By: David Maldonado
"House of Cards is wasted in Netflix". That's the conclusion a co-worker and I got to after giving up to the hype and started watching the award winning series.
A little over a year ago, when HBO release their HBO Now streaming service, HBO CEO Richard Plepler said about binge watching: "There is something very powerful about having a conversation in the culture occurring for 10 weeks[...]". That day he put words to my thought and reserves about binge watching TV shows on the streaming platforms.
Yes, it's good to be able to catch up with our favorite shows all at once but, what are we missing with this? Right now we are at the top of the hype with "Game of Thrones". Episode nine is coming and we all know what that means. And here we are, waiting for it. These are, probably, the best ten weeks of the year. Every Monday morning when I get to work I spend at least half an hour talking what happened the previous night on the show. I can't wait to meet with my co-workers and talk about theories of what may come next.
That is the conversation Plepler was talking about. Annoying everyone in social media with post about the show. Talking to strangers on Starbucks because you heard them talking about your show and you want to exchange arguments. TV really can bring people together. But that doesn't happen with the Netflix culture.
Netflix shows are great, there is no denying. But we all watch them at a different pace. And with this we can't talk about the last episode we saw because we might spoil the show to others. Now, some series are not that great and the best thing you can do is to watch all episodes in one seat. That way you can enjoy them better. Good shows like "Bloodline" or "Frankie and Grace", are better if you binge watch them on a weekend. Because they lack the excitement of bringing back the viewers. And when you analyze the whole thing as one, they happen to be good.
Then you have other cases like "House of Cards" and "Daredevil". These are shows that every episode is better than the last one and in every one of them there is a twist or an event that move forward the story. Then again, when we watch them we can't call our best friend or our brother because he was busy that day and didn't watch it. Or even worse, he or she already watch it and will reply to you something like "oh just wait to see what happens next". I don't care next! I care now! I want to discuss what I just saw and analyze it and enjoy the little twist or the backstabbing wound.
This is the best era to watch TV series. We are getting good ones. But when they stream all episodes the same day they are depriving the viewership of the conversation. We can't talk the shows until the other person has finish it and by then you probably forgot the best parts of every single episode. Then we say "oh yes, it was an awesome season", but that's about it. No details, no anxiety for whats coming next, no speculation.
At the end, we just watch it on our own for ourselves, our enjoyment and we forgot about how one show can unite people. So I go back to my initial statement, "House of Cards" is wasted on Netflix. Because all episodes are so well written and acted that it's worth it to wait a little bit to enjoy the plot twist, to talk about how Frank Underwood can get away with this one. We could have had 13 weeks a year of talking about "House of Cards", just like we talk about "Game of Thrones". Instead I'm here ready and excited to watch episode 4 of season four and you're probably thinking "Oh, wait till you see wham happens next". And to I say: just imagine the conversation we could just have about that last episode.
