And because of it, entire television writing styles have changed, morphing into strong season-long narratives instead of loosely related miniplots. Before, writers always had to take into account the fact that a viewer may not have seen the previous episode, or even any episodes at all.
I much prefer what TV has become, to the point where I now prefer the medium over feature length films...something I never would have expected 20 years ago.
In all fairness, only some TV is like that and TBH I have a pretty limited appetite for highly-serialized complex shows that require a lot of attention and focus. The ones I like I really like. They're just not a daily diet for me.
The were miniseries back in the day. But they were an exception that required really driving a big audience to TV on a schedule.
I used to watch TV a bit when I still lived with my parents. I've never owned one since. I watch shows online when I want to, but there's no "just put the telly on" function. Makes it pretty easy...
From my perspective upthread, when I wrote day to day I didn't actually mean that literally. I guess I've never really had an addiction. I've never been one to turn on the TV as background. I did used to watch more than I do now but it was still maybe 1 hr. a day on average.
I can answer for my own situation -- I broke my addiction when I started attending a couple night classes at local community college in the late 80's / early 90's. Then I started hanging out with friends at places on thursday / friday nights, and realized that I really didn't miss the new fall seasons.
>>I much prefer what TV has become, to the point where I now prefer the medium over feature length films...something I never would have expected 20 years ago.
Same here (Although, I'm not sure we should continue to call it TV since a lot of us are no longer consuming this content on a TV but rather via streaming services on a computer device. Also, a lot of new serialized content is created specifically for streaming services and not TV. TV, the way we knew it, is dead , in my opinion.)
It is way more enjoyable to watch a long sci-fi series in one go than to watch a single two hour film. The plots and characters have more time to develop in a series. It is in essence a really long film. Almost like reading a really good book.
I've never once questioned the etymology of "dial" before now. Funny how you just accept certain facts as fundamental because you're taught them at a young age.
I much prefer what TV has become, to the point where I now prefer the medium over feature length films...something I never would have expected 20 years ago.