Technology has had a huge impact on television as it evolved throughout the years: from moving towards streaming platforms and away from cable, to binge watching becoming favored over the norm of weekly releases. Many have been left to question whether these changes are good or bad, or whether they’ll stick around. 

 Originally, when watching a TV show on cable it’d be found easily through the commercials you saw during the other programs you’d be watching or the TV guide. Then, everyone would just watch it when it came out week after week, simple as that. But with streaming services like Netflix as the main way people are watching, it just isn’t the same. 

In today’s world, some of the most popular shows are on streaming platforms. They’re discovered through ads on Youtube and social media or while browsing the platform itself. When the show is released, the whole season is put out at once, most of the viewers watch it immediately while others take their time, bracing themselves for spoilers. Afterwards the show gets talked about for a few weeks then it dies down into small chatter.  

When a show is watched week by week there’s more built up, more suspense. Take Wandavision for example, a show that I’d say introduced weekly releases to streaming. As the show aired on Disney+ the audience grew with fans theorizing what’s next to come online. 

Even with how compelling it can be to join everyone else watching it weekly, some people would rather watch it all at once and let the episodes pile up and watch once the season or even the series is over. 

Marathon watching shows isn’t a new thing though, people have been doing so for a long time. With box sets of entire shows or just one season and rewatching the show’s previous episodes before new ones air. Although, it should be noted that DVD sales have dropped about 86% since 2008. An accumulation of the Great Recession, customers buying digital copies, and of course the ever growing popularity of streaming. So, if people are doing a big rewatch today, it’d probably be with the platform their shows on. 

Streaming platforms do have a way of being pretty accessible and giving a show a home for it to live on and on…until at some point it gets removed. Like, how in August last year, HBO Max removed about 36 titles from their platform — even shows as big as Westworld. Many of their original programs like “Generation” or the “Moonshot” have no physical copies made for fans to still access them. 

Nevertheless, streaming isn’t going anywhere, but neither are weekly releases. Airing seasons in two parts, two or three episodes a week, or starting with a few then releasing weekly are becoming common for different platforms. Regardless, TV is TV no matter how it’s delivered.