As far back as the initial seasons of Netflix’s House of Cards, an episode would end with a cessation instead of a provocation. Creators who know that every episode of their new season will be made available simultaneously no longer have to worry about an artificial hook to keep audiences curious for seven days. Now that the rise of the streaming service has taken hold, binge-watching can positively change the architecture of the television program.
When you watch one episode after another, your sense of a series is actually sharpened – you appreciate connections, subtle themes resonate. Different genres supply different benefits so that taking in a season of a classic sitcom is the viewing equivalent of a weighted blanket while a new drama becomes heightened from one episode running straight into the next. But there are many more that benefit from a block viewing. There are shows I would not binge, such as Mad Men. But somewhere between that level of excess and the repressive old order of same-time-next-week, you can find the middle ground where the experience can be satisfying. The world record for binge-watching, set by Brooklynite Alejandro “AJ” Fragoso in 2016, is 94 hours (with sanctioned bathroom breaks) – his back-to-back episodes included Curb Your Enthusiasm, Game of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica and, by the end, the attending physician had observed a raised heart rate and acute hallucinations.
Why should the audience be denied what we want? Reaching the credits of an episode and watching the autoplay function kick in, so that the next instalment is mere seconds away, instils a delicious moment of anticipation.
Watching one episode after another, until we’re either satiated or the well runs dry, frees the viewer from decades of constraint that stretch right back to the 1950s, when the weekly episode formed a standard that eventually became stifling. Craig Mathieson presents the case for binge-watchingīinge-watching a television show is an act of liberation.