Tonight I watched the new episode of HBO's The Newsroom. It's a fantastic show and if you haven't seen it then you need to fix that as soon as possible. Every time I watch that show or my other favorite shows, I feel a sense of longing once the end credits begin to roll. I need to watch the next episode now. Not next week, NOW!
On the flip-side to that coin, Netflix has allowed me to fulfill that longing by introducing full season dumps of their original programming. A few weeks ago, I returned home from work at 10 p.m. and decided to check out the new Netflix series from Jenji Kohan (Weeds) Orange is the New Black. Even though I was dead tired, I ended up staying awake until 3 a.m. binging on the show and spent the following day-off continuing said binge.
This is not the first time I've fallen prey to the binge-viewing of a television show. As I write this, I'm currently in the midst of an essentially full day binge of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the age we're at, where people are, what a radio commercial once deemed, "the new busy", the convenience factor of watching our TV shows when we want is becoming more and more enticing.
We're seeing a decline in cable subscribers and a rise in subscriptions to online streaming services. It seems like every day I go into work at Sam Goody, another customer is talking about how they have cut off cable and subscribe to Netflix and Hulu, while buying the DVDs or Blu Rays of seasons that are unavailable on those services (namely HBO, who still refuse to sell HBO Go as a standalone service or make their content available elsewhere).
You still get people like me, who don't want to wait until the DVD/Netflix release to watch my shows, but I still hate the week to week waiting. I put up with the waiting because I have to, but given the choice, I would prefer to have the full season dumped at once and be able to watch at my own pace.
There are some things that I like about the week to week. It's something to look forward to each week. Many times, my TV viewing schedule is what helps me remember what day it is. This is especially true during the points of the year where I've got something on every night of the week.
The second thing I love that the full season dumps can't provide is the "water cooler" aspect. You can sit with your friends who watch the show the next day, discuss the episode and then speculate what will happen next week. You can only do that with the full season dumps if you're both at the same point, and that's rare. While I was watching season four of Arrested Development, I wanted to discuss it with my friend, but she watched a much faster rate than I did; so what I could only speculate, she knew.
Unfortunately, the "water cooler" aspect is becoming more scarce among the week to week shows as well. Timeshifting, or not watching a show at its broadcast time, is becoming more prevalent with DVRs and online streams (both from the networks and from less than legitimate sources). These days, every conversation about a show seems to start with "are you current?" or some variation.
Now, I can't weigh in on which model of release is better, because that is subjective. But from what I see, we may be moving away from the traditional broadcast methods and watching your shows through the internet may be the way of the future. It remains to be seen though if we would continue to see week to week releases or full season dumps. Until that day comes, all I can say is please, binge responsibly.
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