Whatever happened to binge culture? Releasing weekly episodes and only having about six episodes a season that are hours long, are we serious? We are killing off the art of being interested in character development, plot lines and unnecessary filler episodes.
I despise the guessing game of TV shows. I refuse to bandwagon onto the “let’s guess what happens next week” or the short montages at the end that tease the next episode. If an episode leaves on a bad note or cliffhanger, I need to know within five minutes up to one business day what happens next.
Imagine making plans for a nice restaurant, dressed all fancy and realizing, “oh no, ‘Stranger Things’ is on tonight,” shrugging and going anyway. Then you open your phone to calculate the tip and get sidetracked by Instagram Reels, and boom. There it is. Someone died, and you did not get to watch it live because you were at a fancy restaurant. The number of spoilers online is insane, and they come out of nowhere. I was watching the last episode of “Squid Game” with my mom, and I paused it because my mom had to cook. I opened TikTok, and immediately, the ending was spoiled.
What happened to getting attached? I love that “Modern Family” has 11 seasons, so you get to watch the kids grow up. In “Gilmore Girls,” you watch Rory Gilmore go to college and become an adult. There are people in the world who can recall every episode of “Friends.” In these new, short-term shows, you see only a sliver of their life developing instead of the whole stretch.
These shows try to make up for the fact that they do not have many seasons, so they squeeze all of the information into an hour or an hour-and-a-half-long episodes. I do not remember anything when I watch a TV show that is longer than an hour. I feel as if this tactic is so that people do not get bored and quit the show before the final seasons, so they choose not to make more. Hollywood could also be trying to save money by cramming all the information into six episodes rather than slow burning it for 11 seasons.
Personally, binging shows gives me time to wind down at night. I know many people who use TV shows to wind down after a long day. Without a show to binge, you jump from one show to the next because that’s what’s airing that night. I hate having to switch TV shows late at night because at that point, I’m extremely tired and I just want to pick a show and finish it.
Hollywood trying to save their money by cramming every inch of the plot into six episodes is ridiculous. At that point, just watch a movie. The entertainment industry will have to bury me with every single 11-season show.
