Binge Watching

A new commentary every Wednesday - April 8, 2015

BINGE WATCHING: The growth of a a television phenomenon

I'm Phil Richardson, and I'm a TV Series addict.

I was in grade school when I came home one day to find my wonderfully sensitive maternal grandmother who lived with us, weeping profusely. The closing theme of "One Man's Family," a popular radio soap opera of the period was ending and an announcer with mellifluous tonsils was saying, "Well!...Tune in tomorrow, when Doctor Throckmorton informs Bob of this devastating development." The closing theme music swelled, but not before the announcer got in a final few words of praise for some soap product or another.

It took a few minutes for grandma to compose herself sufficiently to tell me that "Betty" had died in the half-hour episode that had just concluded on the radio. Since I had grown up listening daily to "Little Orphan Annie," "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" and the epic struggle with invaders from outer space staged on "Mercury Theater," by Orson Wells, I knew very well that "Betty" had been written out of the script of the serial for some reason or another, but usually due to a demand by her for higher wages, and was not only alive, but probably wealthy. Grandma was both surprised and grateful to know this.

It reinforced in me the attitude that broadcasting was an attainable and rewarding field of endeavor. I did not ever have sufficient talent to rise to the level of Pierre Andre' who introduced the orphan girl's daily adventure or even Sgt. Preston's faithful Huskie lead dog King, who was probably a sound effects man who could bark like a dog.

In order to build an audience, a strategy called "the teaser," began in short film serials and later in TV soaps—one that leaves the audience hanging at the end of each segment. In the bit of dialog before the closing theme music swells, Betty whispers tearfully to her (lover, mother, sister, closest friend or husband) "I'm pregnant." The producer orders the camera to close on the frozen face of the recipient of this bit of information and holds the frame for five seconds before fading to black. Instinctively we say "Wait, wait, don't leave us without a hint of the future?" Often we get it, but the quick cut that follows before another commercial break intervenes, only raises more questions, answerable only by seeing the next episode.

Now to the topic in hand: It took two technical developments to best accommodate Binge Watching: Microchips able to store millions of digital commands, giving us the ability to do streaming video and/or the compact disk (CD). Yes, I'm aware that from time to time the frame freezes or pixelates momentarily, but we usually ignore this anomaly. On with the show!

On or about July of 1999, Some genius—more than likely a team of them—At Home Box Office (HBO), came up with the idea of competing directly with broadcast TV by producing "The Sopranos," starring the late James Gandolfini. As if you didn't know, according to Wikipedia, "The Sopranos is an American crime series, involving a fictional New Jersey mobster, played for six seasons and 86 episodes by Gandolfini." The series and several actors won all sorts of awards and acclaim.

This monumental success promoted Fox Entertainment Group (FX) to produce its own serialized drama of inordinate complexity in 2007. It was "Damages," starring Glenn Close. In it, for a total of five seasons, she portrayed magnificently and often with evil artifice, a powerful attorney, obsessed with herself, good wine, class action suits, a deceased child, a live one (her grand daughter) a former husband and still be mentor to a young lawyer who can't make up her mind on what she wants from life from one moment to the next.

Next came "Breaking Bad," Now it's the spinoff, "Better Call Saul." And on and on, ad infinitum.

Once we became aware that it was possible to order whole seasons of each on CDs, it was virtually impossible to watch just one episode at a time. We began to order new series long before they became available.

The problem now is something called the ROKU box. As of this writing, this accessory permits one to download a plethora of programs from one of 23 options, such as Amazon, HBOGo, huluplus, Netflix, Vudu, etc. and more are being added all of the time. This is in addition to the huge library of films on demand from our Internet portal, the service provider, Comcast. The desire to see as much of them as time permits, becomes insatiable. In order to scribble down this warning to the uninitiated, I'm beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms.

Take care.

-Phil Richardson, Observer and Storyteller.

Phil's current post can be read at: http://www.imrightagain.com

If you wish to comment, Phil can be reached at:

k7os (at) comcast (dot) net

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