It always comes back to you, Charmed.

So... when my phone ate my review for I Am Not A Serial Killer, I decided to check the computer to see what luxken27's post on the great Meta March Madness was about.

Turns out the first thing I clicked happened to lead back to something I think about off and on during my flirtations with fandom in general.

Does it matter whether you experience a series as it happens ("real time") or in marathon sprints?

  I didn't give this much thought for years beyond thinking it a bit odd that Mums would let her comic books/books build up until she had a small stash of any given series to read one right after the other or she had the complete series to devour in one gulp. When I was younger, I firmly believed in ripping into the newest installment of whatever I loved as soon as humanly possible. I'd get twitchy waiting for the comic store to open on new release day, and while I never quite managed to work out release dates for books prior to the internet I definitely knew when it was past time for a new book by any given author, particularly in a series. I extended the same courtesy to my television watching once I actually started watching things that pretty much required you to watch them in a particular order.

  I didn't think much about it, that is, until we were without cable for awhile. I missed Charmed's third season as it aired and I had to wait until someone loaned me most of the season after she'd taped them. I filled in a few gaps on my own, but for the most part there was no major wait between episodes, unlike the normal breaks within a season. To this day, I love the third season quite a bit and part of it is probably due to the fact that when it's good, it's really, really good. It's just that when it's bad, it's pretty darn bad as well, and without that period of time where you're left waiting and hoping for a show to either live up to, or surpass, the trailer there's not as much of a letdown when things went horribly, horribly wrong. I personally loathe The Good, The Bad, and The Cursed but I still think more highly of it than I do quite a bit of any of the decent or truly god awful episodes in the later seasons that I watched in real time. Some of that can be attributed to the behind the scenes drama that spilled out into the show in general, but I also think that without the build up between episodes, I had less to be disappointed by as there was a new (to me) episode to come until I hit the season finale.

  I don't think this is a universal truth, however. Some shows kind of rely on the build up between episodes/seasons, and without that tension it's harder to hook you and keep you as enthralled as things unfold. I can marathon some shows (Psych works particularly well) but others need to be doled out (Pretty Little Liars) for me to not take them for granted.

  I also think the marathon approach helps when there's something wrong with the show. It's far easier to overlook it when you can look ahead and know that in the next few hours things could turn around rather than waiting the better part of a year for it to happen. And if they don't manage to turn around? It doesn't sting as much for me after a binge viewing. See: Gossip Girl season 2. While it wasn't as good as most of the first season, when viewed in under three days I walked away thinking it was much better than I'd expected.

  But that's just me and I understand other people don't feel the same way.

Then there's the undercurrent in fandom about whether stockpiling episodes or waiting until a season is done makes you less of a fan, probably because it's seen as devoting less time to the show even if it does take more willpower to put off an entire season than it does to hold on for a week or three at a time. That, however, is another thought entirely.

It All Comes Back to Charmed

So... when my phone ate my review for I Am Not A Serial Killer, I decided to check the computer to see what luxken27's post on the great Meta March Madness was about.

Turns out the first thing I clicked happened to lead back to something I think about off and on during my flirtations with fandom in general.

Does it matter whether you experience a series as it happens ("real time") or in marathon sprints?

  I didn't give this much thought for years beyond thinking it a bit odd that Mums would let her comic books/books build up until she had a small stash of any given series to read one right after the other or she had the complete series to devour in one gulp. When I was younger, I firmly believed in ripping into the newest installment of whatever I loved as soon as humanly possible. I'd get twitchy waiting for the comic store to open on new release day, and while I never quite managed to work out release dates for books prior to the internet I definitely knew when it was past time for a new book by any given author, particularly in a series. I extended the same courtesy to my television watching once I actually started watching things that pretty much required you to watch them in a particular order.

  I didn't think much about it, that is, until we were without cable for awhile. I missed Charmed's third season as it aired and I had to wait until someone loaned me most of the season after she'd taped them. I filled in a few gaps on my own, but for the most part there was no major wait between episodes, unlike the normal breaks within a season. To this day, I love the third season quite a bit and part of it is probably due to the fact that when it's good, it's really, really good. It's just that when it's bad, it's pretty darn bad as well, and without that period of time where you're left waiting and hoping for a show to either live up to, or surpass, the trailer there's not as much of a letdown when things went horribly, horribly wrong. I personally loathe The Good, The Bad, and The Cursed but I still think more highly of it than I do quite a bit of any of the decent or truly god awful episodes in the later seasons that I watched in real time. Some of that can be attributed to the behind the scenes drama that spilled out into the show in general, but I also think that without the build up between episodes, I had less to be disappointed by as there was a new (to me) episode to come until I hit the season finale.

  I don't think this is a universal truth, however. Some shows kind of rely on the build up between episodes/seasons, and without that tension it's harder to hook you and keep you as enthralled as things unfold. I can marathon some shows (Psych works particularly well) but others need to be doled out (Pretty Little Liars) for me to not take them for granted.

  I also think the marathon approach helps when there's something wrong with the show. It's far easier to overlook it when you can look ahead and know that in the next few hours things could turn around rather than waiting the better part of a year for it to happen. And if they don't manage to turn around? It doesn't sting as much for me after a binge viewing. See: Gossip Girl season 2. While it wasn't as good as most of the first season, when viewed in under three days I walked away thinking it was much better than I'd expected.

  But that's just me and I understand other people don't feel the same way.

Then there's the undercurrent in fandom about whether stockpiling episodes or waiting until a season is done makes you less of a fan, probably because it's seen as devoting less time to the show even if it does take more willpower to put off an entire season than it does to hold on for a week or three at a time. That, however, is another thought entirely.