Binge-watching and overconsumption of media.

[rogueslayer452]

I was directed to a a series of of tweets by James S.A. Corey (the authors of The Expanse series) that happened a little while ago where it's essentially responding to the decision to have the upcoming fifth season be weekly instead of dropping it for binge-watching. And I have to say, I completely agree with the sentiment they're saying here.

While in theory having an entire season released may seem good for people to get as much content as possible without waiting a week for something new, it has, unfortunately, altered the way some people view things in that they expect instant gratification and, sadly, it has affected the way streaming services hold value on said thing. There is a difference when you discover an old show that's already been finished and marathon it at your leisure versus having to binge-watch something in order for the algorithm to count it as something you watched and want more of. Once a season drops, nothing will be said about it for some time because people are still actively watching it, and then there will be reviews and reactions from people for a little while, but then it all but disappears because it's not a "hot topic" anymore. As opposed to weekly television where there is a built-in excitement and suspense every single week, lasting for months, and you don't have to wait around for over a year (or more) for another new season. This isn't really to say binge-watching on streaming services is always a bad thing, but it's definitely not a good measure of maintaining the longevity of a new show that barely gets enough traction because a.) nobody knows a season dropped and therefore b.) it took people too long to notice it, therefore the services deemed it a failure and it gets cancelled. Unless something takes off immediately and gains immense popularity, almost everything else will be swept under the rug, leaving a lot of amazing shows that show a lot of potential without much exposure or attention, and then just lost.

This is why I 100% agree with The Expanse going back to releasing episodes weekly, because while I loved and enjoyed the fourth season it really didn't get much attention as the previous seasons did, it took a while before anyone said anything about it to be honest. This is why The Mandalorian did so well, because people were confused by a streaming service would do weekly releases when they've been so used to binge-watching entire seasons at once, but it worked out well in their favor. People were so excited for upcoming episodes, talking about it online, getting more people interested, it became a success from that anticipation alone. Hell, that's how I got interested in watching because people were gushing about it and the season hadn't even concluded. And it was only eight episodes.

The concept of streaming services and such is still relatively new and we're still figuring things out, but there is something to be said of there being too much of a good thing. Instead of hastily consuming something, we need to pace it out and savor it.

(It's also kind of a way of examining the way our current culture and society is when it comes to fast-paced media, from social media to binge-watching, we're consuming too much at a time when we're not really designed to do that, our brains get overwhelmed by this overconsumption of information and I think we need to retrain ourselves to just calm down.)

Comments

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

It's a tough balance. I think shows are often designed more for streaming these days in that they're less episodic and more one overarching plot for a season. When shows are like that I prefer to watch all of one show before starting another because that helps me not lose track of the plot.

For shows that drop weekly I'll usually avoid spoilers and wait until they're done before I start watching. I can't binge as much as I used to though so that still means I may watch 1-2 episodes a night until I'm done.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I don't have that issue. If I'm watching something that is less episodic and more plot-heavy, I'm still able to understand what is going on even if I'm not watching the episodes back-to-back. Granted, this is also something I learned a long time ago when I used to record shows on VHS tapes, because I can just rewatch the previous episode before the newest episode the following week. Plus, there's always someone online doing episode recaps of what happened previously, in case you forgot some key elements, which was always nice to have to refresh your memory getting into a new episode.

(But this is just a me thing I guess, because it's the same with books, I can read a few pages of something, leave it alone for a while, but then pick up right where I left off and still remember what was happening.)

Some shows are filmed in a way that you have to pay attention to the plot, especially when it comes to streaming services where the temptation is there to basically film your show like a long movie and just release it. But I do find that it can lose traction quickly that way, too.

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

I think I used to be better at remembering all of the stuff but also the shows I watched back in the 90's when I was taping them were still quite episodic. Things like Buffy or Xfiles had a lot of monster of the week episodes. There's an overarching plot or mythology there but it was often easy enough to catch up on it because the shows weren't designed for a time when everyone had access to all of the episodes at any time.

I'll still watch things like Law and Order SVU or Criminal Minds weekly because they're mostly episodic and the bigger plots are recapped enough that they're easy to remember.

I do see that when things are filmed essentially as a 10 hour movie there are issues with that too. It's an evolution of the medium, I'm not sure exactly where we'll go from here but as a TV fan I'm game for most anything :)