720 Dumplings 水饺
whew…51 episodes and 17 hours later, I finally finished my marathon viewing of “Full Metal Alchemist 鋼の錬金術師“.
Binging on tv drama series is a pretty common occurrence here amongst my friends…thus, I found myself doing it waaaay more since moving here. In comparison, I can count on 1 hand the number of marathon tv series I’ve watched in the US (Sopranos and Band of Brothers come to mind).
It seems to me that both tv watching habits and the show formats themselves play a pretty big role in the differences:
1) First and foremost, US tv shows have episodes that are truly episodic - each episode has its own story arc that far outweighs the arc of the show. What I mean is that the consequences of the plot developments in each individual episode often have little impact on the others. Thus, you can watch an episode of “Friends” from season 1 and then follow it with another episode from season 3 and you won’t feel like you’ve skipped a beat.
Maybe it’s done this way for syndication purposes?
In contrast, watching Asian dramas is the complete opposite. It’s more akin to one really long movie - each episode too has its own arc, but the focus is on how it advances the arc of the entire show. So forget about watching episodes out of order…and when you start watching a series in the middle, well, it’s like starting a movie 30 minutes in. Yeah, you can do it, but you feel like you’d rather start from the beginning. Which brings me to my next point….
2) All the shows you see on tv in China are online (often the most popular ones are from korea or japan). So when you stumble upon a show you like on tv, it’s highly unlikely that it’s the first episode. So what do you do? Go online and start from the beginning. 15 hours later, you realized you’ve watched the entire series.
Viewing habits do seem to be changing in the US with more dvd sets coming out and some series moving to the continuous format (24 for example)…but still behind China in this respect.
…yeah, I see binging on tv dramas as a good thing. so?
2 responses so far ↓
1 jaime // Mar 2, 2009 at 1:32 am
yes, i think this should be called “series binging” where you plow thru a series–that has been aired over several years–in a matter of a week.
you’re right most US regular tv shows are episodic, but shows such as the Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Weeds, etc. on channels such as HBO or Showtime are not–and tv show Lost is not either. As such, I find it much more satisfying to consume entire seasons in a few nights, rather than watch it once a week 6-9 months out of the year. it helps you stay on top of what’s going on.
anyway, your blog is one of the few places i saw this discussed, so i wanted to chime in.
2 admin // Mar 2, 2009 at 2:04 pm
heh heh thanks for your comments :) yeah, I found binging much more satisfying…though sometimes I feel like there is a void immediate after. kinda in a weird depressing way - like there isn’t anything to look forward to. hahha
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