People are always saying it: we are living in the Golden Age of television. There is more TV than ever, and it’s higher quality than ever. And with this sort of innovation in TV content comes innovation in how we watch TV. Some shows come out one episode a week while others opt to release a whole season on one day. As a viewer, you can watch episodes as they come out, or you can wait and binge them all at once. Binge-watching has never been more popular, but is there more value to watching weekly? Is it better to watch slowly or all at once?
Pro Binge
I think the biggest pro of binge-watching is getting to immerse yourself in whatever world you choose. For example, last week, I watched all six seasons of HBO’s Girls in three days (a feat I’m quite proud of, although I understand it looks concerning from the outside). For those three days, I practically lived in the world of the characters. I was so much more invested in it than I would have been if I was watching it weekly. There was no waiting between episodes and seasons, no trying to remember what happened last week. I was fully dedicated to what was happening next.
Most TV shows, especially as they continue for more and more seasons, have their weak spots. If you are binge-watching, it’s easier to power through these rough patches. But with a weekly show, you’re more likely to lose interest. Girls might have lost me at Season Four if I had spent a whole year on it. But because it only took me half a day, it was easy to power through.
I am a big proponent of the “three-episode rule.” Even the best shows take about three episodes to really get going. This is just enough time to gauge what the show is all about and decide if you want to keep watching. If you binge the show, you can spend an evening figuring this out. If it’s weekly, it takes three weeks to give a show its fair shot. This makes binge-able shows way easier to get invested in.
Pro Weekly
The idea of diving into a show and watching an entire season in one sitting is, at least to me, appealing. However, a lot of TV was designed, more or less, to be watched weekly. I’ve heard arguments that watching weekly is better for pacing and sense of time. But I think the only really valid reason for weekly watching is community.
I found this most recently with The Mandalorian, whose second season was released weekly onto Disney+ this fall. After every week’s episode, any online platform you can think of lit up with theories and discussions. And there is something really exciting about that. It turns TV from something I do alone, to something I share with a much larger audience. The same thing happened with Game of Thrones and is happening again now with WandaVision.
I think that is what can make TV really fun. For example, I never really understood the appeal of The Bachelor franchise until I started watching it with my friends this season. Even if I don’t really care about what’s happening on screen, I like being able to talk about it with people, I like getting all the Twitter jokes and Tik Toks. It’s fun to engage with other people and, as cheesy as it sounds, be a part of something.
So what’s the difference between a show released weekly like The Mandalorian and one that is released all at once like Netflix’s Bridgerton? While both are extremely popular and sparked lots of discussion on social media, there are some notable differences in how audiences could engage with these shows. I watched Bridgerton over a few days. After I finished watching, I then turned to the internet to see what other people were saying and thinking. So while I did engage with a greater community afterward, my watching experience was just me and my mom on our couch. As for The Mandalorian, I would see what people were saying every week. This whole community was along for the ride with me.
So when it comes down to it, if you can watch a TV show weekly, I think you should. It can be tempting to just let those episodes pile up to be watched all at once, but there is something special about watching a show and sharing it with a larger community. Binging has its place. But when it comes to new content and popular content, weekly watching will always have the edge.