The post-network area, coined by Amanda Lotz, explains the shift from broadcast viewing to individualised streaming sites, allowing for more accessible streaming and a diverse range of original content. Viewer autonomy was one of the first notable shifts from network to post-network era; people are no longer limited to watching a primary broadcast stream. 

Digital technology allows for streaming on various devices, such as TVs, smartphones, and laptops. This also allows for non-linear viewing, offering a pre-record option, fast forward or backward buttons, pause and play buttons, and even switching between episodes or segments of a programme. Newly accessible streaming services “encourage longer periods of viewer engagement,” otherwise known as binge watching (McDonald, 2016).

Beef, a Netflix hit drama, is the epitome of post-network bingeworthy media. Each episode is around half an hour, short enough to hold one’s attention span, and features witty dialogue, short scenes, attractive and bright visuals, cliffhangers, and digestible plotlines. The series success relied on these features, which were able to keep mass audiences enthralled and binging. The show also signifies a shift in on screen diversity, which was not seen in network era viewing. The plot centers around a young Korean man and woman; the woman is rich and considered successful and self-made, while the man is middle class and living with his younger brother. Beef features a range of social classes, races, sexualities, genders, behaviours, and career paths. The main characters speak both Korean and English, but the show is not centered around them being Asian American, going against the route most dramas take. As stated on the week 4 slides, “Asian American identities are presented as ‘normal’ without losing the specificities of common experiences and conditions” (Goddard, 2026).

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References:

Beef. Created by Lee Sung Jin, performances by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, Netflix, 2023.

Goddard, Michael. Lecture 4. Digital Audiovisual Media, Goldsmiths UOL, 2026.

Lotz, Amanda D. The Television Will Be Revolutionized. New York University Press, 2014. 

McDonald, Kevin, and Daniel Smith-Rowsey, editors. The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century. Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.