Okay, I got to thinking after last night's episode of Dexter finished.
I watched the first two seasons of Dexter for the first time on DVD and loved them. In contrast, I watched the third season week by week as each episode aired for the first and liked it, but not as much as the other two seasons. While the objectively higher quality of the first two seasons accounts for some of this difference in how I received the third season on first viewing, I started thinking of something else when I got around to rewatching the third season on DVD. I seemed to enjoy the season more when watching it in bulk. The phenomena interested me. One possible explaination for this is that a week in between episodes gives you time to dwell and be unimpressed if there's an average or below-average episode for the week. It's harder to get bogged down like that when you get to watch two, three, or even four episodes a night though. And so I pondered on.
I watched The Sopranos recently as well as most of the first two seasons of Mad Men, both on DVD. I loved both, but I imagine that my interest might not be as great if I had to wait a week or more in between episodes. In becoming accustomed to convenient access to large quantities of high quality television, I find myself almost struggling to get interest in tuning in to something on a weekly basis that I may not be able to develop as strong an interest in as I would if I was exposed to it on a daily basis.
However, the DVDs may not be the cause of this phenomenon. Perhaps TV in general is just inherently funner to watch in bulk and it's had not effect on attitudes towards weekly TV viewing. A couple years ago (before I got into TV on DVD), I tried to get into Pushing Daisies but couldn't. However, it was one of the first shows I saw on DVD in bulk and I loved it. I was shocked that such a fantastic show slipped through the cracks on my weekly schedule. It made me wonder if weekly TV broadcasts, while enjoyable in the past, were about to be exposed as the second rate way of doing things they've always been now that there's a new way to watch TV.
Is TV on DVD ruining your enjoyment in weekly TV shows or were weekly broadcasts on thin ice to begin with? Or am I on crack?
I watched the first two seasons of Dexter for the first time on DVD and loved them. In contrast, I watched the third season week by week as each episode aired for the first and liked it, but not as much as the other two seasons. While the objectively higher quality of the first two seasons accounts for some of this difference in how I received the third season on first viewing, I started thinking of something else when I got around to rewatching the third season on DVD. I seemed to enjoy the season more when watching it in bulk. The phenomena interested me. One possible explaination for this is that a week in between episodes gives you time to dwell and be unimpressed if there's an average or below-average episode for the week. It's harder to get bogged down like that when you get to watch two, three, or even four episodes a night though. And so I pondered on.
I watched The Sopranos recently as well as most of the first two seasons of Mad Men, both on DVD. I loved both, but I imagine that my interest might not be as great if I had to wait a week or more in between episodes. In becoming accustomed to convenient access to large quantities of high quality television, I find myself almost struggling to get interest in tuning in to something on a weekly basis that I may not be able to develop as strong an interest in as I would if I was exposed to it on a daily basis.
However, the DVDs may not be the cause of this phenomenon. Perhaps TV in general is just inherently funner to watch in bulk and it's had not effect on attitudes towards weekly TV viewing. A couple years ago (before I got into TV on DVD), I tried to get into Pushing Daisies but couldn't. However, it was one of the first shows I saw on DVD in bulk and I loved it. I was shocked that such a fantastic show slipped through the cracks on my weekly schedule. It made me wonder if weekly TV broadcasts, while enjoyable in the past, were about to be exposed as the second rate way of doing things they've always been now that there's a new way to watch TV.
Is TV on DVD ruining your enjoyment in weekly TV shows or were weekly broadcasts on thin ice to begin with? Or am I on crack?