Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
The weekly release is a sticky widget. I cant speak for the Japanese shows that Netflix is syndicating, but Amazon is terrible at this. I mean, every single series is just awful. They are not written or executed for a weekly release. There is no sense of a complete episode, stopping starting point, or how to pace the entire season. It's almost to the point I don't want to watch shows on Prime at all. HBO, though, is a master at writing for a weekly release. Each episode is written well from beginning to end. The season is paced well so that all the plot, exposition, and action are placed in a way that is exciting and makes sense. Netflix series can fall in between these areas but generally executes for the entire dump at once scheme. Either way, just execute your programming to what you plan to do please (are you listening Amazon????)
Sorry, I had to get that out.
So here's the thing.
I completely agree - this is the "watercooler effect" and is something that HBO has always been the master of. Providing shows that drop on a weekly basis and dominate the discourse while they are on (White Lotus being the most recent example of this).
This has the benefit of keeping a given media property "in the news" and "in the discourse" for a longer period of time. To contrast- Wednesday (to use the most recent Netflix hit) generates buzz for a week or two, while White Lotus generates buzz, and episode recaps, and articles, during all seven weeks of the run.
Thing is- people have known about this difference and asked why Netflix continues to drop shows like this for years; at most, they will drop shows in parts (like Stranger Things). But they remain committed to the binge model.
The question is- why? There are three possibilities-
1. Ignorance. Maybe they don't know any better? That's ... stupid. They have addressed it, and said that they just prefer the binge model.
2. Stupidity. Maybe they are doing it because they are stupid? Weirdly, this is the case with a lot of companies... they just ... do stuff. But Netflix is well-known for doing all sorts of things (the famous A/B testing) for determining how it will do things. So this is very unlikely.
3. Some reason. This has to be it- but the question is, why? By the way ... it might not even be correct. But why do they think they are correct? From my P.O.V., the only thing it can be is that they believe it keeps people on the platform.