Binge – Watching: The Loss of Traditional TV Viewing

Everyone does it and anyone who says they don’t is most likely lying to you. Binge watching has become the standardised viewing format, particularly with the rise of viewing platforms like Netflix and Amazon prime. It has perhaps become more prominent as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and the fact the people have been able to devote days on end to television viewing. However as much as we all do it, it has ruined the magic of TV.

Most people my age admit to never really watching live TV and although this is mostly true it highlights to me that this is a bad thing. Netflix [and many other streaming services] has become a comfort to us all during the pandemic, it has allowed us to forget about the world and dive into programmes deeply; think back to when ‘Tiger King’ blew up at the start of the pandemic. It is clear that both before and during the pandemic live telly has experienced a downfall. I have also noticed that once one episode of a series airs on a TV channel you can then go onto the channels catch-up platform and binge the rest of the series [something I admittedly did when the Channel Four series ‘It’s a Sin’ aired]. Clearly, these channels have caught up to the idea that audiences like to binge and have ultimately catered to this to ensure viewing.

I am no expert on television but like most people I like to watch telly and I am an avid film fan. As a film fan it has always surprised me the amount of people I see complaining about the length of films and the fact that they could not focus their attention on a two hour film but will happily binge an eight episode series in one sitting. It does appear that TV shows have overtaken the popularity of film and cinema. It is my understanding that TV has not always been critically well regarded and that the argument could be that it only gained more serious praise in the late 1990’s, particularly with the rise of shows like ‘The Sopranos’. Television has become a massive industry with significant budgets that allow it to replicate the cinematography of film and thus it has grown into a serious entertainment platform, seen most prominently by shows like ‘Game of Thrones’. This development has allowed platforms to invest significant amounts of money into it and this has resulted in the growth of the binge-watching culture.

Like most TV fans I have experienced live TV, particularly as a viewer of ‘Game of Thrones’, a show that never gave into the binge watching. It aired it’s episodes once a week and to me that was part of what made the series. It allowed for discussions to be had about it for weeks, anticipation was built throughout the week; a sense of excitement building up to that nine pm slot which I looked forward to all week. If a TV show is spread out over weeks people talk about it, theories are created in time for the next episode when the truth is revealed. This is what makes TV so magical and what separates it from the film industry. In comparison, watching all episodes of a show in one [or a few more] sittings results in you perhaps discussing it all at once and then never really mentioning it again, apart from the odd reference back to it. There is no anticipation, no excitement, no time for thoughtful reflection on what you have just watched until you have squeezed all the episodes in and forgotten what happened. The fact that the episodes just play one after the other also means there’s no time for discussions in between episodes, there is no intelligence to the binge watching. Not that I set myself apart from it, I am as guilty as everyone else with it.

Like the death of the album in music there has been, in my opinion, a death of television. Binge-watching clearly ruins the magic and it is in danger of creating a culture of mindless viewing. There is no intellectual reflection on what we have watched, on what might have been hidden messages, no lengthy discussions that pick up small details that could have a more significant meaning or a hidden message. There is none of this. The series is watched in its entirety and the world seems cold again, there is a sense of disappointment a sense of loss, until the next series is found and the cycle continues. Similarly, this binge watching has created a demand for perpetual series releases which has resulted in some lazy writing to cater to the demand of audience and some awful creations; Netflix’s ‘Grand Army’ might have been one of the worse things I have seen this past year. As much as we try, we still end up watching in this binging fashion. Myself and my University housemates attempted to lengthen out the latest series of ‘The Crown’ but it didn’t last long, at the end of every episode the ‘just one more episode’ was uttered. We have all become victim to this binge watching and it has ruined TV, it is perhaps why we find ourselves with hundreds of channels but nothing to watch, a whole viewing platform but we have seen it all.

Binge watching has become a reflection of our demanding society, of wanting everything at once, here and now. Not having to wait, like our next day delivery, we have become impatient and greedy and this has clearly expanded to television. It is clear then that there needs to be more of a significant return to the slow release of TV shows in order to ensure it’s longevity, intelligence and critical acclaim.