Supplemental Post 3 - Sabrina Sonner

I recently watched Bridgerton with my partner over Netflix Party, watching one or two episodes a week until we reached the end of the series. Talking with my friends about it, I had the weirdest experience of feeling like I had somehow watched it wrong for not binge watching it, as almost every person I talked to said they had watched it in a sitting or a weekend. In spreading out the viewing this way, though, the show had me thinking about binge watching culture and how shows are made to accommodate it. My partner and I were both talking about how it was unusual but fun to have a show to anticipate, and have something to watch on a schedule that couldn’t be watched at another time. There was something special about being only able to access the show at certain times. I additionally found myself wishing there were “next time on” and “previously on” sort of segments at the start and end of each episode. I’m bad at watching things, and even the show I’m watching now multiple episodes at a time really helps me out by starting and concluding episodes this way. I think there was also something interesting about the way the show technically has episodes that center around one section of the plot, but is truly building on one full plotline, almost like a very long movie instead of feeling like shows with weekly episodes. Don't get me wrong, I still love having a full season of a show available to watch a time, since generally I have limited self-control in my media consumption. And my feelings on this viewing experience being nice are also probably related to having a nice time hanging out with my partner while watching it. But on the whole, it was neat to remember what it's like to watch something on a schedule and as a weekly event.