Return to Analog: Episodic vs. Binge-Watch

I’m turning 50 this month and romanticizing my GenX life so brace yourselves for more “Return to Analog” posts. I have a plethora of thoughts nobody asked for but everyone needs.

I love when brand new, popular shows do a weekly episode instead of a full season drop. It’s a return to the way things used to be enjoyed—in community. Your folks subscribed to the TV Guide or bought it at the store (which you browsed through and then pulled the address label off so you could pull the glue strips off the back and roll into tiny balls) and you planned your week around your favorite shows. I never missed the episodes of The Simpsons, X-Files, Twin Peaks, Friends, Golden Girls, etc.

As a kid, Saturday Morning cartoons had to be planned with a highlighter because there was a lot of switching around between channels to get the proper line-up, each network had different shows! My favorites: Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Snorks/Smurfs, Gummi Bears, Scooby Doo, He-Man & She-Ra, Jem, like—too many to keep listing honestly. Fucking Thundercats…loved it

There was a schedule for television programs and you had to fucking be there or you would fucking miss it. I did not miss the latest episode of Friends or My So Called Life or Dawson’s Creek…Oooh! Or 90210 because I had to talk about it with my friends at school! The Boiler Room episode (My So Called Life), as it came to be known, was a test of your coolness—did you see it? If you didn’t, you heard the spoilers. Jordan KISSED Angela! AT SCHOOL! (This was obviously before we all knew that Jared Leto would become a weirdo-pervy sex cult leader.) We stayed up until almost midnight to watch SNL at sleepovers. I remember waking up in the middle of the night at a friend’s house who slept with her TV on and watching a few minutes of Headbanger’s Ball on MTV. It was a comfort.

Episodic TV meant we all enjoyed things together as one collective audience. News outlets even reported on milestone episodes the next day. Remember the episode of Saved By the Bell where Jessie takes caffeine pills to get good grades? It was supposed to be an addiction to amphetamines but the network slapped that down; even still—parents freaked out and it was a hot talking point for a while after the episode aired. I remember friends who weren’t watching it, suddenly making sure they never missed an episode just in case something controversial happened. I just re-watched this scene and felt so emotional! I love Zach Morris. What a good friend.

These days, people just binge-watch a whole season of a TV show and move on to the next. They can only really talk about the show with other binge-watchers for fear of spoiling important twists and turns (or they literally don’t give a fuck and ruin the whole show on social media). This morning, I posted about Widow’s Bay on Instagram:

and check this out, this person said they were going to wait until all the episodes came out before watching:

RETURN TO THE OLD WAYS YOUNGSTER! Don’t let streaming services rob you of the joy of episodic television and experiencing shows as a collective audience the way it’s truly supposed to be! It’s not being “spoiled” it’s literally isolating people.

This is why live TV events like the Olympics, The Super Bowl, The Oscars, feel so fun and special and we throw watch parties—because THIS IS THE WAY! With everything the way it is right now in the world, I do think little things to bring us together can help. I really do. We’re so compartmentalized and separated that even something simple as watching Widow’s Bay together week-to-week feels like a gift.

Anyhoodles…more ways we can return to analog soon

xo Sadie