What TV/Streaming Shows Are Better Binged? Which Are Better Weekly?

[Reynard]

Upon catching up to A Knight of Seven kingdom with Episode 5, I am angry at myself for not waiting until all the episodes were out. This show is definitely better as a binge. it feels like a long movie, rather than a series.

This got me wondering what shows people felt were better binged versus weekly watch?
For Example, Lost was a great weekly show because there was a constant conversation around it. That conversation would have been both muddled and muted had the show dropped a season at a time.

So, what do you think? What shows are better in a whole drop, versus better episode by episode? Why?

 

[jian]

Pretty much all Korean dramas are better as a binge. That’s a massive generalisation but most of the ones on Netflix (for instance) are written with complex plots with a lot of cliffhangers, and so benefit from being watched close together rather than once a week while you try to remember who that guy was and why he’s doing this now.

More sedate shows like Ted Lasso are probably better watched regularly.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Fallout was better by far when it was dropped as a season rather than released episode by episode, as S2 ably illustrated.

It was genuinely less fun to watch when you had to wait a week between episodes. It didn't seem to have been written/shot as if it was anticipating a wait either.

In general I think any show with:

A) Fewer than like, 10 episodes.

B) A relatively complex continuing plot, especially if flashbacks/flashforwards, fake-outs, multiple characters in different locations with different goals, and the like are involved.

C) A relatively high energy level (so like, most thrillers or cop shows, but not say slow-paced character-driven work like Mad Men).

Is better off being dropped as a block for "binge-ing"

That conversation would have been both muddled and muted had the show dropped a season at a time.

Sure, but that was then, and this is now, and TV is balkanized for that to be a thing anymore with any show apart from like maybe absolute #1 smash hits. Even those it usually doesn't apply to. I can't think of any show since the pandemic which "everyone was talking about". Can you?

Sometimes there's one where you'll get a few episodes worth of discussion, but rarely more than that. A 20+ episode weekly show now? People just wouldn't keep up. They barely keep up when it's 6-8 episodes.

I'd say easily 90% of shows which drop as weekly episodes now are just effectively trying to "make fetch happen".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Weekly: The thing they don't make any more - shows where each episode is a self contained story, and there are 20+ episodes per season. And continuous soap operas.