Streaming services have been revolutionary. From the comfort of our own homes, we have a plethora of quality entertainment right at our fingertips. But has it made us impatient?
I remember back in the day, I would patiently wait each week for the latest episode of whatever show I was obsessed with at the time (most likely Lost or How I Met Your Mother) to air on free-to-air TV. And then when the season concluded I would be excited about the next season to be released the next year.
Whereas now, because most shows are released in their entirety onto streaming platforms and I can binge them in one sitting, rather than excitement, I feel frustrated when I have to wait. Case in point, last Friday I watched the latest episode of The Boys (which at the time was Episode 7 of Season 3) and as soon as the episode concluded I wanted more.
I needed to know what would happen next but The Boys is one of the few shows these days that releases new episodes weekly, not all at once. So, I spent the whole week feeling anxious and impatient for the Season 3 finale to drop – which, thank God it did yesterday. However, now I have to wait for Season 4 which is at least a year away.
And my feelings of desperation for Season 4 got me thinking; have streaming services made us impatient? And not just impatient in terms of waiting for new episodes to be released, but also impatient with storytelling and character development?
I stumbled across this Tumblr post (see below) and it perfectly highlights a problem society now has when it comes to quality storytelling. If a character or plot is not developed quickly enough nowadays most people get bored, lose interest and stop watching, rather than sticking it out.
Which could be keeping us from truly brilliant television. Many shows in the last few years have been cancelled after just one season due to low viewerships and average ratings. But look at Seinfeld or The Simpsons; both are considered iconic series but both only really hit their stride in their second/third seasons.
If made today, Seinfeld and The Simpsons most likely would’ve been cancelled after their first seasons because we are too impatient and have expectations that need to be instantly met; something television didn’t have to deal with back in the day. Shows could take their time growing characters and building complex plotlines, resulting in shows that were truly outstanding.
I, sadly, don’t have a solution aside from, maybe we should all try and slow down when we consume entertainment? Perhaps, even if Netflix, Stan, Binge, Disney+, Prime Video etc. releases an entire season of our favourite show at once, we should not get through it as quickly as possible. Set ourselves a limit of one or two episodes a week; in my opinion, it’d help us savour and appreciate television more.
However, the catch-22 with doing that, is the streaming platforms would see that people weren’t binging their latest show, would assume viewers don’t like it that much and would then cancel the show. We truly can’t win. Oh well, I’ll just go back to counting down the days until The Boys Season 4 is released…
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