So, is binge viewing and OnDemand making TV better? Let’s start by looking at one of America’s all-time favorites: The Sopranos, whose six seasons aired between 1999-2007. The Sopranos was written and produced as a traditional TV show – episodic and ephemeral. Once an episode aired each week, it was gone. Your work dinner ran over, your kid was sick? Sorry you missed it. Sure, you could go out and buy the box set a year after the season was over, but there was no HBO GO, and no chance to pause and rewind back to the really juicy parts. Back then, the show’s creators were able to get away with some plot holes and storyline fudges. For example, the actor who played Meadow’s soccer coach in Season 1 showed up again in Season 3 as an FBI agent. With so much time in between episodes and seasons; no one noticed that something from the first episode completely contradicted something from the last. It is only now, when we binge watch the entire series, that we notice plenty of little slip-ups that had incurred along the way.

Let’s now fast-forward (no pun intended) to today’s HBO thrill ride: True Detective. This is a series conceived and born in the on-demand, binge-watching era of TV. What’s the biggest difference? The dialogue and storyline of the first season were airtight. Of course, this has plenty to do with Nic Pizzolatto’s incredible writing skills and HBO’s streak of winning series. However, it is evident that the show’s creators knew the show would be binge-watched, scrutinized, re-played, and binge-watched again – so there simply could be no errors. There were several lengthy blog posts analyzing every detail of the show and making assumptions about the outcome mere minutes after each episode had aired. Personally, I watched new episodes of True Detective each Sunday, but as the season progressed I also “worked the case” by re-watching every episode at least once, and finally binge-watching the entire season leading up to the finale. I was obsessing over all details of the show and analyzing any erroneous items that may have been lingering in the background of the scenes that could be a clue. No stone was left unturned, and I was 100% invested. While I definitely solved the case, I could not uncover any discrepancies or contradictions in plot and characters.

Now that this kind of immediate analytical viewing is possible, television show writers and creators need to be on their A game at all times. The expectations of empowered viewers will continue to rise and encourage them to push boundaries. The potential is there for the quality of television to match and even exceed that of many great novels! The pressure is on.