Netflix Pacing: Binge or Savor?

June 3, 2015 2:13 PM

We've got a couple potentially big shows coming to Netflix soon: Sense8, Orange is the New Black Season 3, & Wet Hot American Summer. I've noticed that some fanfare discussions will post an episode a day (thus creating discussions that favor those who binge), some every few days, and some once a week (thus favoring those who watch slowly). So I'd like to throw the question out there: Is it time to discuss having a more consistent approach, or should we let things continue to develop organically?
posted by kanewai (27 comments total)

I vote for posting when available. The threads stay open forever (yay!), so there's no time crunch for the savorers.

But for you bingers (of which I am generally one), please remember that all episode threads are First Watch unless otherwise noted. Some of the Daredevil episode threads leaned toward the spoilery end of the spectrum.
posted by Etrigan at 5:00 PM on June 3, 2015

I vote "binge" because once they're up, people can watch at their own pace without fear of spoiling things for others, whereas any other pace could get the bingers accidentally posting spoilers.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:04 AM on June 4, 2015

I'm not a big binger, but I do think a staggered, but closely clumped release is probably best as it seems the majority fall into the binging category. I do think for the purpose of good discussion that there is something to figuring just the right number of days between posts to allow folks to really focus on one episode, before flying away to talk about the next and then the one after that, etc. I don't know what that time span is.

In the Last Airbender rewatch, we have the episodes staggered Monday/Thursday, for example, and I think having the 72 hours between episodes has been pretty good. 48 hours would be the minimum in my opinion.
posted by Atreides at 8:40 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm a binger, but I lean more towards 1 - 4/posts a day depending on the show. I don't like the idea of 13 posts potentially flooding FanFare, especially if the show turns out to suck or no one discusses it.

FanFare does seems to work best with a consistent posting schedule, whether it's one a day or 2 posts every other day or whatnot.
posted by zix at 8:56 AM on June 4, 2015

Was I imagining things or have I seen a season-level "post" where one block of links on the FP pointed to all the individual episode pages? Something like that might alleviate the flooding of the front page.

I'm not a binger myself, but I feel like having all the episodes up relatively quickly can keep spoiler-y material out of the early episode discussions, since people will have more appropriate threads to post in.

Otherwise, one post a day seems to work okay.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 11:39 AM on June 4, 2015

It was Daredevil that got me thinking about this. There would be a healthy conversation for about three days, and after five days it would usually fade out completely except for a few stragglers. This seemed to be true both for the episodes that were spaced out and the episodes that were spaced in rapid succession.

That was the only thread I've managed to follow in real time; most others I come in long after the discussion has peaked. So I'm mildly partial to the idea of every 72 hours as Airbender did, but that's mostly because it suits my style of watching.

I think announcing a set posting schedule for a given show, perhaps in the first thread, is an excellent idea.
posted by kanewai at 12:11 PM on June 4, 2015

Was I imagining things or have I seen a season-level "post" where one block of links on the FP pointed to all the individual episode pages? Something like that might alleviate the flooding of the front page.

Nope, you aren't imagining things. Looking through the archives, it was waaay back with Bosch, currently on page 18 of the archives. The show was posted over the course of 6 days, sometimes with 3 posts in a day, sometimes with days between posts.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:54 AM on June 5, 2015

Welp, the Grace and Frankie Netflix show has been posted at a pretty hectic pace. It can be one example to follow to see how the discussion goes on a binge posting style.
posted by Atreides at 7:00 PM on June 7, 2015

I favor every 72 hours fwiw. I just binged all of Sense8 though, so...

I think it can be tough to discuss shows without spoiling when you binge, especially when you want to discuss larger themes/ongoing arcs, which leads to me sometimes waiting to get to a certain episode to comment on Fanfare, but eh. I'm not too fussed one way or the other.
posted by yasaman at 3:11 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was thinking about this in part because I watched about half of Sense8 this weekend as well.

I guess the advantage of slowly rolling out posts for such a show is that different episode posts will hit at the right time for different people, and that people can sync up if they so choose. I am better at making notes during breaks in my own watching than syncing up, as it turns out.

I was planning on making a post for the first episode; my thought was more or less to wait to post any further episodes until I saw if there was any response. Though of course if anyone else posted I'd be happy to participate.
posted by mountmccabe at 4:47 PM on June 8, 2015

As I almost wrote earlier: would it makes sense to post Netflix style shows under Rewatch?

Does that draw the more interesting conversation? How often do you step into original airing shows one by one as you watch?
posted by mountmccabe at 9:15 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I definitely prefer it to be one a day. I think it was that way for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and that discussion went very well. One a week is too slow, I think, but posting them all at once and flooding the page isn't great either.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 12:43 PM on June 9, 2015

Once every day is a lot to ask for folks who work a lot, or who have kids, or whatever. I'm not sure why the WATCH AN EPISODE A DAY TO KEEP UP is necessary at all, and would prefer to not feel daily pressure like that on something I'm choosing to, you know, enjoy. A new episode post once every two or three days seems like a good compromise.

If folks who've binged want to start a thread where they can discuss the whole show all at once, there's nothing stopping them from doing so, is there? Knock yourselves out.
posted by mediareport at 1:29 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ok, I get that the folks who want to binge would have to put all the episodes up at once, but would the mods allow that *and* a slower-paced episode-every-two-days non-spoiler watching for folks who want to enjoy it that way?
posted by mediareport at 2:19 PM on June 9, 2015

I prefer binge-posting (and Rewatch threads full of spoilers and more in-depth discussion), but I mostly only read FanFare, so I'm not sure how much weight my vote should carry. I'd love for all of Sense8 to be up right now, for example, to read as I go through the series, which will happen in fits and starts.
posted by moira at 2:48 PM on June 9, 2015

Why binge-posting: I don't love sort of feeling like my watching schedule is being throttled by the slower posting, and I've lost interest in show threads when I've gone too far ahead in my watching and can't really remember specifics of a past episode. Putting it all out in a binge makes it possible for people to watch and participate at their own pace, in my mind, though I can understand that some people might like the aspect of jumping in as soon as the thread opens in order to be part of a newer, more active discussion.
posted by moira at 3:02 PM on June 9, 2015

That's why I like binge posting too, but I think every two or three days is a reasonable compromise, because sometimes with binge posting, I end up losing interest in the earlier threads/episodes and skip ahead to the latest/last for discussion, when there's still plenty to discuss in earlier episodes.

Also for Sense8, I wouldn't mind following the AV Club's recap schedule for Fanfare threads. They're planning to put up a recap M-W-F until they get through all the episodes. Actually, in general it might be a good idea to put up Fanfare threads concurrently with a major recap site like The AV Club for shows that are released a season at a time.
posted by yasaman at 3:24 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

One reason I didn't want to rush ahead with Sense8: Wikipedia doesn't have any episode descriptions past the premiere. Entertainment Weekly posted everything this weekend (those recaps are good) but I like the idea of sticking to the AV Club schedule; those recaps are also very good, especially with the "stray observations" of quotes and plot points at the end.
posted by mountmccabe at 4:16 PM on June 9, 2015

So, episode 2 for tomorrow? I don't think we *have* to wait for AV Club's recaps to go up, or that we have to stick to their schedule. Posting two episodes on Monday might work, e.g., on the assumption that most of us could knock out 2 episodes over the weekend.

Honestly, I suspect I'm gonna binge on more than 2 episodes this weekend, if the show stays as fun as the 1st two episodes have been, so I don't want to stand in the way if most folks here want to move faster. But even if we do an episode a day, binge folks are still gonna be chomping at the bit for 11 days, aren't they? So does it really matter that much if we take longer?

I'm not sure. I guess I wouldn't be averse to doing it the usual way and just coming to threads late as I catch up. This time I won't be so far behind that I feel I've missed much of the conversation.
posted by mediareport at 8:06 PM on June 9, 2015

I think a post a day is best for these 'all the season at once' shows. I don't think posting a thread for each episode all at once works. Some people want to race into the discussion, some people will find it later, but having it all the season's discussions drop on the same day really hurts things.

And one could also organize a club here to organize some people watching something at a slower pace.
posted by Catblack at 9:33 AM on June 10, 2015

I'm bingeing Sense8 too, and I'm wondering how I will remember what has gone on in each episode in order to discuss it properly.

I kind of wish we could have a single "All season X" post, and then a slow-release option. But both being first-watch. That would surely satisfy both needs but not take over the whole FF front page?
posted by tracicle at 1:35 PM on June 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm not sure splitting up the discussion is a good idea; it will really limit the reach of shows with less of a following. Splitting up, say, Game of Thrones discussions into book/non-book only works because so many people want to discuss that show.

Discussion under the final episode of a season can cover anything that happened throughout the season so overall observations and patterns that have developed are fair game. This sort of works as an "all season x" post.

There are a lot of ways to remember what goes on in each episode, such as reading recaps and rewatching the episode. And once the posts are up they will be available for people to stop in while they're watching at whatever pace.
posted by mountmccabe at 2:27 PM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I think the "open forever" idea is a bit of a red herring. It's entirely possible that a thread will slowly have a conversation grow over time, and that's great, but in practice the majority of posts will be made within a week of the thread existing (I'm sure someone with internet scraping skills could find out....). So I am greatly in favour of delayed release, it's also kinder to those people who simply don't have the time to watch the whole thing in a couple of days.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 4:42 AM on June 11, 2015

I kind of wish we could have a single "All season X" post, and then a slow-release option. But both being first-watch. That would surely satisfy both needs but not take over the whole FF front page?

I really love this idea, tracicle. I got through OITNB by Saturday night and find myself unable to participate in the individual threads because it's all sort of muddying together and I don't want to spoil anything by accident. But I'm dying to talk about overall arc and theme.
posted by mochapickle at 10:10 AM on June 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm about halfway through the season and am stuck in the same place. I might risk wading into an "All season X" post at the cost of probably spoiling myself to talk about a couple of things I'm dying to talk about, but I am unlikely to post in the existing episode-by-episode threads. Too much risk of getting the episodes confused and spoiling someone else, which I would feel terrible about.

I don't know what the best answer is but I do like the idea of both individual-episode threads and a full-season-discussion going at once for these specific cases where a whole season drops at the same time.
posted by Stacey at 10:16 AM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I just popped in to say that yeah, I really want a binge option or something similar. While I'm not done with Sense8 or OITNB, I'm close, and feel hampered by the inability to post about what's happening. I noticed this problem on previous Netflix shows, Dare Devil, House Of Cards... When it's doled out a little at a time, it doesn't seem to match anyone's schedule. Voting for a "Binge" tag that contains discussion of entire seasons. It's not a perfect solution, but I too would probably risk spoilage just to openly discuss where I'm at and thoughts on episodes as they occur, rather than the cool down of waiting for the next post.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:08 AM on June 17, 2015

I'm probably an outlier, because with pretty much every show released as a full season at once, I almost always watch the whole thing in 2-3 sittings at most and often in one single sitting. I don't even think of them as having episodes, just stretch/pee/snack breaks. So the whole concept of discussing single episodes is really difficult for me, like if someone posted a thread for the first fifteen minutes only of the Mad Max movie. It would be fantastic to have a "yammer about the whole season" thread for us hyperfocused types.
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:32 PM on June 27, 2015 [2 favorites]