Whether it’s a witless show like “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a fun romantic watch like “Bridgerton,” or a drama like “The Morning Show,” our culture loves a TV show. It is an outlet we use when we want to turn our brains off and mindlessly stare at a TV for hours on end, distracted from the chaos of the world outside.
Watching TV used to be a ritual in America. The weekly episodes of “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette,” “Modern Family,” “Glee,” and countless more were reserved times for people to spend together. Television used to act as something people looked forward to weekly, not something they could binge in 12 hours.
According to Carnegie Mellon University, approximately 70 percent of Americans regularly binge-watch TV shows rather than one episode a day, or one episode weekly with friends or family. This binge culture has become more prevalent with the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu.
TV shows made by streaming services will release all episodes of a season of television at once because they know the audience they are appealing to — screen-addicted, instant-satisfaction-needing people. TikTok is a great example of this.
Our society can barely pay attention to 15 seconds of a TikTok video, let alone wait an entire seven days between episodes of a show. This has led to an increase in bingeing, to achieve that instant knowledge and satisfaction of knowing what happens next and how a story ends.
Binge culture was tested recently with “Stranger Things.” The final season of the show did a volume release process, releasing increments of episodes at a time during the holiday season. The first four episodes were released on Thanksgiving, the next three were released on Christmas, and a movie-length finale was released in theaters on New Year’s Eve.
There was a division of opinions on this process.
The show played such a huge role in America’s culture over the last decade that I think it was important for the show to do something bigger than an all-at-once release of the entire season on Netflix. This helped keep up the show’s conversation among its fans. It upheld the show’s popularity and interest, giving the fans more time to sit with the episodes, make predictions for the finale, and grow more and more excited about the upcoming episodes.
While the slow release of episodes was an effective way to keep fans engaged with the show and keep its traction up in the media, the final movie received negative feedback for how it ended the show. This had nothing to do with the release process, but rather the plot of the final movie.
More popular and long-form TV shows should consider ending their series with a movie. It was such a fun thing to watch in the theater with friends and other fans of the show.
I appreciated the slow release of episodes that “Stranger Things” did, and I think more shows should aim to do the same. Not only did it make the show more fun and anticipated to watch, but it also increased the success rate of the show.
Another example of slow-release TV is “The Pitt.” The weekly released episodes of “The Pitt” play a huge role in the show’s success. If all episodes were released all at once, it would bore people and become overall less popular.
The slow release allows its audience to get excited about the next episode as soon as the previous one finishes. It personally gets me through my busy Thursdays, too.
University of Iowa fourth-year student, Gwyn Walters, refuses to watch more than one episode of TV a day because “it makes the show feel less exciting and more like a race to the finish line.”
When I asked peers in my classes if they had watched “The Pitt,” they said they watched it, but not until the entire season was out, and they are waiting to do the same with the current season as well.
Binge culture has been brought about by many factors, but our society could benefit from some patience, even if it’s just waiting a week for an episode of TV. I find the anticipation makes a show better and more enjoyable to watch. People tend to become parasocial with a show, leading to an adverse reaction and maybe even not enjoying the show as much. The slow release of my favorite shows allows my excitement to grow and gives me an excuse to spend time with my friends and family.