Stone Ocean arc at once, or go weekly.

[@AL2009man]

@@calemr just take the Arcane approach by releasing two or three episodes per week and you get the balance of "weekly discussion" and "binge-watching".

[@blazinghen]

@@calemr Definitely. I genuinely don't understand the business logic behind what Netflix did, either. They could've easily just released weekly and had more success.

[@magnetsonfridges]

Someone else that’s seen OddTaxi oh my god I love you

[@duane6386]

The worst part is that batch 2 is in the fall

[@shari4756]

I love how a story about an Icelandic fanfiction of Dracula turned into a sponsorship for Audible. Peak youtuber

[@thekaticorn99]

it's not fiction, but i think youtube videos are another example of serialized content becoming more popular. a lot of creators take weeks or sometimes months to release a new video, but because they make really interesting videos they are able to build an audience of people who anticipate what they will make next.

[@honscha]

for me it depends on the length of the season. 12 or less episodes? Weekly release is way better, I love reading episode discussions online and antecipating the next episodes. More than that? Way to much antecipation for a single season makes me start to forget to watch the show or just get bored with it, ending up binging the rest of the season when it's released. Also love the 3 episode release weekly from Arcane. Each 3 episodes were cleary meant to be watched together and it hit perfect spot between binging and weekly release.

[@ojshrimpson9184]

I agree with this sentiment completely. The more episodes there are the harder it is for me to stay invested week after week. With the contrary being true as well, the less episodes there are with a longer gap between each season fizzles out my interest.

[@Pinkbunniebabie]

I think arcane did releases so well! The 3 episodes was enough content to keep me feeling satisfied the entire week and having the releases stretched out made me so incredibly hype for each week I was truly losing my mind every Friday

[@adam.maqavoy]

@noot noot Sus (someone) Links A Domain Site, in The Comment Section

[@samkathryn4825]

I totally agree about Arcane. I actually think its release was the perfect format, and the way it was written for that format helps with rewatches, too. The episodic-ish elements of each episodes lend well to pacing oneself, the lack of cheap cliff hangars makes it easy to wait a day or two between instead of binging while letting the characters and story be so good you won’t just drop the show or forget it, but it flows so well and builds on each other that it could be binged. I’ve seen it multiple times: once with about three episodes at a time, once as a binge, and once as self paced with about one maybe two a night for a week. I wish more shows would do that because more episodes means more to talk about and a generally more satisfying viewing experience while not dropping them all at once allows people to theorize and drum up buzz.

[@gracefullynadine864]

Honestly I feel like anything more than 12 is too much, more than that and you get so much filler

[@neverhowever3231]

i have ADHD, so honestly binge watching is a boon for me. every time i try to watch a show weekly i fail. it fades from my memory after the first two weeks lol.

[@MsDiving1]

I also have ADHD, and that sounds like what would happen when I was trying to keep up with too many different shows. When I dropped it down to only shows I was really engaged with, I had waaaaay fewer shows, but the ones I watched I had no problem watching weekly, and enjoyed much more because I had the space and inclination to fixate on them a bit (the other side of ADHD, for those who don’t know).

[@neverhowever3231]

@@MsDiving1 lol i wish i could pull that off. for me it's like there's just not enough material to fixate on with one episode at a time, and my brain goes loose and moves on to something else. even with bingewatching i probably only end up watching three or four shows a year, and i won't even start one if it has more than 2 seasons.

[@lucasmilone5902]

Interesting to see how anime and manga, which have been growing exponentially more popular over the last couple of years, both usually release in a serialized fashion.

[@bretts7072]

Didn't even realize Tiger King got a season 2... Also totally agree. A lot of new shows meant to be binged end up feeling simultaneously rushed and yet individual episodes can feel bloated.

[@alexreid1173]

Tiger King was so weird for me because I felt like the only person that knew who Carole Baskin was long before it came out. I could never watch it fully because I knew Big Cat Sanctuary does great work, and I knew roadsides zoos (yes, all of them) are notoriously abusive and awful. For these reasons, I am very happy it died out fast. And I’m happy Joe Exotic is still in prison where he belongs.

[@victoriangm7774]

I never liked Tiger King. That fact that so many people watched Tiger King and the only thing they got out of it was "fuck Carole Baskin", to the point where that was a meme for ages, just proves how rampant misogyny still is.

[@curlycrown3494]

@@victoriangm7774 OMG YES finally someone with my experience- I was baffled and grossed out everyone kept talking about Carol instead of that trash bag of a human Joe Exotic.

[@_kirb_]

Same. Like. I looked into it too. Turned out there was a billionaire showrunner on board that lowkey had an agenda against her (involving his own for-profit endangered animal breeding) and so many layers of shady stuff involving everyone else that I'm incredibly confused how people managed to fixate that much on Carole or completely smear or belittle her efforts.

[@jaycievictory8461]

You see this in fanfiction, thinking about it. The stories that are updated weekly as opposed to all chapters at once get so much more anticipation and love. Maybe we get spoiled/a little complacent and therefore less engaged when the whole thing is available en masse

[@duskianfae]

I think it has more to do with time and commitment. I look at a fanfic that is still in the beginning, and I get excited to follow the story in real time. Not only that, but because it's still in the beginning, I can read it quickly, let it simmer, and only have to read it once it's updated. Meanwhile, if I see a fanfic that is already 50 chapters in and has 100k words, I get exhausted before even clicking on it. Reading on a screen is tiring and I have ADHD, so I end up only reading it if it's an author I already like, someone I trust recommended it to me, or it's one of the only 4 fics of a rarepair I fell in love with.

[@Blirre]

I usually only search for completed fics. Ongoing stories frequently get abandoned and anyway even if it does update once a week I'll have forgotten the story details by then and drop off. Actually not unlike TV shows actually as they also get canceled midway and sometimes release the next season so late that everyone has already moved on.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

I just assumed that's because a lot of fanfic is genuinely not very well written and it's easier to see the flaws when it's all laid out in front of you at once. That's usually been my problem, anyway.

[@jaycievictory8461]

@@Jane-oz7pp Sorry to hear that - I've read a lot of amazing fanfic :)

[@HolyGoddessMotherAnne]

I've given up on AO3 as it ain't mature enough for me and I ain't in the mood to jump down the timeline tbh bud, I might write fanfics in private but otherwise no I have lost interest in AO3.

[@moonie1488]

when euphoria season 2 was airing weekly i remember just seeing everyone on twitter or tiktok talking about it making memes of what happened this episode. if it had released all at once this charm would’ve… never existed, you made me realized

[@ethanomcbride]

In the 80s “Dallas” was the most popular American tv show in France. My high school French teacher told me that when she lived there it was the only reason people knew what Texas was to the point that people would ask her if Texas was *in* Dallas the same way Americans mix up Paris & France

[@TheNiamhish]

I find weekly shows really hard to maintain interest in. Most of the time I stop watching for weeks at a time before remembering I like the show and then binging all the episodes I've missed. I also find weekly shows have fandoms that are harder to enjoy because fan theories get popular and eventually the fandom devolves into complaining that the show isn't going the way they want and by the end of it all half the fandom hates it because the show doesn't resemble the version they made up in their heads and it's just frustrating to see.

[@pretelquetzal]

Agree. I'm more of a movie person

[@grandkhan9261]

Yeah same. I just like to set my own pace, one or two episodes a day, I find it a good way to stay engaged while still not watching all at once

[@sunyavadin]

Or worse, they actually retcon the show on the fly as they are producing new episodes to *incorporate* catering to a bunch of fan theories which the earlier ones spawned, at the cost of tonal and narrative consistency.

[@grandkhan9261]

@@sunyavadin Or the opposite, trying to subvert fan theories and expectations (*cought* got season 8 *cough*), at the same cost

[@CraftsmanOfAwsomenes]

Plus if you never cared about fan discussion all of that extra stuff is meaningless to you. Personally I can space out shows that are dropped all at once on my own.

[@mariaochoa4745]

The thing with binge watching is that it allowed me to finally finish a show. I used to watch a bunch of shows on cable but for one reason or another I never finished. Besides up until a few years ago you really couldn't avoid spoilers if you lived in any other part of the world that wasn't north America. Some cable channels will air some shows the next day but unless it is some mega cultural phenomenon you are screwed. Though you are 100% percent correct that the staying power of binge shows is considerably lower. You can see it in the drastic decline in quality and quantity of fanfiction as more time passes between seasons, you no longer get episode x fix it or speculation between episodes but really whacky speculation about the next season and increasingly stale aus.

[@mariaochoa4745]

What I'm trying to say I guess is that binging is ruining fan fiction God dammit

[@gemstone108]

I think it all depends on the fandom. There will always be new fans who come around to a certain thing and have their own spins to put on fanfiction! One would think streaming services would keep a show/movie MORE relevant in a way, since things never go off air like they do on cable 🤔

[@mariaochoa4745]

@@gemstone108 But they kinda do go off air in a way, it's a two year hiatus in some cases. From what I've seen it becomes A Thing for at most two months, it permiates to other stablished fandoms in the form of aus of that show, that it dies out until the next season. Those few that remain are really hardcore fans with a serious case of hiatus brain and weird parasocial relationships with the actors.

[@gemstone108]

@@mariaochoa4745 I don’t know any fans with parasocial relationships. Those are weird imo, and I don’t follow things where the actors are that important to the enjoyment of it. And I think a lot of the few that remain I was talking about are seeing it for the FIRST time, after the initial hype.

[@dovefilms]

Finally got around to watching this video and oh my god, *this* is why I've never felt I've been able to watch shows recently! It's honest to god been really hard for me to just sit down and watch something-the only thing that I had a decent time watching was The Owl House. I binged season 1 and the first half of season 2 in two days. And it felt.. ok? The show was good, I loved it, but it didn't stick out. I just moved onto the next thing. Then I actually took part in the fandom with the weekly releases of the second half of season two and oh my god I barely even realised how bad I missed the sense of community that came with serialized television. The excitement, the speculation, being able to actually BREATHE and take in massive plot twists. I do not know how I'll go back to binging after this

[@ShadowMewEmberX]

Same here with the same show! The Owl House has thrived on this weekly release format because there's been sooo much to discuss and theorize about between eps. My gf teased me for getting super into it, but I really think it's because getting that chance to not only watch the show but analyze it between episodes has given me a whole new way to engage with the media. It'll be interesting how season three goes cause of the immense change in format- long episodes with long amounts of space between them.

[@skadoosher7747]

On the hand there's the opposite effect of a binge release, the hiatus. If you've been around the community of a normally weekly release show when its on hiatus its crazy. Everyone's neurotic, the fan theorys become insane it is fascinating. The one I remember is Steven universe, who's fandom had near constant hiatus brain.

[@nicksvitak5416]

As someone with ADHD who physically cannot binge, I've always hated the rise of binge culture. Even when I'm able to force myself to binge something (not even that much, usually a 12 ep 20 min series in a couple days), I completely forget it within a week compared to if I had watched a couple episodes at a time and took breaks

[@captainChernihiv]

I've adhd and I'll forget the show exists if I have to wait for new episodes. Most serialized stuff I've watched in my life I never finished.

[@j-skullz]

With adhd I find my taste can change so rapidly I likely won't be interested in a new season of something a year or whatever down the line. That's what happened to me with stranger things, I had a mini obsession with it for a couple weeks where I watched the first 2 seasons then by the time the 3rd season came around I just didn't care about it anymore

[@okayokayfineilldoit]

Yeah i dont really have the “H” part so for me if i cant sit and binge something its a goodnight cross for that. The only time ive finished week to week series is missing several episodes and then binging a couple at once anyway, or if somebody else was maintaining the routine

[@Zelda00Gamer]

I’m the opposite. My adhd means if I start a show I WILL finish it that day. I’ll stay up til 5 am if I have to. I can’t NOT finish the show. My brain hurts if I try to stop. So if I see a show I think looks interesting I put it aside until I have 12 straight hours for viewing lol

[@deaf-tomcat]

Hulu used to do this like 48 hr free trial, and they were the only ones that hosted Community (in the US) at the time so I binged all 5 seasons straight. like, I didn't get any sleep because i was trying to get the most out of my free trial binge. and I promptly forgot everything lol.

[@Igorcastrochucre]

I still think we need to explore streaming models more, I believe there should be a middle ground between Netflix's "let's drop hours of content at once" and Disney's "Let's make exactly 6 weekly episodes, so people can't use the free month to stay in the inevitable discourse".

[@kashiichan]

Our Flag Means Death released a few episodes per week over a period of weeks, which I thought was an excellent middle ground; enough for a little binge, but not so much it became tiring. Plus you could still speculate and discuss with other fans.

[@FloodclawKupo]

There's an interesting point here concerning Star Trek: Picard - it appears to be written in a way consistent with how you describe a show that is written to be bingewatched, but was released on a weekly schedule.

[@sharkofjoy]

I found season 2 difficult to follow for this reason.

[@honestlynotarobot2285]

The discussion about webcomics was greatly appreciated - especially as that landscape TOO is often being prioritised into "binge reading episodic" updates by the big webtoon (scroll down comics) platforms over individual page updates of webcomics. There are a still a lot of hobbyist, indie and publisher groups who still go to serialised page updates with all the pros and cons as you mentioned but accessibility wise? The two biggest free comic hosting platforms to date firmly push for binge reading updates or "episodes" from their creators, whether paid or for free. It is great for instant gratification as you pointed out but also pushes pressure on creators to work FAST to keep up (contracs vs algorythms) which can affect quality (depending on their workflow, obviously.) Binge vs serialised both are double edged sword in any creative pursuits, epsecially where money is involved, it just depends on where the story's heart is: both require skill in the execution to pace the story well for any media and we can just hope that companies don't continue to milk "binge media" as a quick cash initiative over a legitimate story telling structure... *eyes on netflix and webtoons/tapas*

[@marocat4749]

Yep thats frustrating, and fan tranlations cant make up for that either. And som big actual top before kubera that, wasnt ell tranlated, and translations generally , and now its not?! Also it really prefers certain trend motre than others now. Sorry rant she is actually, ut too good to beneglected but the platform, not having translation test reader aside, that would do it or free, its frustrating. And not helping and pressuring creators, and not supporting them.. And its really bad if they hav a stopry thats a thriller but like cant read further because. wtf.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Finally, a KZbinr I follow is talking about Dracula Daily. It's quite the experience.

[@jaycievictory8461]

She talks about it frequently on her Tumblr too 😁

[@Zetaphor]

"...one of those freak hermits who go out of your way to not use twitter..." There are plenty of us who simply don't use or care about it, and feel as though nothing of value is lost. Recall the recent article about how 97% of tweets are created by only 25% of users. Twitter feels like a big deal because it's very loud, not because it's actually the center of culture that it thinks of itself as.

[@tommaso6392]

Yeah also I don't see how Sarah's old videos could push me go view Twitter as anything else than a hellsite

[@anniejankovic8056]

I think it was a joke because Sarah rarely uses Twitter, or at least has taken long breaks

[@rozalynnchesebro9480]

Emily is right; season 4 of Arrested Development is very much "good, actually."

[@user-dt2uv8ej2i]

Before Netflix I couldn't get into any series at all: my adhd simply wouldn't let me remember to tune in every week at the exact same time to watch an episode that i then would have to remember for a week, or, if it's the end of the season, for like a whole several months. Binging or soft-binging is the only viable form of watching long series for me, to be honest

[@StormBurnX]

As someone whose memory is literally not good enough to be able to enjoy watching television when it's split up into weekly or hell, even monthly, segments: I'm really curious to see where this video goes. Personally, I find that movies are much more enjoyable to watch because they are one coherent experience; similarly, web series that are made with binging in mind are often written the same way, one cohesive flow from episode to episode, and I appreciate that greatly. It can be almost physically painful trying to binge a television series from a decade ago, where it was actually written to be watched in bite-sized pieces spread out over a period of time; I'm thankful most modern web series / Netflix / etc are not written that way, it makes enjoying them so much better. Anyway, time to watch the video lol. Gonna binge the whole thing in one sitting instead of splitting it up into 12 segments a week apart.

[@_anon_does_art_]

Lol my memory literally isn't good enough to process binged media, and needs the little chunks to be in any way interested by a show, we could cancel each other out

[@thepinkestpigglet7529]

ADHD brain forgets the show exists until I've missed an episode and I log onto to KZbin to see some video with a thumbnail of the main couple kissing fir the first time

[@keishaelyoni]

I love that Netflix's drop-all-episode at a time system allows people to watch series at their own pace. What I hate is being involved in the fandom of said content or simply being online forces me to finish it ASAP (even when I want to slow down) if I don't want to have the plot ruined. Due to sooo many people already finishing it in like 24 hours within the release and circulating spoilers.

[@GoldieSC]

I prefer week to week tv, but binging has it's place, especially for things like true crime series. I need a Sarah Z Tiger King video though.

[@RegsaGC]

This made-to-binge format explains a lot of grievances I've had with some modern shows. I often watch one, maybe two episodes at a time, (got stuff to do.) and I can definitely feel how some shows can't work this way. The weak and nonsensical cliffhangers, the boring filler episodes. Shows that are vacant of anything other than allusions to the overarching plot. It can really sour an evening to sit down and finally watch a little something, only for that time to be wasted by slow-burn filler.

[@ohcheese]

I think it's interesting you didn't mention one of the largest communities globally that still mostly rely on the serialized model, that have only seen an increase in the recent years - manga and anime. Both release serially, and continue to only gain in fandom, with both industries supporting each other. As a bookseller, I've seen huge growth in our manga volume sales from new anime releases, which is fantastic, considering anime has four seasons annually. Where the bingewatching model helps, though, is having older seasons available before a big new season starts back up, but it only helps the weekly eps gain more traction.

[@sochlorite]

One of the emerging trends for streaming services is the return of the once a week release or hybrids of a few episodes to start then a new release every week. This is likely more to help with churn rates/audience retention than anything else. Disney+ is a prime example of the continued use of once a week releases for new series and Amazon Prime’s and Hulu’s newer original series have been experimenting with non binge drops.

[@sochlorite]

I recently had a conversation with an exec who worked at nickelodeon and cartoon network about the binge models hindrance of building fandom and turning audience into fandom. They had worked for the network when Avatar the Last Airbender was airing and we spoke about how creating that cultural phenomenon in childrens media is much more difficult when you’re not tuning in week to week and talking about it with friends and parents. Just very interesting hearing about the companies’ perspectives on binge-behavior as well as audiences’.

[@stoutyyyy]

I think that’s a good middle ground honestly. And especially because it avoids the downside of traditionally aired TV where if you miss an episode you can’t just go back and watch it

[@lognan]

I know that when the binge model came up in popularity I was ecstatic because (ADHD) I have a hyper fixation thing where over time I lose interest no matter how excited i was at the beginning. Being able to binge watch things actually enabled me to finish them because otherwise i felt it was far too drawn out. I personally prefer bingeing! But if a show is good enough then I will watch from week to week. Most of the time television shows are mediocre and I find them lacking! But it just makes it that much more special when you find a really good show!

[@jasoncole2719]

While I can understand the social aspect of waiting and discussing an episode's release each week, as someone who doesn't have anyone to talk about tv shows with and has a poor memory regarding specific hints or small moments between characters, binge watching is absolutely amazing. The only thing I've watched serially in recent years is Haikyuu, and I had to rewatch the entire season every damn week just to keep the story flowing in my mind. I prefer to blast through a show and begin engaging with the fandom quickly, without having anything spoiled for me.

[@TheSongwritingCat]

I would lose my mind waiting week to week for Only Murders in the Building. When a show has mystery or suspense elements, I need to watch it at my own pace.

[@RonquixoteDIII]

Binge watching feels a lot better during the time but the shorter time spent waiting for each episodes leads to you thinking about it far less. Which means once it’s over you don’t think about it as much, as you would if it was weekly. See why shows on network television have much more dedicated fans than Netflix shows. There’s just way more time to talk about each episode, talk about the story with more people and just in general daydream about what’ll happen next in between the gaps

[@jplayer073]

I see arguments like this all the time but I wonder why it's supposed to be better. Why would I want to spend even more time thinking about movies or shows? It already takes up a lot of my time watching them. I have other hobbies I'd rather tend to. I'm sure marketing departments would prefer me to be engaged with their products for weeks on end, but I don't see the benefit to me.

[@sunyavadin]

My friends and I talk about stuff we binged, non-stop, for MONTHS afterwards. I think it comes down to the individual media.

[@TheMysteryDriver]

@@jplayer073 it's like filler convos at work for most people. Everyone was like ooo tiger king for a few weeks then nothing. But I knew guys that would always bring up the walking dead or sports. Imagine if the whole season of the NFL came out in one day?

[@XMysticHerox]

@@TheMysteryDriver Again why is that better though?

[@dallascoggins1534]

@@jplayer073 Some people like discussing media. If you don't, that's understandable, but other people do. This entire channel is literally dedicated to discussing media. It's strange you are here if you don't like discussing media.

[@duelbraids]

A pre-take: the best TV experience I've had in recent memory was watching Only Murderes in the Building, which was released week to week. I was having such a fun time with guessing with my friends who were watching with me.

[@SkylightCiel]

I'm a binger for life. I just don't enjoy things when they're released weekly. I forget too easily and I always drop off, I understand why companies are moving back to the weekly model but even before Netflix made binge watching the standard I would always wait till whole shows were over to binge them. It's hard to do that these days thought cause you'll 100% get those shows spoiled if you don't watch them weekly.

[@hyenaedits3460]

I generally prefer weekly shows but my life gets hectic and I can't always keep up with them so I end up binging most things :/ I think there's room for both but I think there's an inordinate amount of binge shows.

[@kashiichan]

Our Flag Means Death released a few episodes at a time over a period of weeks, which I thought was an excellent middle ground; enough for a little binge, but not so much it became tiring. Plus you could still speculate and discuss with other fans.

[@lemurwrench6344]

I find this ironic because I feel like the biggest thing that makes me forget what happened in a show to be the wait between seasons. I'm convinced the future is weekly episodes year round until the show ends.

[@HyphenatedHistoryUK]

@@lemurwrench6344 you’ve just described soaps lol (at least here in the uk)

[@lemurwrench6344]

​@@HyphenatedHistoryUK Soaps, but with the storytelling quality of prestige TV, & it only goes on as long as the writers want.

[@Denuhm]

As someone with ADHD, I sincerely DO enjoy binge watching. Having to wait for ANYTHING drives me nuts to the point of not engaging AT ALL with media. Just because you all can't enjoy things all at once doesn't mean I am not allowed to Q_Q

[@Denuhm]

Also I had to stop listening to podcasts because of the adds. I would rather spend 2 days downloading and removing all the adds, intros and recaps from media than sit through it or skip it. I. JUST. WANT. CONTENT. ALL. AT. ONCE. NO. BREAKS. NO. SPACES.

[@ellabanchieri8114]

nobody's saying you're not allowed to

[@polygonvvitch]

The weekly release of The Owl House S2B was like the most tense shit in the world. I would've not been hit like a tenth as hard by Hollow Mind if it had just been a tiny portion of a bingewatch.

[@ch4r_]

even after this finale! we all have to wait months for the continuation but people who pick it up after it ended won't get to feel that! kinda reminds me of the wait for amphibia s3 after true colours.

[@fishlordusername891]

HONESTLY. As someone who's watching Owl House, coming out of the downright traumatic update schedule of Steven Universe, it is an actual breath of fresh air.

[@jauxro]

Definitely, this video made me appreciate the theory-filled weeks in between episodes even more

[@pbjmochi8400]

To think there are people out there *cough*my roommate and her friends*cough* who were under the impression that The Owl House is a Disney+ show that updates on the platform in batches every once in a while. I swear, they missed out! I'm SO glad I watched it as it came out. That and Amphibia.

[@sarasthoughts]

Objection: I do in fact love bingewatching. After tens of years of my life having to wait for weekly episode releases, I LOVE being able to watch a story all at once without possibly missing anything. And yes, I also love Dracula Daily (and that hair colour!)

[@marclemieux4902]

For real, saving a show for when you can give it some attention is the best. Growing up when if you didn't drop everything to sit at a tv at a specific time/day and it would often change at the last minute was awful. Netflix dropping Stranger things all at once is fantastic. If you want to ration it out, you can, if you want to watch it in a binge you can.

[@TheAPTGamer]

Same. I don't have the best attention span and watching something weekly feels like a bit of a challenge for me so being able to binge a show is perfect.

[@Obsidian__]

Yeah, I'm not gonna say its superior its just another way of watching. Sometimes with binging you notice little details/callbacks/references, things like dialogue/plot mirroring to contrast or show how alike character's have changed/been hypocritical or are more alike others than they realise.

[@shnoozezzz9752]

i have forgetten the new bettter call saul episode that comes out on tuesday often even though i binged the rest of the show in a couple weeks cause my memory is terrible due to adhd, itr takes explained videos being reccomended to me to realise the next episodes been released

[@sunyavadin]

Growing up without the ability to watch stuff on my own terms without having to set the VCR every week for months and hope no news bulletin delayed it, or somesuch - being able to just sit down and dedicate time to something when I have it available is SO worth it. Able to properly let it all sink in and recognise connections from episode to episode. I literally consider it worth the risk of people talking about plot spoilers to wait until a weekly show has finished airing to watch it and be able to actually enjoy it better. Different groups of people have different preferences in how they engage with stuff, and what gives them more enjoyment.

[@jakematricardi4530]

So I adore Lost because I watched it as it aired weekly for SIX YEARS with my family and friends - I passionately defend the ending and how everyone willingly misinterpreted it to this day lol - and my love for the show was largely because it was such a long-term thing and the never-ending mysteries and unanswered questions didn't bother me because the communal aspect of it (water cooler effect with friends at school the next day, online forums) was just super exciting. I haven't watched it much since, and I doubt I would enjoy it anywhere near as much if I just watched it all at once. I really don't like binge-watching things for the most part and would only smash out a whole show in a week out of not wanting it spoiled/sense of obligation

[@basedeltazero714]

Reality is that the vast, vast majority of viewers will see your series all at once, because they'll see it after it's done. You don't necessarily *have* to structure your show to accomodate binge watching, but it means that your viewers don't have to dedicate time every week, you don't need to compete for time *quite* as fiercely, you have greater freedom in how you can structure things, and more. The fandom, of course, will also follow this model. The most popular fandoms out there are primarily focused on material that is years, if not decades old. And, of course, there's nothing stopping you from watching one episode per week if you really want - see also, Dracula Daily.

[@alien_kae]

I get what you're saying, but my experience differs. I'm one of those hermits that goes out of their way to avoid Twitter and rarely gets deeply involved with fan communities for works that are still airing. I prefer to wait until a series is finished entirely before I start watching it, so that I can watch it at my own pace. I like being able to watch 1 or 2 episodes a day; waiting a week for each episode can be frustrating and lead to losing interest. It also helps me avoid shows with extremely disappointing endings (I'm so glad I waited on Game of Thrones). When I do get involved in fan discussion, I prefer analyzing works after they are complete to coming up with theories about what's going to happen in the next episode or next season. Fandoms of already completed works are less active but often more chill and enjoyable, in my experience. I'll sometimes watch currently airing shows if they're ones I'm really hyped about for whatever reason, but when I do it just reminds me why I like waiting til they are over.

[@UnreasonableOpinions]

I agree entirely. Plus as an added benefit, you can't be horrified by a sudden cancellation of a show or let down by a show suddenly or slowly going bad if it's already over and you know in advance to get off the ride. There will always be people talking about old media, even if you have to dig a little more - or make the right kind of friends. Having other friends who just like talking about film and television in general means that if you've just watched some classic 50s film or series then even if nobody else has actually seen it, you can still enjoy talking about what it did right or pitching it to them.

[@b1zarr01]

The entirety of all of this!

[@quincey5917]

As a rabid dracula fan pre- Dracula Daily, I’m so happy the novel is getting the recognition and speculation it deserves. I’m loving the responses to things I laughed at years ago. Not to mention the dread of tumblr getting its hands on one of my long-time favourite characters and blorboifying them.

[@rosaparks6479]

blorbofying?

[@thatjillgirl]

I'm eagerly awaiting all of them experiencing Renfield for the first time.

[@Vicky-uv8ri]

@@rosaparks6479 A "blorbo" is tumblr lingo for a beloved, but for outsiders unremarkable character. "Blorboifying" means doing tumblr fandom things to them. Fan edits, drawing, canon speculation, roleplay accounts, the whole "Tumblr Sexyman" phenomenon... The list goes on.

[@quincey5917]

@@thatjillgirl hwcjwhd that’s exactly who i was thinking of. they’re going to latch onto him like piranhas, i just know it.

[@najhoant]

That Dracula thing is now also being done as a podcast, ”Re: Dracula”. It’s dramatized readings of letters, diary entries, etc, released on the day the entries are dated, meaning some episodes are just a minute long and others over half an hour

[@rachaelbarnes7093]

I never binge watch shows, instead I tend to watch one each night, that way each day I get really excited to watch it. Especially with shows tending to have longer episodes now, an hour each night feels perfect, like reading a chapter of a book before bed

[@5Amigos32]

If I don't binge watch a show I get bored of it and usually won't finish the season

[@mentallyunstable1926]

what really annoys me about binge watching is that the average length of a season went from at least 20 episodes to maybe 12 at most. stranger things s4 really annoyed me with this since if you split the entire season into 40 minute episodes it’d be about 22 episodes if i did the math correctly. so many shows could benefit from a longer run time (cough high school musical the musical the series) but since now people are used to having 10 episodes a season they’re a lot less common. it was refreshing watching older shows like buffy that had the 22 episodes since they could take their time to develop the story

[@martynkal.1248]

But on the other hand, you have shows like Grey's Anatomy where it has since come out that the 22+ episode seasons had really gruelling schedules for the actors and others working on the sets

[@mentallyunstable1926]

@@martynkal.1248 oh that’s a good point. the health of people on the crew is important obviously so both season lengths come with pitfalls. there’s probably a solution for both i just can’t think of it rn

[@annabeinglazy5580]

Ironically i Had the opposite experience. i stopped watching plenty of weekly shows because i enjoy a good Story Arc and when Shows get shoved into that 22 Episode model, a LOT of it ends Up being fluff. Thats OK for a Monster-of-the-week Format, but If you apply it to literally any Story you come across, you also end Up with Shows that would have benefitted from fewer episodes. basically it's Just: Not every Format fits every Story. I Love Star Trek NG for its serialized Format, but thats because it doesnt have a complex overarching Storyline. Sons of anarchy however, would have felt padded with 22 episodes per season

[@mentallyunstable1926]

@@annabeinglazy5580 i agree a lot of shows are better in a shorter season to cut the fluff but some shows i think do need the fluff like the example high school musical. it would’ve really benefitted imo from a few episodes to just not progress the main plot and develop the characters and their relationships more same for other shows

[@A11sopp]

That's just because more TV is trying to emulate older prestige TV more than anything to do with binge watching. The lower episode counts are so the budget and writing staff don't have to be stretched so thin. It's the same as the reason why British shows are generally much shorter than American shows - they generally have a fraction of the budget and they mostly only have 1-2 writers.

[@Radien]

Whenever I watch a series with other people, I always tell them that I dislike watching more than two episodes of any series within one day. Thank you so much for arguing why there's a logical reason to do this.

[@lazilylapis676]

I feel this so viscerally. I cannot stand the fact that I cannot go online without spoilers for like a week after an entire season drops. My favorite show, Steven universe, had such long breaks in between episodes sometimes. And honestly I found that show in the end way better than most others, because in between all this time I got to actually catch up, and as well, I got to read up on all these theories on what people thought about it. It was fantastic. I love seeing everything every week. Maybe it's cause I am always searching for little things to live for but the week to week thing really, REALLY helps with that too. Anyways totally agreed

[@Rin-og9hz]

My mom told me about how people were having "Welcome Home" watch parties when it was announced that Henry Blake would be going home at the end of season 3 of MASH... And then THAT happened. So many MASH episodes were experimental and/or groundbreaking, and I think it has a different vibe when binging it.

[@lisanne11051]

Oh, wow. I'm picturing those reactions. 😳

[@Raykkie]

Reminds me of how Netflix somehow singlehandedly ruined one of the most awaited anime. Releasing Stone Ocean in big chunks separated by months made it impossible for any form of organic community growth to happen, so instead of continuous discussions and fan creations, we've got some blips of existence before people turn their attention to something else entirely

[@SharpieSkunk]

also they're doing weekly releases in japan

[@TylerW44]

This was the exact same thing that came into my head the instant I saw the title. Stone Ocean is what has completely soured me on batch release. I'll still binge a show after it's over but that's a choice on my end.

[@Planag7]

It's so stupid I know... Or the old Steven Universe episode bombs that came out.... Whenever

[@blueriverbane69]

To me the worst is how they absolutely wrecked the hype Tiger&Bunny s2 should have had. I watched s1 in *high school* and the hype train around Superhero Saturdays was so fun. Then s2 came out in one huge chunk so it felt like people noticed it for a week and moved on. Its not like an S-rank show or anything but a lot more hype could have been milked from nostalgia alone :/

[@GamerSlyRatchet1]

The most confusing part is that Netflix is also doing weekly releases for other anime like Komi Can't Communicate. Why couldn't they do the same for JoJo?

[@zacharywoodman6445]

I also notice, as a viewer, I tend to forget content that I binge a lot. Like by the time Season 2 drops, I completely forgot what happened in Season 1 and have to re-binge it. Then I forget both of them when Season 3 drops. But when it comes out serially, I tend to retain the info better since I'm thinking about the narrative and content all week between episodes rather than for only a few hours after watching the whole thing.

[@DawnOfDragonz]

I definitely think there's a reverse side of the investment, though, of a weekly model... it can feel less intensive, sure, than sitting down and watching a whole season. However, the community you join is also an investment, and that can be tiring in its own way after a while, particularly if it feels like what the show came to didn't deliver on its promises. That is partly why, after wandavision finished, I never really bothered with another disneyplus marvel show. i didn't like how my time had been used getting invested in something, compared to what it had ultimately come to be at the end. but then, that's probably another topic on how the need for quick, deliverable content may have caused some standards to fallen in the industry (since i feels there's a focus on adding NEW content and hoping some of it turns out to be good and liked than giving as much care to making, well, good content.)

[@aterribleperson9119]

the thing about wandavision is that it actually felt like a show meant to be watched weekly, each episode was distinct, most mcu shows just feel like cheaper longer movies where at any point you might randomly have to press next episode.