【2004 Archives】

In Binged004 Archives Mashable breaks down why we binge-watch, how we binge-watch, and what it does to us. Because binge-watching is the new normal.

Nothing against You, but as far as television shows go, it didn’t do great when it aired on Lifetime. The fun, pulpy show about a bookstore manager who becomes dangerously obsessed with a woman came and went in the summer of 2018 with barely a peep from Twitter or the TV cultural hive mind. It’s not surprising that Lifetime cancelled You, but in a savvy move from Netflix, the streaming giant picked up the show and renewed it for a second season.

When Youshowed up on Netflix, magic happened. It became an almost overnight hit, with a reported 40 million viewers of the first season. Outlets wrote extensively about its bonkers plot and characters, hashtags were born, and what had been an obscure network satire became must-see TV.

The case of Youis interesting because technically, the only difference between the show as it aired on Lifetime and Netflix is that on Netflix, Youcould be binge-watched. Well, that and access to Netflix’s massive audience. But Yousailed above many other Netflix options to dominate the conversation because it was and is a perfect binge-watch show. As a weekly watch? It’s just OK.

There’s a tangible difference between shows that are written to be binged and those that are meant to be watched week to week. Binge shows often have shorter, more compact seasons and rely on a formula that’s on prominent display with Youand Netflix’s tentpole series Stranger Things — ending each episode with the perfect balance of narrative resolve and “oh shit” revelations that make viewers need to watch the next episode. Immediately.

As for weekly shows, there are other hallmarks that make them good in their own medium. Sitcoms, of course, occupy their own place in TV land, since shows like Superstoreand Brooklyn Nine-Ninecan essentially be viewed out of order. Weekly sitcoms offer a 30-minute dose of television viewing pleasure that is separate from streaming — their familiarity and formula are pleasant enough to stand on their own. When back seasons of sitcoms are binged, is it often in the form of a comfort binge.

Other weekly shows thrive because the space between the episodes is just as important as the episodes themselves. Nearly all of the enjoyment derived from shows like Westworld, which should never be binged, comes from the slow, striptease-y reveal of its twists and betrayals. Because it and other peak weekly shows like This Is Usand True Detective dispense their answers at an intentionally glacial pace, talking about what mighthappen on the show is sometimes more interesting than it is to watch what actually does happen.

Somewhere between the ultimate binge show and the entirely unbingeable are the programs that are definitely watchable week by week but that actually get better when watched in their entirety after knowing what happens. These are the rare bears of the television world, because it’s difficult to write a show that appeals to both sides of a TV watcher’s brain at the same time.

The Good Place is one of those bears. In addition to its excellent weekly installments, the show ended its first two seasons with world-breaking twists that make its viewers question what happened in the previous episodes. The first season of The Good Placeis likable because of its plot and characters, but after its doozy of a finale, the entire season was cast in a new light and became better when rewatched, and likely binged, with the audience’s full knowledge of events.

Another show that walks the binge/unbinge tightrope is Game of Thrones, the last remaining vestige of the era of appointment television. For those in the Throneszone, it’s unfathomable to miss a live episode, and while the seasons are (mostly) well structured enough to support the same type of weekly conversations that buoy Westworld, Game of Thrones is also bingeable in retrospect.

Because Thrones relies on a rotating cast of characters that change and develop through its seasons, going back and binging old seasons is an exercise in nostalgia and recognition. Bran becomes the Three-Eyed Raven in Season 6, but a binge of Season 1 will reveal that his raven-themed dreams were actually foreshadowing his transformation. When Ramsay Bolton finally gets his face chewed off by dogs, it’s cathartic to go back and watch his canine crimes knowing the karmic flair of his fate.

Before the dawn of streaming platforms, the only way to binge watch was to purchase or rent a box set of an entire season of a show the purchaser had probably already watched. Now that there are shows released with the express purpose of being binged, it’s natural that showrunners and TV writers would upgrade their game to work better for what is essentially an entirely new format of television.

The lesson learned from Youand other successful streaming shows is that it’s sometimes not enough to write a show that captures an audience — it also must be delivered in the proper medium. Some shows are born to be binged. Others, not so much.