I know that most people these days get their shows online, or watch recorded on their PVR, or get the box set, but it’s still the overwhelming standard of release for television shows to air once a week over the course of a season before being made available by other means. This means if you’re wanting to watch a show in its current run, seeing each episode as early as possible, you’re going to have a week’s break between each one you watch. There’s all sorts of effects this has. For those of us who keep up with shows and enjoy the discussion around episodes from week to week, it gives us 7 days at a time to consider the previous episode that we and everyone we know watched the other night.
It has philosophical implications too. When a show is ongoing on a weekly basis, it feels like it’s developing in the present. When watching something like The Wire today, it all feels like it took place in the past, because we know it has ended. With Netflix releasing the entire 13-episode inaugural season of House of Cards on February 1st, there is no mode through which to experience this presence, the kind of development other shows have. It’s all there, over and done with, to watch at your own pace, but your pace had better be relatively quick because everyone’s talking about the season in its entirety as soon as they finish. There’s no analysis of each episode on its own. You consider the season as a whole, with each episode playing like a chapter of a movie or other story (each episode is literally referred to by “chapter” in its title). This is really different, and makes for a completely new experience of long-form storytelling. Fortunately the show keeps your interest and makes you want to get through the entire season, but the model Netflix is implementing, which it’s also apparently going to do with Arrested Development in May, is fascinating.
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