When House of Cards landed on Netflix with an almighty thump just under a decade ago, it felt like a paradigm-shifting moment for television: not only because it heralded the arrival of Netflix as a major player, able to coax A-list actors and creators to the world of streaming, but also because of what it meant for how we watched TV itself. An entire series released at once, able to be gobbled up in one go? Who could possibly argue with that! Soon Netflix was dumping a preposterous number of shows on to their platform in the same manner. Other streamers soon followed suit, and then even traditional broadcasters. The era of binge-watching had arrived. There was no going back.
Well, err, about that … Fast-forward nine years later (skipping the intro on the way, naturally), and the binge-watching model is in retreat. We have returned to a place where the must-watch shows of 2022 – the likes of Yellowjackets, Severance, The Dropout, Moon Knight, Winning Time – are adopting the good old-fashioned weekly model. Most streamers have either abandoned the all-at-once approach (Amazon), only periodically dabble in it (BBC iPlayer, who occasionally drop full series, depending on the show, and never for their massive series that rely on overnight ratings), or have never embraced it in the first place (Disney+, Apple TV+ and of course networks like HBO). Only Netflix, originators of the binge-watch model are holding firm, and as you might of heard, they’re in a bit of a pickle right now.
