I would normally consider myself an “early adopter”. That’s someone who is first to grab onto a new form of tech or product. With streaming though, I was a little late to the party. When Netflix launched their streaming service in addition to DVD’s I had the misfortune of having really slow internet. At that time, my only experience with streaming was mostly on Youtube. Through no fault of Youtube, and due to my slow internet, my streaming experience was full of long periods of buffering and short periods of content.

So I waited until I had faster internet before signing up for Netflix. Since then, I have been the binge master, consuming episode after episode of shows I discovered and then feeling empty and sad when my favorite shows are all viewed and I have to wait sometimes a year for the next season. Anyone reading this able to relate to this conundrum?

Netflix may be changing the ability to “binge”. They will experiment with two shows coming up that will release their second seasons in small batches, instead of all at once. “The Circle” will begin in April with 4 episodes and release additional ones in June while  “Too Hot To Handle” will release later in 2021 with no specific dates yet.

Netflix executives say they want to give viewers time to dissect episodes and not be able to blow through them all at once. I would imagine that having a competitor like HULU (now part of the Disney family) releasing their original programming weekly has something to do with this. Hulu released sci-fi series “Devs” weekly last year and it created great weekly anticipation among fans.

I enjoy binging but I will admit, the weekly releases are like the old days of network TV and reminds me of looking forward to a specific night and show. Here’s one story to “watch”. Whether all at once or weekly, Netflix did re-invent television for all of us.