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Watched the show last night with the wife and we both loved it. I wasn't really sure what to expect to be honest. Being a late 80s baby I wasn't exposed to a whole lot of vintage sit coms but that didn't seem to make much difference to how much I enjoyed the show. We actually watched it twice to make sure we caught all the Easter eggs.

I really do hate the weekly release format though, it just completely defeats the purpose of putting shows up on a streaming service. It just seems like they want to wrangle another month of subscription out of people. How about just having enough content that people never want to cancel? Crazy idea, I know.

Well, the weekly release format - y'know, the one that has worked since TV was a thing - does tend to keep people's interest in a series for longer than the weekend of release. Even ignoring subscriptions, that's got to be more useful (and valuable) to the network than the "dump and run" approach usually used by Netflix.

Yeah I get that weekly release is a tradition wise ass. It's also antiquated as hell now. People have been binging their TV shows for about a decade at this point. Plus, people who prefer to watch only an episode a week can still do so if they put up the whole run at once.

Well, lets not pretend weekly releases was be best because thats how it always was. IT was a product of restrictions on filiming, TV slots needing to be filled, and getting people to come back in order to go to advertisements.
Tradition =/= inheratnly better.
Culture around TV has changed, and while i like talking about a show, sometimes it can be frusterating when shows that where made with Binging in mind(Hyper serialized like Wandavision, The Boys, The Expanse) are now released weekly.
When older shows where released weejkly, you had a complete episode. Boom, done. come back next week for a new adventure.

I think more important then that, when tv was episodic with each episode returning to the status quo it didnt matter if there was a huge gap in time between episodes.

Now that long form story telling is being done with tv series using episodes as chapters in a singular narrative its more important to keep audience in the mood/theme/plots of the over all story. Binging helps the show get digested as it is meant to be. As a singular narrative. The weekly release schedule has me consume any amount of hours of other content that gets me feeling other feelings and sunk in to other themes and when i come back 7 days later i need to get myself back into the right head space.

Who are these people again? What did they do last week? What was that thing from 3 weeks ago being called back to now? It just doesnt work as well anymore with the types of stories being told.

Thank you to hot sauce and lance for making my point more eloquently than I could

Personally, I'm not sure it helps their revenue streams, either.

I was pondering subbing for the Mandalorian... once all the episodes were up. Then I remembered this was coming out, so decided not to. When this ends, I'm pretty sure I'll see how long it will be until some other show I'm interested in comes out and delay again.

When Mando season 1 happened, I did the free trial and dumped it afterwards. Unless there is a big glut of content coming, I'm just as happy not to sub. If I 'miss' something when its new, oh well.

Well lets also wonder, Mando was 2020s most pirated show, how much more does this encourage piracy?

Less? It certaintly reduces spoiler potential, because there aren't people floating round in different time zones / shift patterns having binged the whole thing and put up clips before I even finish work for the day...

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Well lets also wonder, Mando was 2020s most pirated show, how much more does this encourage piracy?

It's the same entitlement culture we see with 40k rulebooks - "I want this content, but I don't think I should have to pay to access it."

I've not paid for Disney+, so I've not watched any of the Mandalorian bar a couple of clips on YT, and I haven't watched any of Wandavision beyond the trailer.

Should they come out with a boxed set - which they might've for Mando s1, I've not looked - I may pick them up that way, but until I do, I'm not going to try to pirate the content,

Thinking about it some, I think Mando Season 2 is where Disney perfected their decision method for going weekly versus binging.

Mando Season 2 basically has a MASSIVE discussion point every two episodes on the show and was kind of a big cycle of Setup / Payoff then Resolution/Setup.

So people just kept on talking about the show, the anticipation of the next Discussion Point encouraging people to subscribe to see it first hand.

Then, of course, you get to the Season Finale and the Climatic Discussion Point with the anticipation for that meaning MORE people sign up...

And people are STILL talking about Climatic Discussion Point.

I'm sure this has all been focus grouped and planned out to the 9th degree... (Which is kind of insidious when you think about it, but then again, Mouse, it's kind of their thing, and would be other companies, if they were competent at it.)

But in an alternate world, where Mandalorian Season 2 was a binging show... This method wouldn't work. You wouldn't get that drip and drab of new people who were excited about what they heard of the Payoff of the last Discussion Point and the Setup of the next Discussion Point.

Instead, all that has just flown by in an evening. Ultimately, the only thing people would have really talked about was the Climatic Discussion Point, which would have likely just had the same impact as it did with the weekly release.


But bringing it back on topic, I'm wondering if my theory will pan out with WandaVision, I think it should... The Discussion Points may be smaller, more based on the shows mystery, but, I can see some echoes of the theory.

even back in season 1 I read an article suggesting Disney had the right idea. they noted it kept people subscribed longer, obviously, it also, they noted, made it easier to talk about the show as everyone had reliably seen so far. they compared and contrasted it with the Witcher which had aired around the same time, and noted that around the holiday table people discussed the Mandalorian more then the witcher because it was easier to know how far along everyone was.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Voss wrote:
Personally, I'm not sure it helps their revenue streams, either.

I was pondering subbing for the Mandalorian... once all the episodes were up. Then I remembered this was coming out, so decided not to. When this ends, I'm pretty sure I'll see how long it will be until some other show I'm interested in comes out and delay again.

When Mando season 1 happened, I did the free trial and dumped it afterwards. Unless there is a big glut of content coming, I'm just as happy not to sub. If I 'miss' something when its new, oh well.

you'll be subscribed for the rest of the year then. once wanda vision finishes falcon and winter soldier comes out. after that finishes another thing comes out, disney plus basicly has a new series every two months for the rest of the year

BrianDavion wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Voss wrote:
Personally, I'm not sure it helps their revenue streams, either.

I was pondering subbing for the Mandalorian... once all the episodes were up. Then I remembered this was coming out, so decided not to. When this ends, I'm pretty sure I'll see how long it will be until some other show I'm interested in comes out and delay again.

When Mando season 1 happened, I did the free trial and dumped it afterwards. Unless there is a big glut of content coming, I'm just as happy not to sub. If I 'miss' something when its new, oh well.

you'll be subscribed for the rest of the year then. once wanda vision finishes falcon and winter soldier comes out. after that finishes another thing comes out, disney plus basicly has a new series every two months for the rest of the year

Loki might bring me in. F&WS definitely won't. Third string tag-along characters 'bro-ing' around doing... stuff? Pass.
The 'Star' additions don't seem to be happening here, and the shows after Loki are kinda... eh. Ms Marvel is a maybe (not a character I know well, and the animated things they did with her, Squirrel Girl and an Agents of Shield/Spider-teen tie-in ensemble weren't that great) , Secret Invasion could be good, but that's a ways off.

 Compel wrote:
Thinking about it some, I think Mando Season 2 is where Disney perfected their decision method for going weekly versus binging.

Mando Season 2 basically has a MASSIVE discussion point every two episodes on the show and was kind of a big cycle of Setup / Payoff then Resolution/Setup.

So people just kept on talking about the show, the anticipation of the next Discussion Point encouraging people to subscribe to see it first hand.

Then, of course, you get to the Season Finale and the Climatic Discussion Point with the anticipation for that meaning MORE people sign up...

And people are STILL talking about Climatic Discussion Point.

I'm sure this has all been focus grouped and planned out to the 9th degree... (Which is kind of insidious when you think about it, but then again, Mouse, it's kind of their thing, and would be other companies, if they were competent at it.)

But in an alternate world, where Mandalorian Season 2 was a binging show... This method wouldn't work. You wouldn't get that drip and drab of new people who were excited about what they heard of the Payoff of the last Discussion Point and the Setup of the next Discussion Point.

Instead, all that has just flown by in an evening. Ultimately, the only thing people would have really talked about was the Climatic Discussion Point, which would have likely just had the same impact as it did with the weekly release.


But bringing it back on topic, I'm wondering if my theory will pan out with WandaVision, I think it should... The Discussion Points may be smaller, more based on the shows mystery, but, I can see some echoes of the theory.

This. Weekly episodes deserve dense plotting. There’s stuff in episodes 1 and 2 I missed. So I’ll need to go back and re-watch. I expect much the same of the rest. Obvious stuff, nod and a wink stuff, call backs which add context to earlier happenings etc.

That strikes me as a less rewarding technique for binge series. Those should be spectacle all the way, to keep me bingeing.

Consider the mysteries around Wandavison.

I WAS someone who was exposed to those sort of sitcoms as a child.

I just can't watch most TV shows "set" in that period anymore. They make me cringe. Especially canned laughter tracks.

I'll pass on the rest of it.

I watched it out of curiosity because I quite liked the characters in the movies but I'm not enjoying it TBH. It all seems a bit contrived and it's not really got it's hooks into me compelling me to watch another episode.
I may put it on in the background while I'm painting, if I remember it's on.

 chromedog wrote:
I WAS someone who was exposed to those sort of sitcoms as a child.

I just can't watch most TV shows "set" in that period anymore. They make me cringe. Especially canned laughter tracks.

You realise they're done with the 50's and 60's black and white sitcoms, right?

And they filmed some of it in front of a real audience, meaning it wasn't canned laughter.

Yes but it still looks and "feels" like an old sitcom.

Which is the effect that they were going for. The visual "gags" are also old enough to be collecting pensions.

I gave it a go. I'll give the rest a miss.

It's ok, I've still got "the expanse" and tbh, Marvel's spandex crowd never really did much for me anyway.

Re. Episodes all at once vs. one a week:

Who's was still talking, let alone thinking, about Tiger King by April?

Everyone with Netflix must have watched that. It hit at the same time as lockdowns started in the UK. The memes, the internet chat etc.

And then it was gone. People talked about the Mandalorian Series 2 for TWO MONTHS. Surely that's going to bring in more viewers?

 chromedog wrote:
The visual "gags" are also old enough to be collecting pensions.

That's the point though...

And each episode is taking us through a different decade of those sorts of things. It's not staying 50's/60's black and white sitcom. We're done with that before the end of the second episode.

 Graphite wrote:
Re. Episodes all at once vs. one a week:

Who's was still talking, let alone thinking, about Tiger King by April?

Everyone with Netflix must have watched that. It hit at the same time as lockdowns started in the UK. The memes, the internet chat etc.

And then it was gone. People talked about the Mandalorian Series 2 for TWO MONTHS. Surely that's going to bring in more viewers?

Not sure that’s such a good example, given its an exceptionally meme worthy show. So even if people aren’t discussing the plot, it’s at least dented the public consciousness.

It’s not a show for me however, and I’m heartily sick of said memes.

And it all boils down to the content. As noted, Mando and Wandavision were clearly plotted for episodic, week by week discussion. This is close to DS9 and Buffy’s approach, though said shows had no option. All four provide weekly talking points, helping to make each show a date in the calendar.

When a show is designed to be bunged out in a oner? They can take a different approach entirely, as the aim is to keep my eyes on as long as possible.

I really couldn’t say which format I prefer, as my opinion is based entirely on whether the individual experience is worth it. Wandavision and Mando? Keep it episodic, I say!

Ok let's give another example.
Who is still talking about "The Boys'
No one I know, it was replaced by something else.
Who is still talking about lower decks? Or Lovecraft country.
It may stay around a bit longer because of the weekly release schedule but it's not that much longer after the finale.
But the conversation doesn't last long
We stopped talking about Wandavision Saturday night. Or atleast theories.

I find more and more I much prefer the weekly format. The sense of community and culture around such things is a lot stronger than binge shows that demand you watch them the first weekend or just not participate. I'd gotten back to appreciating it via anime, but I'm really happy to see it return to American television as well.

 AduroT wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:
I'm a huge fan of all the source marterial this seems to be inspired by. Very excited to check it out.

If you’re talking about the Vision comic run where he had the whole synth family (I think I saw people making comparisons previously) this is nothing like that story.

I never really cared about the synth family itself, just the inherent premise "sitcom ideal suburbia" falling apart as soon as its exposed to characters that don't fit its rigid structure. The show definitely follows the same ideas that made it a great run, even if it's focus on recreating the sitcoms itself is far more of the focus. Different, but familiar all the same.

Also, my thoughts on what may be going on:

 LunarSol wrote:
I find more and more I much prefer the weekly format. The sense of community and culture around such things is a lot stronger than binge shows that demand you watch them the first weekend or just not participate. I'd gotten back to appreciating it via anime, but I'm really happy to see it return to American television as well.

Not to sound like a hipster, but I've been anti-binging for some time (at least back to the Netflix Marvel series.)

If all the episodes are released at once, I'll still largely only watch one a day at most.

I think some shows are now.made with binge watching in mind, but I'd they're not you're effectively trying to turn 8-12 parts of episodic television into one or two ludicrous length movie installments, and this does weird things to the narrative structure.

I expect the 1/week idea is indeed to stretch it out, keep people interested over a longer period of time, and to keep subscriptions up.

Also, while it can be said that people that don't want to binge can spread it out, people that *do* want to binge can just wait until the whole thing has been released.

Were I a producer of said content, or the service that provides it, I'd probably want to stretch that content out some. Like The Boys, and American Gods, on Prime, I know I wouldn't have that service if it weren't for those shows... and truth told I only have that because my wife does the Prime thing. Same with Disney Plus... we (as a family) like the MCU, and Star Wars, so we picked it up to watch Mando and the other movies. We just started watching the MCU in timeline order a couple of weeks ago.

I guess my grand point was that a weekly release schedule is almost certainly a financial decision that the services choose to make maximum profits. I will probably drop and pick up D+ once we clear the MCU timeline, and come back when new Mando is available.

That said! Looking foward to checking out Wandavision. Sounds fun with a bit of a dark undertone... right up my alley.

Still haven't seen it, but it is pretty clear to me that they will need Dr. Strange to sort Wanda out with her psychological issues.

Well, this is meant to tie into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (and is the phase 4 opener).

Genuinely intrigued to see how it copes without Tony and Cap.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Well, this is meant to tie into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (and is the phase 4 opener).

Genuinely intrigued to see how it copes without Tony and Cap.

Should be fine. Dr. Strange 1 was mostly just plagued by a plodding origin story and an utterly lackluster villain (and villain plot), a lack of Tony and Cap wasn't really an issue for any of the earlier Marvel films. The mediocre ones mostly just lacked stakes and engaging villains.

Besides, if the persistent rumours are to be believed, it won't have to.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Besides, if the persistent rumours are to be believed, it won't have to.

even if they do come back, I don't expect them to be headlining, Tony'll come back as an AI, and my guess is IF Evens comes back it'll be as "old steve" and he'll be playing a similer role to that played by Nick Fury