10 years ago, Netflix pulverized the traditional way of consuming our programs by offering a model that was both energy-intensive and hypercaloric: TV gavage, TV burst or the good old binge-watching.
Bing, 13 episodes of House of Cards suddenly came out! Bang, the whole thingOrange Is the New Black landed online! Bong, here is the 12 hours of the first season of Sense8 ! Get stuffed from midnight.
Excited like Jean-Philippe Wauthier in front of a branded scoop-neck sweater, we attacked these imposing television blocks with a fierce competitive spirit. Who would cross the series first, without blinking an eye? Who would boast, after two sleepless nights, of knowing the ultimate outcome before their comrades?
We frantically threaded the episodes without savoring them, like a smoker who lights up with his cigarette butts. If we waited too long, someone around us would open the door and divulge the outcome. Swallowed up by our sofas, we zombified ourselves under the pressure of quickly, quickly, quickly devouring prestigious TV series whose arrival we had been waiting for a year, sometimes more. What, you’re not done yet ozark ? Let’s see!
Then we forgot everything. As soon as the series ended, immediately erased from our memory. And we’d start over with another title and burn through a tremendous amount of quality material in a weekend.
After the pandemic, the term binge burnout circulated to describe the weariness that stems from this television gluttony, where everyone stuffs themselves alone in their corner, without the possibility of discussing the coffee machine, no one being in the same place while watching a series.
A decade of serial gavage now makes us appreciate the model of Apple TV+, which prefers to release one episode per week of its star series rather than depositing them in full on its platform on launch day. This way of doing things, which is used to extend subscriptions over several months, let’s not be fooled, brings us back to the good old days when we watched our programs on a small-week basis.
Several other services have adopted the weekly release, including Crave and Disney+, and I’m far from hating it, on the contrary. Dense and intense series like Silo, Game Of Thrones Or Succession are savored slowly. We then have time to appreciate all the details, to speculate on the plot to come and, above all, to discuss it with friends without fear of the supreme spoiler.
From week to week, the buzz rumbles, memes abound on social networks and our expectations are climbing in anticipation of the finale of our favorite series. The gust had wiped out all those fun rituals.
On the other hand, the platforms must stop the so-called hybrid distribution modes, which would even mix a card game not yet unpacked. Like: the first four episodes arrive on the second Thursday of the month, the next three are scheduled for the full moon, and the rest will land on the next solstice. Either offer all your gear, or pass it on one piece at a time, but stop sitting between two chairs, please. It becomes impossible to follow.
Not all series lend themselves to guzzling, and vice versa. For example, the action-packed popcorn series keep coming. I am thinking here of 24, Jack Ryan Or Homeland, which run on speed and adrenaline. We want to know right now, what will happen to our favorite agents. Not in a week.
I would add to this list hi-jack (Diversion, in French version), the scintillating new attraction of Apple TV+. I started this British time-trial type thriller this week and was very disappointed that there were only three episodes offered. I would have swallowed it all up. The fourth will take off on July 12.
hi-jack chronicles a hostage situation on a commercial plane, which unfolds in real time, as 24, Besides. Seven one-hour episodes to illustrate the seven-hour flight between Dubai and London. Classic shape for stressful result.
So, a group of activists with nebulous claims takes control of an aircraft carrying 200 people. Among the passengers is Sam Nelson, played by the suave Idris Elba (Luther, TheWire), who works as a negotiator in corporate mergers or acquisitions. You guessed the rest: the cunning and charismatic Sam will interfere in the talks between the captain of the plane, the crew and the kidnappers to ensure that no one perishes in the process.
There are a lot of things wrong with hi-jack. First, the bad guys don’t look dangerous at all. Then, we swear a lot about the fate of the passengers, who don’t seem sympathetic at all (or even panicked, we would be at least). But we still embark on this hair-raising merry-go-round, punctuated by unexpected twists and turns.
hi-jack presents itself as a summer blockbuster: effective, entertaining, but which will not mark the spirits. As if it had been swallowed in a burst.