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from the just-one-more-episode...and-then-the-sun-comes-up dept.
The increasing popularity of global media content like American TV series has been considered as one notable factor associated with binge-watching practices, or continuously consuming media content in a single session.
With the massive global expansion of streaming platforms like Netflix—which had more than 154 million subscribers in over 190 countries in 2019—this practice of marathon viewing of televised content has gradually become a "new ritual" for many viewers.
But not without a price.
Indeed, an American Academy of Sleep Medicine survey in 2019 found 88% of American adults reported a lack of sleep due to binge-watching television and streaming series.
As the use of online streaming services to consume televised content is becoming more common globally, the problem of binge-watching behavior may also become a global phenomenon.
[...] It is inevitable that binge-watching has become a new normal among today's audiences. Yet, given the negative health ramifications associated with it, can we move beyond that? We could try savoring one episode at one time in a slow watching practice.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Friday February 14 2020, @07:11AM (4 children)
I thought it might be because of a feedback loop between video-on-demand and longer-story-arc content constructed more to blur episode boundaries.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by theluggage on Friday February 14 2020, @11:32AM (2 children)
You're right that there could be a feedback loop now - but the longer-story-arc thing got trendy back in the 90s (with shows like Murder One, Babylon 5 and Buffy) when a 'box set' was a bookshelf full of VHS tapes for True Fans only... and the "ongoing story" format was basically borrowed from soap operas. That's mainly in the US, too, where TV networks forced the self-contained, view-in-any-order episode model on everything. Certainly in the UK serials and cliffhangers never went away.
Serials and cliff hangers, of course, are older than TV, older than movies and probably older than literature...
Personally, I try to delay gratification (or, for some shows, disappointment) and not binge more than 2 episodes at a time, but that still means burning an entire season in a week or so.
Its getting to the point when I sometimes pine for a few episodic shows that don't need you to remember complex plotlines... that is complicated by the Netflix/Amazon problem of 2 years between 'seasons' - OK for the shows you really love and re-watch, but I suspect, a major cause of second-season flops.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday February 14 2020, @07:26PM (1 child)
While Babylon 5 is but one of many ongoing stories, B5 is fairly unique in that it had an actual climactic ending. Not a forced, contrived ending. But a real, satisfying, emotional end. Yet one that left open possibilities for other story arc series to start.
We need more of THAT.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by theluggage on Saturday February 15 2020, @11:49AM
Some people say there was a so-so 5th season and a couple of spin-offs - but only the same nuts that insist that there were sequels to The Matrix...
Point is, B5 was one of a few shows that (re)-popularised the ongoing story format outside of soap operas. Yes, it helped tremendously that (unlike certain other shows) They Had A Plan... although JMS really did have to go beyond the call of duty in not only plotting out the arc but coming up with "trap door" contingency plans to deal with actors leaving... I think 1-season arcs are more feasible.
He'd also clearly looked very closely at some notable multi-novel sagas - particularly Lord of The Rings and the Lensman series - and taken away more than just a few story ideas.
You're right that more recent series have, I think, looked at B5 superficially and just got the "ongoing story arc - tick" bit and forgotten that the arc needs a beginning, a middle and an end. Particularly annoying are end-of-season cliffhangers that don't have any closure - B5 season finales always resolved a major sub-plot before dropping the whammy.
The X-Files's influence may have caused a problem to by pretending to have a long-term plan while making it up on the hoof... Trouble is, that worked on a meta-level for a show that was, basically, about conspiracy theories (which typically get hastily revised as soon as they're in any danger of being debunked) - but it doesn't work for everything else.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 14 2020, @11:57PM
Cliffhangers at the end of episodes. Like in the Chernobyl series when they go inside to open the sluice gate in the dark and all their flashlights shut off leaving an abrupt blackness and silence perfect for rolling credits. Pretty hard to stop just there when you have all the episodes available to watch.