As Mareike Jenner argues in Netflix and the Re-Invention of Television, binge-watching is not merely a viewer habit but a publishing model. Netflix has long marketed self-scheduling as freedom while quietly structuring it through interface design, autoplay, “skip intro,” and algorithmic recommendation. The schedule was never abolished – it was internalized. The half-season release doesn’t undo this logic; it refines.

Where early Netflix encouraged viewers to consume an entire season in one insulated flow, the split-season model engineers a double binge. Viewers binge the first half intensely, but instead of narrative closure, they encounter a calibrated pause. This interruption doesn’t break immersion but sharpens it. Curiosity replaces completion. Anticipation replaces satisfaction. Desire is stretched rather than spent.

Each of these series exploits that pause differently. Wednesday ends its first half with unresolved momentum, ensuring that character attachment deepens during the wait. Bridgerton elongates romantic suspense, turning delay into affective pressure. The Glory weaponizes withholding most aggressively, making revenge itself something deferred, simmering, and obsessive.

Jenner notes that binge-watching is frequently framed through metaphors of addiction – initially tongue-in-cheek, increasingly precise. The half-season release makes those metaphors harder to ignore. Instead of allowing viewers to binge to exhaustion, Netflix strategically withholds content, creating cycles of craving, speculation, and return. Viewers don’t just binge episodes anymore; they binge recaps, memes, theories, trailers, and reminders, all while remaining tethered to the platform.

Crucially, the illusion of control remains intact. There is no broadcast schedule, no fixed weekly obligation. You watch when you want. But not everything. Netflix decides where the break happens, how long it lasts, and how your anticipation is managed through interface promotion and algorithmic resurfacing. Control feels shared, even generous, but it remains asymmetrical.

You’re halfway there, Netflix seems to whisper. The pause is not an exit but a tightening of the loop. Curiosity has already taken hold, attachments have already formed, and the rhythm of return has been quietly set. What appears to be restraint is actually acceleration deferred. By the time the second half drops, resistance is beside the point. You don’t resume watching; you fall back in. Halfway there, you can’t stop now – and Netflix knows it.

Quynh-Trang Dinh

References

Jenner, Mareike. Netflix and the Re-Invention of Television. Springer International Publishing, 2018.

Wednesday. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, Netflix, 2022–present.

Bridgerton. Created by Chris Van Dusen, Netflix, 2020–present.The Glory. Created by Kim Eun-sook, Netflix, 2022–2023.

The Glory. Created by Kim Eun-sook, Netflix, 2022–2023.