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Aug. 12th, 2022 10:02 amThe Sandman is, as far as I recall, the first show I've watched that uses the streaming model of dumping an entire series on the audience in one go, or at least the first one I've watched at release time rather than later enough that the spacing of the episodes was moot.
I don't like it. The streaming model, I mean, not the show. The show is very good; I've enjoyed every episode I've watched so far, and spent some time after each savouring it and thinking about what will or might happen next. And then usually I've had to wait a bit until I could find time to watch and digest the next episode. Which means that I had a lot of fun making excited noises with people after watching the first episode, and then by the time I watched the second episode everybody else was several episodes ahead of me, and by the time I watched the third episode everybody else was finished.
As I write this, I've just watched the fourth episode, and I'm having Thoughts and Feelings about what might happen in the fifth – and about the fact that this is an especially impressive thing for the show to have achieved considering that I've read the books and in theory I already know what happens next – and I've got nobody to share this moment with, because nobody else I know is at the same point in the journey as me.
The frustration gets an extra boost because I'm also doing Dracula Daily, so I've got a synchronous fandom experience to compare it to. I can imagine having a similar experience with The Sandman if the episodes were spaced out enough for us all to react to each episode before the next one appeared: the mix of people who know the story already and people who are discovering it for the first time, people throwing out their theories about what's going on, people going "I'm new to all of this and I wasn't expecting that" and people going "I thought I knew all about this and I still wasn't expecting that" and most of all just people having an experience together and being able to say to each other, "Isn't this a thing that's happening to all of us, what do you think will happen next?"
I think I would have enjoyed that experience.
I don't like it. The streaming model, I mean, not the show. The show is very good; I've enjoyed every episode I've watched so far, and spent some time after each savouring it and thinking about what will or might happen next. And then usually I've had to wait a bit until I could find time to watch and digest the next episode. Which means that I had a lot of fun making excited noises with people after watching the first episode, and then by the time I watched the second episode everybody else was several episodes ahead of me, and by the time I watched the third episode everybody else was finished.
As I write this, I've just watched the fourth episode, and I'm having Thoughts and Feelings about what might happen in the fifth – and about the fact that this is an especially impressive thing for the show to have achieved considering that I've read the books and in theory I already know what happens next – and I've got nobody to share this moment with, because nobody else I know is at the same point in the journey as me.
The frustration gets an extra boost because I'm also doing Dracula Daily, so I've got a synchronous fandom experience to compare it to. I can imagine having a similar experience with The Sandman if the episodes were spaced out enough for us all to react to each episode before the next one appeared: the mix of people who know the story already and people who are discovering it for the first time, people throwing out their theories about what's going on, people going "I'm new to all of this and I wasn't expecting that" and people going "I thought I knew all about this and I still wasn't expecting that" and most of all just people having an experience together and being able to say to each other, "Isn't this a thing that's happening to all of us, what do you think will happen next?"
I think I would have enjoyed that experience.
