I would be considered the complete opposite of what Karen Woodward terms Appointment Television. I am more likely to tape a couple of episodes of a show or wait till its DVD release to sit down to watch them all when I have the time. I find it's a much more satisfying viewing experience.
Gone are the commercials, the weather alert news briefs, and also gone is the weekly anticipation of the next episode and as a result, cliffhanger endings. Cliffhanger endings drive me nuts, I don't know how I got through watching Battlestar Galactica's Second Season without going insane.
On average, it takes me about 3 days to a week get through a 22 episode Season of one hours. The process of watching one episode after the other in consecutive order results in the viewing experience to a continuous soap opera.
Of course, there are shows whose episodes are stand alone meaning they ... well ... stand alone and aren't cohesive in a larger story arc. Most shows like these are the procedural, the CSIs and Law & Orders where you can catch the show at any point in its season and not be lost.
But the viewing experience gets turned into a whole other level when you pop in discs for shows that require a certain amount of investment like Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Veronica Mars, Buffy, Angel, Dawson's Creek, even sitcoms like Just Shoot Me and Friends.
In most cases, I'm rewatching the show with a new set of eyes and with a fresher take on what happened. It sort of works out like this: The consequences of actions and events that occurred in Episode 4 have evolved (most likely for the worse) to a breaking point in say, Episode 12. During its broadcast, the audience may or may not have picked up on its significance then in the course of several weeks. But on DVD, because the time between each episode is so much more shorter, the audience retains a lot more story details and can follow its arc seamlessly, as it was crafted and meant to be seen.
What I love about television is that the medium is able to take its time to fully develop and draw out characters and storylines. Even watching seasons back to back give the show as a whole entity much more weight and depth.
The most gratifying was when I held a Battlestar Galactica marathon for a friend of mine who'd only heard about the show. So, we started right from the beginning, the 4 hour mini series. And after its 4 hour run when it was revealed who the traitor was, the look of shock on her face forced us to sit through 6 more hours into Season One, after which she hijacked my discs.
Now THAT's a viewing experience.
