So I've been thinking for a while about starting this thread and decided to go ahead and see if I'm in the minority or majority of the Entertainment Board's general consensus on the subject. And yes, this is a long setup to the ultimate question, but I've put way too much thought into this and need to get it out.

The weekly episode release format worked for shows designed for just that - episodic show formats. Every week fans discussed the case of the week, rooted for their heroes to take down the bad guy of the week, and laughed with coworkers remembering the gags on their favorite sitcom.

But TV changed. Writers saw there was an audience for deeper, richer storylines. Thanks to groundbreaking shows like The Sopranos and Lost plots started spanning entire seasons, pulling the audience into storylines that kept you hanging on week after week to see the next twist and turn.

The weekly release format became a natural time for the audience to discuss what jaw-dropping twist happened last week and hash out theories on what was coming. But networks got greedy and also starting changing how they released their episodes. What had been Christmas episodes during December grew to Christmas breaks, which grew from 1-2 weeks to literally 2-3 months between the "Fall Season" of a show and the "Spring Season". These breaks got so long the networks had to replay the last Fall episode before starting the Spring season just so the audience could remember what had happened.

Then, with the advent of streaming came the glorious, ground-breaking, paradigm shifting advent of (you can probably guess what my stance is)...Full Season Releases! It was amazing! We didn't have to deal with annoying cliffhangers anymore. We could immediately watch the next episode to see what happened! You can binge the whole season as soon as its released then discuss THE ENTIRE SEASON with your family and friends!

But now the weekly release format has started rearing its ugly head again. It was inevitable I suppose...the networks realized they made more money by stringing you along for months.

But I pose that we can't go back. TV shows aren't the same as they used to be. With the higher production budgets came less and less episodes and longer breaks between seasons. Sure, spread the episodes out weekly so there's less break time between seasons....but just barely. Seasons now average only 11 episodes per season....ELEVEN! Back in the day seasons used to last more than half the year!
And the seasons now come out YEARS between each other. So does it really matter if you only have to wait 670 days as opposed to 730 days between Season 3 and Season 4 of your favorite show?

And discussing the show with friends and coworkers between episodes? A thing of the past. So many people work remote these days there is no such thing as "water cooler talk" anymore. And I say that as someone who loved discussing the previous night's episode of GOT with coworkers.

The argument of full season releases ruining online discussion of shows, like on this board? Bah! No one is stopping you from setting up episode threads instead of full season threads. But if I want to wait and binge a season now I have to wait until the full thing comes out and by then all of you weekly watchers are done talking about it!

Anyway, this post is waaay too long now, so I'll just end it by posing my question....weekly episode or full season releases?

What say you Texags?

MookieBlaylock said:

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Depends on the show

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Agree

Quote:

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The argument of full season releases ruining online discussion of shows, like on this board? Bah! No one is stopping you from setting up episode threads instead of full season threads.

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Sure, but doesn't really change the fact that most people will watch multiple episodes or an entire season without coming back to Texags to discuss it.

You say you enjoyed your weekly GoT discussions, but that wouldn't have been possible if it dropped all at one. And the anticipation each week was such a huge part of that experience, same with Lost, Breaking Bad, and now Better Call Saul.

And to support my point, I would point to the Obi-Wan and Stranger Things threads.

ST is one of, if not THE most popular show on tv, and there's been hardly any discussion posted in there so far. My guess is because most people who haven't finished the whole season don't want to go in there and risk being spoiled. (And the ones who have finished have been good enough to not post spoilers.) But still very minimal, surface level discussion.

Compare that to Obi-Wan, where the discussion has been almost non-stop for three days straight.

Dr. Horrible said:

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MookieBlaylock said:

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Depends on the show

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Agree

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Agree but disagree

It depends on the audience.

I was sick a few years ago and ran through the first 6 season of GoT in less than a week.

I honestly like the show better that way. BUT, half the fun of the show was the cultural aspect. So I am glad it was weekly.

There wasn't much discussion anywhere about "on becoming a god in central Florida" so I am wish it had dropped all at once.

Weekly

Wow, in the minority so far. I'll soften my stance a little and agree that it can depend on the show. And I'm not saying the weekly format is just horrible. I do enjoy weekly "appointment tv" shows with my son.

But man, its just so much nicer to be able to binge shows when I'm in the mood for them and they're really good.

Weekly for sure and I'm wondering when Netflix will realize this will be more profitable for them.

I can see them doing an all at once release of a show in season 1 but once a show has enough buzz going to weekly in following seasons. Shows like Ozark would make Netflix more money under this strategy imo.

FL_Ag1998 said:

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Wow, in the minority so far. I'll soften my stance a little and agree that it can depend on the show. And I'm not saying the weekly format is just horrible. I do enjoy weekly "appointment tv" shows with my son.

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Nuance...on the Internet!

Here's my vote for all at once releases. We binge watch every show and often forget to continue watching a weekly release show. Since we stream everything and like to watch several episodes each night, we wait until weekly release shows are all finished until we watch it. Since retiring, we don't have the watercolor aspect anymore.

Weekly releases work a lot better with my time constraints and I enjoy the conversation around episodes. That said, some recent shows haven't been written particularly well for that format.

Quad Dog said:

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Weekly just makes so much more sense from a business stand point.
The steamer gets to get a month or more of subscriptions instead of a one month binge.
Websites such as this and review sites get a month or more of traffic and conversation instead of one and done. Just look at the size of the Steamer Things thread on this board compared to weekly shows.
All of the above drives more advertising and subscription money.

Then as a user you get week to week theories, conversation, speculation, articles, interviews, etc. Some people like that stuff and some don't. So the real answer may lie in if you like that stuff out not.

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Clearly from a business perspective the week to week release makes sense, but I couldn't care less the effect on the networks. That wasn't my question.

I just think in today's day and age the week to week water cooler conversations about theories and reactions isn't near what it used to be. We don't have that attention span anymore. We want to watch the whole season, discuss it, then move on to the next show until Season 2 rolls around.

A show I really like and want to discuss with other people? Weekly. Yes I suppose you can still watch any series a week at a time if you wish. However, that makes any buildup, hype, suspense and online buzz impossible. That only works if everyone is watching weekly on roughly the same schedule.

jeffk said:

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I love how quickly "share your opinion" becomes "try to convince people their opinion is stupid" around here.

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I certainly didn't say anyone's opinion was stupid, if you're referring to me. I simply pointed out that my question was what viewers preferred, not what make sense economically to the networks. There's a difference between discussing/countering and calling someone's opinion stupid.

Now, Fear InoculAg's response?....yeah, maybe a little harsh and less nuanced, as another poster above might say, lol.

Weekly, for sure. I tend to get burnt out if we're binging a show for a week straight.

Binge watching is ruining TV shows for me. Take Yellowstone or GOT or Breaking Bad. When you watch one episode per week, then you forget some of the little details. You remember big moments that are crucial to the plot, but a lot of little moments are forgotten while you work, play, etc and are waiting for the next episode to drop.

Now, I binge watch 6 episodes of a show in one sitting and the "hero" has just survived 6+ major climatic scenes, numerous other "how will they" moments, and that makes it feel like there's too much happening all at once.

Weekly for sure, I love the anticipation of a show coming up on Sunday or Monday night. I was like a little kid on days when Breaking Bad was on, couldn't wait. Same on the early seasons of Walking Dead.

If I like it, I'll binge the whole season in a day or two, when it's a full season release.

FL_Ag1998 said:

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Quad Dog said:

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Weekly just makes so much more sense from a business stand point.
The steamer gets to get a month or more of subscriptions instead of a one month binge.
Websites such as this and review sites get a month or more of traffic and conversation instead of one and done. Just look at the size of the Steamer Things thread on this board compared to weekly shows.
All of the above drives more advertising and subscription money.

Then as a user you get week to week theories, conversation, speculation, articles, interviews, etc. Some people like that stuff and some don't. So the real answer may lie in if you like that stuff out not.

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Clearly from a business perspective the week to week release makes sense, but I couldn't care less the effect on the networks. That wasn't my question.

I just think in today's day and age the week to week water cooler conversations about theories and reactions isn't near what it used to be. We don't have that attention span anymore. We want to watch the whole season, discuss it, then move on to the next show until Season 2 rolls around.

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Water cooler conversation had been replaced with social media and sites like this one, and it's probably bigger than it ever had been.

jeffk said:

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I love how quickly "share your opinion" becomes "try to convince people their opinion is stupid" around here.

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Such an awful take on this