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Post by HereForTheatre on Jun 18, 2020 15:50:26 GMT
I've been thinking recently how I dislike the trend lately, with the rise of streaming services, of full seasons of tv shows being released all in one go. I miss the old days when you'd be eagerly awaiting a new episode of your favourite tv show every week and having the story play out over 3 or 4 months and be part of your routine for a long time. The problem is now is if you wanted you could watch an entire show in a day. Which is me btw, especially in lockdown. I don't have the will power to pace the shows out when they are there ready to view. I want to go back to being forced into how often i can consume something and be forced to savour it! I don't know, it just feels very instant and disposable now, which ends up just leaves you wanting more, which won't come for probably another full year, and new shows to constantly find to constantly replace things. It loses the sense of event that tv used to have and it's part in your routine. Maybe it's just me thinking this but please say it isn't! haha!
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Post by David J on Jun 18, 2020 16:10:51 GMT
I've been going through the House series on amazon. It bugged me that Dr House's team had left at the end of season three and I go straight through to season 4 and it turns out they're still there.
I thought maybe I'm used to TV series making a big thing about established characters leaving and that maybe I should take a break before watching the next season because it certainly felt jarring.
Then again by season 8 I'm now used to the writers have team members leave and return all of a sudden like the hospital is a revolving door.
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Post by clair on Jun 18, 2020 16:42:25 GMT
I rarely watch any tv at all to be honest - mind you, I never did even as a child so it's nothing new. I do agree though and sometimes wonder how today's fans of tv shows would react if they had to watch each episode as it aired, no video let alone streaming, if you weren't in then you missed it. Fans of tv shows when I was younger really were fans, making sure you could see it, buying magazines etc for interviews with your favourite performers and always discussing with friends the next day. Also the bliss of no spoilers, no social media telling you what you hadn't yet seen and being truly involved with the characters. I don't really get the idea of binge watching, the anticipation of what would happen has simply disappeared with it all being so readily available
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2020 10:58:52 GMT
I don’t mind a good TV binge, but I agree that some of the excitement has faded as a result. I know many people who now just wait for a BBC/ITV show to finish and stream the entire thing on catchup/recorded it via Sky, so the trend of a weekly series is lessening - and along with it event TV I suppose.
Not the best example, but look at soaps and how their ratings have dropped over the last few decades - granted there’s multiple reasons why they have, but the idea of sticking to a set broadcast schedule a number of times a week is becoming more and more outdated. Same with something like Big Brother - an hour of TV every night for a couple of months is a hell of a commitment.
We do still get some rare gems that manage it become event TV though - Game of Thrones is the obvious one, but Broadchurch, Downton Abbey, Poldark etc all made waves in their own way.
I’ve spent some time over the last few months watching various boxsets (like everyone else) and the problem I have with some of the larger US series is that anything from network TV - with 20+ episodes a season - just have their stories dragged out unnecessarily. They really do feel like they’re doing whatever they need to in order to fill in yet another 45 minutes, whereas I find smaller series (like Netflix) have much better pacing.
The issue I have with binging Netflix though is if I do it over a day or two, by the time the next season comes around I’ve all but forgotten everything but the major plot points. On the one hand this is okay because it means I get to rewatch something I know I’ve already enjoyed, but at the same time I’ve got to rewatch something I’ve already watched just so I can watch the new episodes.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jun 19, 2020 11:24:47 GMT
The Sopranos getting a rerun in my house hold. Seems like the first time for twenty odd years. Forgot how good it was.
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Post by vickyg on Jun 19, 2020 12:07:24 GMT
I'm a very bad TV watcher. Even something I really want to see can't make me sit down at the correct time and turn it on and I'm even having the same issue with the Thursday NT Lives. Streaming works very well for me as I don't have to be committed to something, can have it on in the background and I can watch it again if I wasn't paying enough attention the first time.
I still have 'event' tv as my housemates and I will go through a series and gather together to watch something on Netflix etc, but it's usually more erratic than if something was on TV weekly.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2020 12:17:16 GMT
Streaming is a godsend. Not all of us work 9-5 - I hardly ever make it home to watch a programme live at 8pm (even when working from home), and most of the time even 9pm is a struggle. I do most of my catching up on the weekends, often months after a programme has aired.
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Post by HereForTheatre on Jun 19, 2020 12:22:43 GMT
My issue isn't the existence of streaming, it's the specific issue of the way that entire seasons of new shows are now dropped in one go rather than weekly. This is relatively new, even streaming services such as netflix used to release episodes one at a time.
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Post by dontdreamit on Jun 19, 2020 13:16:40 GMT
I like a mixture of both, but I can agree the anticipation of waiting for a new episode is great.
I especially love watching along to something whilst on social media- so for example a group of us watch Sewing Bee together in our own homes and chat about it together online as we watch.
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Post by Jon on Jun 19, 2020 15:03:05 GMT
It depends on the show, a drama like Killing Eve tends to lend itself to binging rather than say a series like The Repair Shop. I think TV broadcasters are adapting which is why you see shows stripped across the a week.
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Post by Forrest on Jun 19, 2020 19:12:45 GMT
I love binging on shows, plus I am utterly impatient, so if I know I cannot see something in one go, I'll often wait for all episodes to air officially and then binge-watch. (I don't have a TV licence here, but have access to everything shown on TV through a service related to work, and I was recently going mad waiting for two Normal People episodes to air each Monday so I can watch them.)
The downside is that now, when we can seemingly watch everything whenever we want to, it happens that some things I never actually get to see, because they get postponed indefinitely in favour of something else.
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Post by lynette on Jun 19, 2020 20:12:03 GMT
I’ll binge a drama series but I like that punctuation of a weekly, like A House in Time and the Sewing Bee.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2020 20:31:28 GMT
The downside is that now, when we can seemingly watch everything whenever we want to, it happens that some things I never actually get to see, because they get postponed indefinitely I have the same problem when I record TV shows to watch later. With no need to watch them by any particular time I never get round to it, so they just sit there for a couple of years until I accept reality and erase them. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2020 20:35:52 GMT
There’s also far too much to watch nowadays.
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Post by HereForTheatre on Jun 19, 2020 20:48:07 GMT
I'll always binge too, but that's the issue. I wish i didn't have the option, because i will always binge, it just happens, but there is something rather unfulfilling and anti climactic about being excited to watch a new series or the next series of your fave show for ages and it then be over within a couple of days, or even hours, depending on how extreme you binge! I kind of wish the power was taken out our hands and we did have to savour a show over 3 or 4 months instead. It seems a much more sensible way of consuming the form, so it gives you entertainment over a longer period as well.
The trouble of course with trying to even eek a show out and maybe watch just a couple of eps a week or something is that loads of others will have just binged and spoilers and articles and pictures will be everywhere...so it ends up being pointless trying! It was kind of good when everyone would just watch something all at the same time and pace.
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Post by marob on Jun 19, 2020 23:34:30 GMT
I used to binge watch things a lot on DVD and I'd get through a whole season of 20+ episodes, and any bonus features, in about five or six nights. But I find that now I just don't have the attention span to sit through something like that anymore. It's very rare that I watch anything when it's actually broadcast, almost everything is either recorded or downloaded, so I can skip the adverts and watch it when I feel like.
I've just started Normal People, I May Destroy You and Staged, but only seen the first of each so far as I still like to leave a gap between each episode.
One of my favourite series ever was Twin Peaks, which I saw when it was repeated when I was a teenager. But I don't think it would have had the same effect on me if I'd just binged it. The week long wait to see how the cliff hangers were resolved was part of the experience, and the reveal of the murderer is surely more effective if you've spent a few months watching these characters rather than a few quiet afternoons.
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