With streaming came the ability to watch any episode of a series on demand and a surge in the popularity of serialised television.
This coincided with the rise of Netflix who was built on the model of binge-watching – releasing full seasons of a series all at once as opposed to the more conventional weekly release schedule of networks.
As more streaming services have joined the fray, some have adopted the same approach, some have stuck with weekly episode launches, and more recently some have gone for a hybrid model – launching several episodes of a new season with the remainder released weekly.
Speaking at the TCAs last week (via The Playlist), FX chief John Landgraf says there’s no easy answer and viewer confusion is both inevitable and something they hope to avoid:
“It becomes about really understanding the cadence of consumption by consumers. When they want to watch things, how they want to watch things.
If you’re asking me, am I worried about confusion? The answer is a resounding yes. I’m just trying to sort the best thing to do in each case for each individual show as much as I can.
But there’s no way to avoid the fact that it’s a little just bewildering, frankly, the different releases and the sheer number of releases are hard to keep track of for you, for me, for everyone.”
All these approaches have advantages and disadvantages so that no single one is better than another. HBO Max has opted for weekly releases with shows like “Euphoria,” “The White Lotus” and “Peacemaker” to build word-of-mouth – a model that has proven a big success for them as many of those series have seen ratings climb between episodes.
On occasion though, the approach hasn’t worked with shows like “Lovecraft Country” or “Perry Mason” staying flat or dropping. More recently shows like “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Y: The Last Man” have been cited as series that should’ve adopted the ‘full season at once’ strategy to overcome what was narrative hurdles in their early episodes.
On the flip side, Netflix’s “Squid Game” and “The Witcher” have actively proved that a ‘full release at once’ strategy can generate a ton of ongoing buzz and high demand, even as that approach has also hurt some series that may have done better given more time.
Similarly the pandemic, which has shifted the larger ‘water cooler’ conversation from the office to social media platforms, has shown a rise in demand for procedurals, comedies and series with self-contained episodes – series that generally work better with a weekly release plan.
For now, it’s likely this debate will continue for some time.
