The last show I have binge watched is Hunter x Hunter. It is not specifically a Netflix show but is it an anime that is available on Netflix. It contains 148 episodes around 20 minutes each, in total of around 52 hours. The show started in 2011 and ended 2014, and was originally release on television. I was not there to experience the wait, since I watched it this summer. I binge watched all 148 episodes within one week. Binge-watching Hunter x Hunter on Netflix reflects Jenner’s argument that on-demand viewing offers instant gratification and continuous engagement, in contract to the anticipation-driven experience of traditional weekly releases.

Since I did not watch the shows as it was first planned to be release, there is a difference between the experience with the show. The main difference between waiting every week or for specific days of release in contract to binge watching is the difference in satisfaction.

Netflix provides a “storage” where the episodes stay. Television releases in contrast forces the viewers to wait in front of the television just to get in on the newest episode, there was not a collective storage where every episode can be place in front of your eyes.

Due to the existence of Netflix, I have gained a habit to wait for every episode to come out before I watch it, I am not willing to hanged on a cliff. Binge watching gives me an “instant” gratification on the highs and lows of the story. There is not much time for me to anticipate about what is happening next. It completely pulls me into a stage of intense focus on what is happening now. Television, however, are mostly weekly releases. The viewers have time to sit on the episode and anticipate what happens next. The emotions have time to evolve and change.

Through my binge watch of Hunter x Hunter, I was super engaged in the story that made me not do anything else other than watch it or in other words, even when I am doing other things, I am watching it too. The engagement with it made “reality” not exist and the only “reality” I am engaging with is the show. If it was release episode by episode on television, I would have been differently engaged.

Reference:

Mareike Jenner, “Is this TVIV? On Netflix, TVIII and binge-watching”, New Media and Society, Feb 2016, 18 (2): 257-273

Xin Cindy Sun