It’s been a huge month for shows! Left and right, everywhere you look there’s nothing but buzz about the latest episode of the new season of the show everyone’s currently watching. And that is the beauty of watching shows weekly as they premiere. 

Having episodes air weekly gives me something to look forward to. There’s nothing more grueling than having to wake up on a Monday after what felt like a short weekend, but now I cherish Mondays because that’s when the new Attack on Titan episode airs. Yes, weekly cliffhangers can be painful to wait through for some, but it’s bearable for me. It feels as though the conclusion to that cliffhanger feels way more adequately satisfying after waiting, it kind of acts as a reward for getting through the week. It’s the beacon of hope that keeps me going, sort of like a silver lining for a bad day/week. Sure when you’re binge-watching, you’re given all the answers in 5 seconds after you frantically click the ‘Next Episode’ button, but it just feels anticlimactic for me. 

Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Euphoria and Peacemaker are all airing weekly and they are the buzz of the town. You can’t go anywhere without hearing about them and that brings us to the next point – spoilers. To some people, spoilers doesn’t bear any effect of their enjoyment of a show, but to most it does. Watching shows weekly definitely helps in preventing that, due to everyone watching at the same pace. When Netflix drops a whole season for you to binge, chances are loads of busy people are going to be behind on watching, making it more likely to be spoiled by any unsuspecting person. It usually proves to be exasperating trying to avoid spoilers until you finally get free time to relax and watch. 

Subsequently, there is an issue of time as well when it comes to binge-watching. I usually don’t have the time or attention span to sit down and watch a show for hours on end. Even if I had access to a show all out at once, I’d watch usually an episode or two on the weekends and leave it at that till the next weekend. Dedicating 20 minutes to an hour to watch an episode one day a week is much less demanding than watching loads of episodes at once. 

Watching something weekly allows you to resonate with it a lot more. As a fan of Attack on Titan, I find myself analyzing the episode the entire week. It allows me to fully absorb the episode and with tiny tidbits revealed every week, even gives me a chance to piece together what happens next. Each episode resonates with you a lot more and feels all the more special. The frantic theorizing everyone displays whenever a new episode airs feels like such a breath of fresh air to me. Exploring the themes of the show and discovering the hidden secrets left by the creators for everyone to find, feels like an experience you would only find while watching weekly. 

And when that said show is ending, it feels all the more special. With the end growing ever closer, every episode ends with all the fans in bated breath anticipating how it’s all going to come together and conclude in the long-awaited finale. It’s much more special than just the show itself, it feels like a giant event that everyone’s watching together, and that is the core of what makes it so distinct; the journey is more important than the destination. Being able to discuss with your friends, speculating on online forums and all laughing as all the memes come and go is what I find to be the best part of watching shows weekly.