Just over a month ago Netflix released its new 13 episode series
titled “House of Cards” – all at once.
Finally, Americans can watch shows in the same way they eat their food
and drink their alcohol – in droves.
Many are claiming that this groundbreaking
new release method is an attempt to change the way we watch television shows,
while Netflix claims it simply allows people to watch shows at their own pace. Regardless, the perceived result of this
release model is that most people are watching several episodes in one sitting,
coining a new term called“binge-watching.
In reality, Netflix is not causing
this style of viewing, but just rather the first company to adapt to it, since
this is how many people watch television shows already. This release model is fueling the even
more concerning problem of the mass consumption habits of Americans.
College
students are undoubtedly dead center on the target demographic for a show like
“House of Cards.” The show, however, is
also aimed at a much wider audience as well. This audience is one that doesn’t
have time to set aside every weeknight to watch their favorite television shows
when they air for the first time. David
Fincher, the director of the first two episodes and also an execute producer
for the series, says, “The world of 7:30 on Tuesday nights, that’s dead. A stake has been driven through its heart,
its head has been cut off, and its mouth stuffed with garlic. The captive audience is gone. If you give people this opportunity to
mainline all in one day, there’s reason to believe that they will do it.” While a stake might not have been driven
through that release model’s heart, it is a quickly evaporating audience who
still waits for the weekly airing of their favorite show. When I talk to my peers in college about what
they did over the weekend a common response will be something to the effect of
“I took it easy and watched two seasons of ‘Breaking Bad,’” or “I watched an
entire season of ‘The Wire.’” I indulged
in the binge-viewing craze myself last winter break when I had a cold and
watched the whole first season of “Game of Thrones” in just two days.
Since the
world has been introduced to streaming content, fewer people watch television
in the traditional sense. The writer of
“House of Cards,” Beau Willimon, states: “Streaming is the future. TV will not be TV in five years from now…
everyone will be streaming.” This
furthers the statement that Netflix is not creating the binge-watcher, but
rather perpetuating it. They are the
first to release all episodes of a major television show at once, but by doing
so they are just fueling an over-indulgent American mentality that already
exists.
Netflix
release model for “House of Cards” is essentially capitalizing on the perceived
over-indulgent, “super-size-me-mentality” of most Americans. By releasing all episodes at once, and making
nearly 13 hours of content available in an instant, Netflix is banking on
American’s inability to delay gratification.
This is a highly bankable idea considering the way Americans consume
food, the way they consume alcohol, and the way they have begun to consume
their media. Some is good, more is
better.
Everyone
knows the consequences of over-eating are becoming obese. Binge drinking leads to poor decision making
in the short-term and long-term health problems. But in this 21st century,
technology plagued time that we live now live in, what will be the effects of
binge consuming media? Netflix is not
the first to put out potential commercial break advertisers by being
subscription based like HBO or Showtime, they are certainly putting pressure on
advertisers to become more creative in their attempts to reach consumers. However, just because the streaming “House of
Cards” is commercial free doesn’t mean it’s free of advertisements. Apple, Blackberry, Sony, and Nike are just a few of the
brands that I have noticed being deliberately placed in frame.
Apart from
the advertising world, how will binge viewing affect the average Joe and
Jane? Of course excessive television can
melt your brain,
but what’s the worst that can come from occasionally zoning out for a few days
to watch a TV series? It seems many of
the long and short term effects of binge-viewing have remained to be seen, but
all I know is my roommate hasn’t come out of his room since last semester when
he got a Netflix account… maybe it’s time to check on him.
