Shows like 24 and Lost are very reflective of the new attitudes in television writing. Long, extended storylines that build towards a definite end, very deliberate pacing, and a reliance on fiercely loyal viewers who comb the episodes for clues. Step into an episode of 24 and you might as well be watching the middle of a movie. It's like grabbing a random issue of Amazing Spider-Man. You can't do it anymore! You're getting part 3 of 6, not a self-contained story. Note how quickly season sets for these shows are released. It's not about archiving the show for posterity, like most DVD sets, it's a part of the overall marketing plan. This is very similar to what is happening with trade paperbacks.

The TV people are clearly aware of DVD's impact on viewership. Family Guy was canceled and brought back thanks to DVD. A show you enjoy, Battlestar Galactica, has seen some episodes extended for the DVD, adding in scenes that weren't in the broadcast. Great show, very well-written. The pacing of the show tends to run slower than one might expect, though, in part because the creators know the show does well on DVD. BG watches GREAT when you see several episodes in a short period of time. People watch this stuff in spurts, clumps of episodes all together at once. They string together well, but don't necessarily standalone as well as hour-long dramas used to.

That's the big red flag. No need to tell you that hour-long dramas have long had extended subplots that ran from episode to episode, but each episode also stood pretty strongly on its own. Beginning, middle, and end, with some stuff in there to carry through the season. Not unlike the comics of yesteryear, if you think about it. Sounds like some JB comics! These days, however, it's increasingly common to see shows that all but require viewing multiple episodes. No one watches one episode of 24. Just one episode doesn't cut it! You only get a sliver of story. It's never something self-contained. They can get away with that now in part because DVD lets them. They no longer need worry that viewers will miss a few episodes, because DVD is there.

The more you look at it, the more some of this sounds like the comic industry. I wonder, is it the TV people influencing comics or the comics people influencing TV?

Sometimes just the anticipation was enough, back in the days before
continued stories and cliffhangers.

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SER: Yes, that's how TV was for me as a kid. CHEERS, for instance, for hardly serialized but there was nothing like knowing that, come Thursday, there'd be a new episode.

TiVo and DVDs have changed the way many people watch TV now -- preferring to catch a whole season when it's convenient to them, effectively removing the "anticipation." My girlfriend chose to watch HEROES this way.

It's hard to resist instant gratification, though, when watching shows this way. I watched the first 3 seasons of Nip/Tuck in one month but after almost binging on them, I found myself trying to set up a system for viewing them (1 episode a night and so on). I do this with the ESSENTIALS and SHOWCASE editions (1 "issue" per night, with an exception for rainy day weekends). I find that being able to watch/read something whenever I want to can remove the fun of "looking foward" to something.