Black Mirror season 3's Netflix release and why dropping every episode at once isn't always best

An anthology series are not made for binge-watching

Netflix and its derivative rivals' 'all episodes live on launch day' release strategy is kind of a fuck you to traditional TV networks and their attempts to hook people in for the long haul and get them consuming more commercials. It puts the viewer first and is all about providing the most satisfying viewing experience, allowing you to completely immerse yourself in the narrative.

For the most part, it makes total sense. Watching episodes back-to-back makes it easier to retain important plot points in your memory, bonds you to characters better (like spending a weekend away with a friend rather than catching up with them in bursts in an elevator) and really lets you feast on the creativity on the screen in front of you. It also demands more from the showrunner, who can't rely on cliffhangers to maintain interest; had Lost been released through VOD, it probably wouldn't have got away with its myriad episode-ending pump fakes.

Westworld, HBO's latest big budget offering, might have been easier to keep track off if released in one go, such is its dense narrative, but, and this is where the strategy's weakness comes out, in airing weekly it has become the most talked about show in the workplace, in the bars and on social media.

This accolade could have gone to Black Mirror, the third season of which was hugely anticipated and discussed but has disappeared from news feeds in a small matter of days - if it was every really in them.

It wasn't that the quality wasn't there, it's probably the best season of the show yet, with Netflix giving Charlie Brooker and his collaborators the budget they needed to fully realise such grand visions. The distinct lack of conversation around it in comparison to previous seasons (which were broadcast on Channel 4) is purely down to the way it was disseminated.

By their very nature, anthology shows aren't about that "ooo I must watch the next episode straight away" vibe, especially one as varied as Black Mirror. Each story was completely different in terms of genre, setting (both time and location) and theme, and the world could have comfortably spent a week unpacking the issues each episode hints at. It's a damn shame. The penultimate episode in particular, 'Men Against Fire' could have yielded some interesting and important discussions about the way we view and talk about refugees that didn't really happen simply because of the lack of a collective, timely viewing.

He had to be careful, Netflix are paying his bills after all, but Brooker even hinted that the release strategy wasn't quite right for the show when we spoke to him a couple of weeks back:

"We’re not naturally a binge-watch show because we have a beginning, a middle and an end – it’s like you’ve had a full meal – whereas generally, the binge-watch model is to go: 'Ooh, something’s about to happen.'"

Okay, so it's not a big deal, and I did enjoy getting to plough through the episodes at my own (rampant) pace, but maybe sometimes we need to be denied that pleasure in the interest of holding on to one of the few positives of traditional 'telly': that electric feeling that everyone is watching events unfold and going through the same emotions at the same time as you.