Monday, February 17, 2014; 5:46:36 PM Eastern
Netflix and the serial discussion problem
- One thing you hear a lot when the subject of Netflix series comes up is that unlike other popular series, such as True Detective and Game of Thrones, is that there's no long-lasting online discussion of binge-watched series because of spoilers and because everyone progresses through the series at a different rate and at different times. For example, I just binged my way through Orange is the New Black many months after the series premiered. There's no online place for me to discuss these shows.
- It occurs to me that the one entity that could neatly solve this problem is Netflix itself. They know where you're at in the series, and what would be a spoiler or not. So they could offer, at the end of an episode, to whisk you off to an a place where you could read commentary that was current up to exactly that point in the series, and no further. No spoilers. You get the sequential-ness that people get from non-binge-watched shows. A perfect feature that Netflix could offer that really no one else is as well-positioned to offer.
- PS: Who's your favorite Orange is the New Black character? Mine is Alex. Makes me wish I could be a lesbian and have a girlfriend like her. (I have a couple of women friends who Alex reminds me of. One is married (to a man), and one I lost track of many years ago.)