Why Netflix has us binging more than ever before
It’s 3:00am on a Monday night and I’m 5 seasons deep in the 2000’s sitcom Scrubs and I have no idea how I got here. Well actually I do, I binged.
Binge watching is quickly becoming the new norm for television show consumption and has greatly changed the way in which we indulge in our favourite TV shows. If you weren’t already clued in binge watching is when a television program is viewed multiple episodes at time via the use of on-demand streaming services or the Internet, rather watching them on a predetermined weekly schedule. What’s fascinating about this new viewing occurrence is the way in which it has impacted on how current television shows are written, produced and delivered compared to our old favourites. This has created a shift in the viewer-writer relationship that has changed the face of television and the stories it communicates forever.
Back when television shows were written for actual television the industry wide construct of a week-to-week episodic structure greatly influenced the way in which narratives were told. Writers were very aware of the contextual knowledge lost by viewers week to week, the audience’s attention span and the unlikelihood of viewers being able to watch every episode prior to the current. This led to a number of obvious story telling techniques being implemented to ensure the audience could follow the story week to week or even when they tuned in sporadically throughout the episode or season, allowing them to still have a general understanding of what was going on.
Whilst recently binging on Scrubs I noticed this old episodic structure utilized particularly in the accommodation for scheduled advertising. Writers for the show provided the viewers intermittently with mini cliff-hangers in each episode in order to keep viewers engaged while watching the show on a traditional television format.
Although I love Scrubs and basically want to marry J.D, this element was irritating, dated and time-consuming for someone so use to the absence of advertisements that on-demand streaming services provide. The device is simply not necessary in the present due to the fragmented and personalized nature of television viewing brought forth through streaming services, binge watching and the structure of current programs.
The media student in me kept picking out elements like this, such as the same transition scenes being used repetitively throughout the first few seasons, the in your face running gags and the incessant need for every episode to be resolved neatly with a famous J.D internal monologue.
These elements, though now super annoying and obvious, were all once subtle and underlying for the viewer when consuming the show via its intended delivery of week-to-week episodes. Furthermore it allowed viewers to catch-up on or further understand the narrative presented.
Today the way in which shows are written and delivered has changed dramatically due to the facilitation of binge watching via services like Netflix. These on-demand streaming services have found a way to cash in on the consumption phenomenon that they themselves created by pandering to their audiences new habits with content that further encourages them to use the medium.
Netflix in particular has led the charge with its assortment of Netflix Original series that intentionally ignore traditional television storytelling patterns. Its broadcast model of releasing its original series season by season has utilized the audiences tendency to binge watch and has allowed writers to elongate story lines, create depth and be more subtle with the narrative that they present.
There is no longer a strict focus on each individual episode but more relevance and weight given to seasons as a whole, making viewers more likely to follow through with a binge in order to develop a holistic understanding of the narrative being presented. Shows like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards follow this structure of one seasonal narrative, rather than individual episodic story lines.
Todd VanDerWerff describes this transitional story telling as “a new art form [that’s] not quite TV, not quite film”, further divulging that viewing time in the present is now likely equivalent to a feature length film rather than a single episode. This means that writers now have to ability to follow a more cinematic structure with one linear narrative that doesn’t necessarily resolve at certain intervals. Further allowing ‘easter eggs’, running gags, and plot lines to become more complex and create a deeper meaning for audiences than what was previously accessible in the television format.
This allows the writers to take more time to explain and explore important aspects of narrative such as character and contextual backstory. In the past backstory was introduced where needed to explain current actions, and was heavily present in the shows pilot episode. Now multiple episodes, or even a full season, can be used to serve the purpose of backstory.
A show that has been criticized for doing so is one of Netflix’s newer series BoJack Horseman. The show tells the story of a once famous, now washed up horse (voiced by Will Arnett), who is trying to get back into the spotlight by writing an autobiography. The show was given low ratings by an assortment of critics on initial release because of its heavy use of backstory in the first 6 episodes, making the sitcom in their eyes slow and lackluster. These critics did not retain that the intention for Bojack Horseman was to tell a full narrative over the whole season, rather than produce a string of humorous episodic stories.
The show has now become a big success with viewers who have watched the first season start to end, as it becomes clear that the heavy use of backstory was important to character development and added to the impact of resolutions towards the end of the season.
This transition from episodic to seasonal storytelling poses a problem for me. Personally I love episodic television, with one of my favourite shows being Community, which themes so many of its episodes individually and always resolves a story line in each. But I’m also beginning to really love the seasonal format of delivery, like in the final season of Arrested Development where one succinct story line is created from all the characters perspectives once the season is complete.
It seems more and more that television content is heading in the direction of a seasonal format, and soon episodic television may be fazed out all together to make room for longer and deeper content. But when all is said and done will we still be able to call them TV shows?
Personally, I hope we keep a bit of both as I see value in both deliveries, but for now it’s back to Scrubs.
It’s OK guys I’m not addicted, I can quit anytime that I want I swear. *sweats nervously*.
