From broadcast to binge — the changing culture of television

Streaming has made television more accessible than ever, but in the age of binge-watching the art of water cooler discussion is becoming an endangered species, writes Michael Gibbons.

IT’S 1991, and every kid on the playground is talking about one thing: The Simpsons.

I was now living in regional NSW and didn’t all have access to what we called “Sydney channels”, but as the privileged ones who could watch, I hung on every word. channel 10 gave us a detailed description of this great new cartoon.

Fast forward seven years, and the same excitement surrounds an even edgier cartoon show. south parkshown this time SBSIt’s actually a channel I can access.

In these early days of the World Wide Web, television debates belonged in the schoolyard, the lunchroom, and the water cooler, not internet forums. Facebook groups or tiktok They are impressive. Shared experience was part of the appeal. We watched together, talked together, discussed together, and speculated together.

While broadcasting has brought us unprecedented convenience — and I’m certainly not disputing that — we’ve lost something along the way. While binge-watching is great for solo or family viewing, we’re losing the art of water cooler discussion.

Before broadcast, we would often watch our shows at the same time as everyone else, and use the time between episodes to discuss what we loved, what we hated, and what was going to happen next. This gap in availability has helped increase engagement and a sense of community depending on which shows you’re a fan of.

in 2007 (2015 in Australia), netflix He introduced the “Watch Now” service and things changed as a result. There’s a lot to love about a TV show that airs all of a season’s episodes at once. Binge-watching a television series helps retain the narrative, especially in shows with a lot of twists and turns.

Personally, I’m a big fan of binge-watching television series. In fact, I usually wait until the last episode airs on the weekly broadcast schedule before I start watching the latest season.

Both broadcasting methods have benefits in the modern television broadcasting business model. Episode dumping creates maximum saturation over a shorter period of time. of Netflix Stranger Things It has used this method with great success for the last decade, but to maintain excitement, it split the final season’s broadcast into two parts.

The decision on how to release episodes is usually specific to each streaming platform. Netflix and stan They tend to follow the extreme swing methodology. Paramount+, Disney+ And AppleTV They tend to prefer the weekly release model. Apple will occasionally drop the first two or three episodes to whet the appetite for the experience ahead.

A week-to-week stream keeps the conversation alive, encouraging fans to speculate and building anticipation for what’s next. It also helps retain subscribers longer. Since it’s now common for six- and ten-week episodes to be released, viewers often stay subscribed for an extra month or two while waiting for the next episode.

The downside of this is that the audience may become tired due to the long duration, and it also provides more time for critics to pick holes in the narrative. If the show fails, he ejaculates slowly and painfully. Latest series game of Thrones He suffered a little from this.

Growing up, television shows were talked about on the playground the next day, and if you hadn’t watched the latest episode of the show, Comedy Company And The SimpsonsYou felt out of the loop among your peers. As a university student in the 1990s, Generation D Late Show, seinfieldor The X-Files.

I vividly remember sitting in front of a computer at a party in the early days of the World Wide Web, receiving a detailed explanation from the text of the last chapter. seinfield. This will be my first real foray into spoiler culture. For the record, I’m now strictly on the Spoiler-Free team, but at the time seinfield I did not have the same belief or personal investment in the program as a party.

And news of the first few episodes of this ugly series south park word of mouth spread no longer occurs. It was a hot topic that everyone asked: “Is it real?” And “How do they get away with this?”

One of the most successful programs to benefit from weekly discussions, LossIt predates the modern flow. I remember devouring the first three seasons Loss very quickly, but from season four onwards, I became a devoted fan of the weekly briefings that can only be found down rabbit holes on the internet. I loved reading about the easter eggs I missed, like the 4-8-15-16-23-42 number sequence that appeared throughout the show’s six seasons.

I also enjoyed the online discussion boards that explained the meanings of different images, dialogue, and plot points. I had my own theories, but mostly I kept them to myself, I was too shy. I don’t want to look stupid in front of these mega fans.

A few great contemporary examples of the weekly release method are Apple TV. pluribus and Stan’s From. I waited until the week when the last episode aired pluribus Before starting this innovative series. This was great for preserving all the little information that might be important as the story progressed.

What I missed, however, was being able to join the television commentators’ weekly social media discussions on Facebook. instagram and TikTok. When I followed many of these accounts, my algorithm was serving them regularly; This meant I had to be extremely careful when doomscrolling to avoid spoilers. After finishing the last chapter, I went back and reviewed these again, but it didn’t feel the same. It was like I was late to the party or wasn’t in on the joke anymore.

According to Dr. Ryan DoughertyTelevision can reduce gray matter volume; As an academic working in this field, I unsurprisingly refute this proposition. With realm Doing something too much, such as drinking, eating, or spending money. It’s no surprise, then, that the term has become synonymous with watching too much television.

The term “binge-watch” has become so popular that in 2015 the Collins English Dictionary named it after it. Word of the YearThis reflects both its widespread use and a wider shift in attitudes towards television viewing.

Whatever method the streaming giants choose, in this age of accessibility, the power is in the hands of the consumer. Would you like to watch one episode a week? Okay, take one day every week and do this. Stranger Things Day. Want to binge-watch a series so you don’t have to remember every plot point for months? No problem. Wait until the last episode comes out and watch it in one go.

As I write this, I am eagerly awaiting the final episode of season four. Fromcarefully avoid online spoilers before binge-watching all ten episodes over several days.

Perhaps the real challenge for modern audiences is to find ways to recreate the shared experiences that once made television feel like a community activity rather than solitary entertainment.