CMV: Shows which release the full season at once (i.e. Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.) are better reviewed vs shows released over a course of the year because the binge watch ability factor.

Two major factors disprove your analysis:

  1. Self-selection
  2. Production input.

Self-selection:

Who is watching Fuller House? Answer: people who watched Full House in their formative years and have nostalgia over it. In the words of Mad Men, Nostalgia means the pain from an old would. It is time travel. People like it because it reminds them of their past in a way that makes them happy. That doesn't mean it is a good show, it just means that people who like it have a valid reason for liking it, even if it is technically awful.

But Netflix and the systems like it work because we can all watch whatever we want, whenever we want. No bullshit. If I am in a crime drama mood, I can watch 187 seasons of Law and Order without question. I don't have to wait for there to be another Law and Order, it is just there for me. If my mood switches, I can switch genres and watch a love story. Week-by-week television makes me hungry. I used to LIVE for the next episode of [blank]. But, in the overall, I watched less TV because, growing up with the farmer five, I didn't want to choose between tennis, golf, cooking with Nancy, the news, and whatever bullshit movie Fox had on at 1:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday. I turned off the TV.

Because we can self-select, we give better reviews because we're watching stuff specifically targeted at the viewer. My fiance LOVES anything that has to do with prison. I don't. He'd given any prison-related thing five stars, I'd give them two.

Conclusion: the reviews have less to do with the actual quality of the show versus the quality of the show in the eyes of people who are already targeted by that demographic. That was always true, but it is so much truer now that we have everything available all the time.

Production input: Producing whole units of tv in terms of seasons really changes how the production aspect changes. Look at Firefly as a key example. We can't take how people reacted to last week's episode into account for how to tweak this week's episode.

Maybe you hate Fuller House. I haven't seen it, I just assumed I would. But the people who loved it, loved it. And the people who didn't can watch literally ANYTHING ELSE. But you showed up as a tune-in audience. You were curious, you wanted to check it out. You didn't like it, you stopped watching. Fine, totally okay. It wasn't for you. But in week-by-week TV, they would have chased you. They would have said, "What can we do to make people in OP's age range and demographic enjoy this show?" Ignoring the people who did like it for the reasons they do, they would have chased you on a show you'd NEVER like because they need your numbers for ratings. Trying to chase a demographic that will never like [x] ruins it for the true fans who like it for what it is.

They don't need ratings, they need subscriptions. They get your money no matter what you watch.

Conclusion: Because they aren't paid in advertisement, they work in the methodology of something for everyone. Even if you think it is the dumbest thing in the world if it makes someone else pay them [x] dollars a month and that covers the cost of making it , they win. And they clearly ARE winning because the something-for-everyone model is blowing cable out of the game.

HERE IS THE BIG IDEA: RATINGS ARE BULLSHIT.

There's no objective best book, best movie, best television show. Some people hate The Wire. I don't understand it, but I accept it. We all like what we like. The rating system is MORE CORRECT because it correlates to preferences recognized by the algorithms of the site itself, not by what every human being on the planet enjoys. If you like Romantic Comedies with quirky female leads, you'll like [x]. If you HATE those movies and want to watch prison documentaries, try [y].

It is about moving away from an objective system of "this is good/this is bad" and moving into a system of "these kinds of stories, themes, characters, situations, genres turn you on. These don't. So....try this". Which is a better predictor of enjoyment.

Staggered release would do nothing to change that model.

/r/changemyview Thread