With the recent slowing down of new TV show releases, isn’t it about time that we return to some of our TV-watching habits of the past?
Recently, I started re-watching the comedy-drama Desperate Housewives. I had begun watching it a few years ago but stopped before the end of the first season as I was distracted by the brand-new shows Netflix was continuously pushing out. I decided to jump back into it since I have been in a bit of a TV rut the last few months, most likely due to the Hollywood Writers Strike. Growing up, I remember the show being the big craze with middle-aged women. My mother would religiously watch the show weekly, and we had to eat dinner earlier so that she would be on time for the hour-long episode. I was far too young to watch the show back when it came out in 2004, but I was allowed to enter the living room to drop a cup of tea off to my mother before quickly scurrying out. While I cannot exactly relate to the show’s storyline, I understand and appreciate the humor of it more now.
Watching this show now got me thinking about how impatient we are and how we have taken binge-watching for granted. I will admit I am guilty of complaining about waiting. Take Love is Blind, for example. Netflix drops the episodes in weekly batches. It is frustrating, but realistically it makes sense. If everything got released at once, the internet would be full of people complaining that they had something spoiled for them. Then again, waiting leads to speculation and, in turn, spoilers. As I am writing this, the finale has not aired yet. However, I am pretty certain I know what the outcome of the wedding days will be, thanks to suspicious and pointed Instagram posts by the cast. Some viewers have even gone as far as looking up marriage licenses online.
While I love binge-watching a brand-new TV show, sometimes I wish there was some mystery and anticipation. I want to craft my theories every week and then chat about them with friends and see what other unspoiled people online are saying. Now, it is a race to finish it all in time before you get accidentally spoiled (or maybe on purpose if you can’t wait). While the Writers Guild of America has ended its strike, during those months that it was occurring, weekly episode releases would have been useful. Instead, many people struggled to find new content to watch and disgruntledly turned to reality TV, one of the only forms of TV that could continue being produced during the strike. This pattern is set to continue as the writers’ rooms slowly get up and running again.
People are shocked when I say I watch early 2000s shows like Desperate Housewives, The OC, etc. Yes, the camera quality is not as good, but those shows have such wholesomeness and a relatively unspoilt nature to them that I know that I can watch them at my own pace in peace without worrying that I will see a spoiler when I open my Instagram account. I do feel fortunate that I can watch them on-demand. I wonder, however, what it would be like to wait a week between episodes to let that anticipation build, especially before a season finale when you know there is bound to be drama and a cliffhanger.
Maybe it is hypocritical of me to talk about this, considering I want to be an entertainment journalist one day and will be directly contributing to the online chatter of a TV show as soon as a new series drops, but sue me, make us wait. While full season drops will continue and most of us will fall into the trap, streaming services should revert to older practices. Funnily enough, it would help them make more money since you can’t cancel your membership after the one-month free trial. This impatience we have developed has transposed into many other aspects of our lives, and frankly, it’s unhealthy. Whether it’s waiting for a food delivery or even getting a text back from someone, we are chronically waiting impatiently for things. Congrats if you don’t do this. Spread some patience to the rest of us, please.