Your favourite TV shows are changing how episodes are released. Is appointment viewing back?
CBC
Each Wednesday this summer, Nanaki Nagra knew what her plans were — tuning into that week’s episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty on Amazon's Prime Video.
Conversation with her friends or like-minded fans on Reddit about what they thought might happen next, or which characters they were rooting for, helped get her through the week while she waited for the next episode to drop.
“I was excited the whole summer,” Nagra said. “It [was] like my little thing, and I get to chat about it online with people afterwards.” If she couldn't clear her schedule on Wednesday nights, she'd be sure to catch up by Thursday at lunch.
It was a new experience for Nagra — most of the shows she’s enjoyed in the past had already been released in full on streaming platforms, meaning all the episodes were available to watch whenever she wanted.
But Nagra says she’s watching more shows that release episodes weekly — like The Summer I Turned Pretty and HBO’s The Pitt — which has changed her viewing experience.
“It definitely made it an event,” Nagra said.
If this feels like a throwback to the days of traditional must-see-TV viewing, that's because it is — mostly.
As more shows switch to a weekly release schedule, it gives viewers a chance to watch the episodes as they become available and take part in the same cultural moment, but experts suggest what's happening is more of a happy middle ground between appointment viewing and binge watching.
Nagra’s favourites aren’t the only shows releasing episodes weekly or in chunks.
The first batch of episodes of the final season of Stranger Things released last week, attracting so many viewers at once that Netflix crashed minutes after the episodes became available.
Reality shows like Love is Blind and Love Island had people so hyped for the finales that they chose to gather in homes and bars for watch parties.
And the water cooler effect was alive and well for AppleTV's Severance, which spawned discussion around fan theories and work-life balance themes, and saw fans flock to immersive events.
Vilde Schanke Sundet, a professor in media communication at Oslo Metropolitan University, says streaming platforms — especially Netflix, which was one of the first players in the streaming game — sold themselves on the idea that viewers could watch whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to watch it.
“We could decide for ourselves," Sundet said. "We didn't have to wait for the schedule, we didn't have to wait for Sunday night.”
