Week 4 – Lia Lee

This week, we discussed the claim that Netflix-era television/streaming platforms have permanently transformed viewing into binge-based, on-demand, individualized experiences. As Amanda Lotz argues, internet-distributed television decisively breaks with the network model by abandoning schedules, liveness, and linear flow. Similarly, Jenner suggests that Netflix does not merely accommodate binge-watching but instead actively produces it.

However, this week’s material also allows us to see the limits of binge-watching, and why streaming platforms now appear to be – in my opinion – reintroducing elements of scheduled television.

Jenner mentions that binge-watching creates intense but short-lived engagement: viewers become absorbed quickly, but meaning and affect are often exhausted just as fast. In this sense, binge-watching risks collapsing narrative mystery. When the next episode is always immediately available, tension is replaced by momentum. A series like ‘Beef’, one of this week’s required viewings, clearly displays this logic. Its pleasure lies not in narrative uncertainty but in affective escalation – anger, humiliation, and obsession intensify rapidly, pulling the viewer forward through emotional compulsion rather than mystery. The show is gripping, but once consumed, it is just left behind. I can personally attest to this as I binged the show after finishing the first episode in the viewing on wednesday – by fridays lecture, I had already forgottenotten about the show, and as much as I enjoyed it and was surprised at the turnout, its accesability has given me no time to process what was happening, and if it were not for the lecture and seminar I would not care to break down the affect it has had on me.

On the other hand, recently, platform strategies have been alluding to a partial return to weekly release schedules in order to sustain attention over time. Series such as ‘Euphoria’ or ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ (TSITP) revive aspects of network- era viewing by spacing episodes out, encouraging speculation, discussion, and collective anticipation. In ‘TSITP’, weekly release for the highly anticipated last season sustained a genuine narrative mystery – who will belly choose – allowing affect to accumulate socially rather then privatly. For the last episode, cinemas and pubs all over the world were showing the 2 hour long episode due to the mass demand and popularity of the series. we as the viewer, return each week not just to watch, but to discuss, theorise, and participate – Like regular popular network TV in the UK, like ‘The Traitors’ or “Love Island’.

I personally believe that streaming platforms are finally recognising the problem identified in Jenner’s analysis: binge-watching produces intensity without longevity. As our attention spans are increasingly shaped by social media, platforms need to remain culturally present for weeks, not days. Weekly release structures allow streaming and social media platforms to work together, reinforcing forms of communal watching that binge culture undermines.

Although this is not a full return to traditional television, its arguebly a new hybrid model that reveals the adaptability of post-network television. As Lotz explains, internet-distributed television is defined less by fixed formats than by strategic control over access and engagement. The reintroduction of scheduling does not negate post-cinema, but shows how platforms now modulate affect across time, balancing binge immersion with sustained mystery.

Overall, the netflix era may have taught audiencies how to binge- but – streaming platforms are now relearning an old television lesson: Mystery, delay, and collective anticipation matter- And although I personally think we will not fully revert back to old television ways, i do belive that the combination of modern social media and streaming culture qill find a new equlaibrium of TV consumption that will reveal our old consumption ways as a society.

Refrences

Jenner, M. (2018) Netflix and the Reinvention of Television. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lotz, A.D. (2017) Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing.

Beef (2023) Created by Lee Sung Jin. Netflix. Season 1.

Euphoria (2019– ) Created by Sam Levinson. HBO. Season 1&2.

The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022– ) Created by Jenny Han. Amazon Prime Video. Season 3.