Joss Whedon on How Binge Watching Ruins Storytelling

Joss Whedon has been getting more ink in the last year for his opinions than his on screen creations, but his thoughts and ideas aren’t just limited to the current political state in the US. He’s equally passionate on the way TV shows are watched and whether or not you should watch them on a week to week basis or if they are meant to be binge watched like we’ve all started doing since Netflix has made it possible.

I would not want to do it. I would want people to come back every week and have the experience of watching something at the same time. We released Doctor Horrible in three acts. We did that, in part, because I grew up watching miniseries like Lonesome Dove. I loved event television. And as it was falling by the wayside, I thought, ‘Let’s do it on the internet!’ Over the course of that week, the conversation about the show changed and changed. That was exciting to watch. Obviously Netflix is turning out a ton of extraordinary stuff. And if they came to me and said, ‘Here’s all the money! Do the thing you love!’ I’d say, ‘You could release it however you want. Bye.’ But my preference is more old-school. Anything we can grab on to that makes something specific, a specific episode, it’s useful for the audience. And it’s useful for the writers, too. ‘This is what we’re talking about this week!’ For you to have six, 10, 13 hours and not have a moment for people to breath and take away what we’ve done … to just go, “Oh, this is just part seven of 10,” it makes it amorphous emotionally. And I worry about that in our culture — the all-access all the time. Having said that, if that’s how people want it, I’d still work just as hard. I’ll adapt.

I agree with his thoughts on the matter. While I enjoy the ability to binge watch the latest Marvel series on Netflix, there’s also something really wonderful about the anticipation I’ll be building up between now and Saturday night, when Darth Maul and Obi Wan finally meet up on the next episode of Star Wars Rebels.

Source: Collider