Disney+ Brought Back the Water Cooler That Netflix Took Away

In its later seasons, Game of Thrones was an event that didn’t take place just on Sunday night, but on Monday morning as well. I made sure to finish the latest episode the day it released so that I could participate in all of the office conversations that would transpire the next day. If someone within earshot was still trying to avoid spoilers I’d do the courteous thing and tell them to put their headphones on, because the rest of us sure as hell weren’t going to wait to discuss what Daenerys had done the night before.

In the time since winter came and went, there wasn’t an obvious successor to the water cooler conversation that Game of Thrones provided. Stranger Things may have been a worthy candidate, but was rendered ineligible by Netflix’s insistence on dropping entire seasons at once.

I can see why Netflix likes this model. For one, it gives consumers what they want. If you are enjoying a particular show, you’re not going to wait a week to watch the next episode when it’s available right now. Also they see having to wait from week to week as a relic of linear television that streamers were no longer constrained by.

This model works well for shows that you may watch to fill time, but fails to serve the needs of an event show that inspires us to discuss and analyze after the show is over. Some of your friends and coworkers may binge the entire show over a weekend, while others watch an episode a day or less. It’s difficult to talk about a show when your friend is several episodes behind. You may struggle to remember exactly which episode a particularly juicy plot point occurred in, and how do you ask your friend if they’re aware of it without spoiling it?

With The Mandalorian and WandaVision Disney+ releases episodes week-by-week (more or less) and I’ve come to appreciate all of the postmortem conversations I have about them, especially with a couple of my oldest friends who I maintain an ongoing group chat with. Both of these shows are littered with Easter eggs that Star Wars and Marvel fans can appreciate and often leave us wondering what will happen next week, which is the source of so many rewarding confabs.

The other streamers have adopted the week-by-week model as well. Prime Video used to release entire seasons Netflix-style, but in 2020 switched to week-by-week for popular shows like The Boys and The Expanse. For new shows Apple will release the first three episodes at once in an effort to hook viewers, but all subsequent episodes (including those beginning follow-up seasons) are all week-by-week.

For those of you who insist on binging your shows, you can always wait until the full season has completed its run before starting (be patient, you can binge something else in the meantime). Just be sure to put your headphones on when the rest of us talk about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.