When Netflix began producing original programs, it did something that was largely unexpectedL rather than releasing episodes on a set schedule, it released an entire season of a series at once. This became the de facto standard for streaming TV for quite some time after that. However, in recent years, we’ve seen a shift back to traditional television release schedules, with many series on the best streaming services only releasing new episodes weekly.
Even Netflix is now releasing its biggest shows in chunks of episodes rather than all at once. The reason for this, according to conventional wisdom, is to keep shows at the forefront of cultural conversation longer. Discussing the latest episode of a show with friends once a week for a couple of months is better than expecting everybody to binge it, and then see the show disappear from cultural conversation after only a few days.
It also gives people a chance to “catch up” if they can’t watch an episode as soon as it drops. I understand the argument, and I don’t disagree that there’s value to it. But I don’t care: weekly releases need to die.
Weekly Releases Were Necessary Once, But They’re Not Anymore In the decades of what we now refer to as “linear television” weekly, or at least daily, releases were a necessity. Shows had to be released on a schedule because it was the only way to reliably find them. We didn’t have control over what was on our screens at a given moment, we had to choose from what was a.