No, Netflix isn’t releasing its shows one episode at a time now

A narrative is picking up steam on the internet. Some viewers have gotten a little confused after logging on to stream the new season of The Great British Baking Show, that most agreeable and mild of pastry competitions, and discovering to their horror that only one episode of the show was available. Then, it came out that Netflix was going to release new episodes of Rhythm & Flow — a rapping competition show featuring T.I., Chance the Rapper, and Cardi B as judges — in blocks, with groups of new episodes dropping throughout October.

Just what in the sam hell is going on? Does this mean that Netflix is abandoning its model of dropping every episode of a new season of a show all at once, thus allowed viewers to crawl into their well-worn grooves on the couch and not emerging until they’ve binged the whole thing? Is Netflix stepping away from the model it popularized with shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black and continued through Stranger Things and The Dark Crystal? Will episodes be released one at a time now, like on…normal TV?

In a word, no. In the case of The Great British Baking Show, Netflix is adding new episodes of the season as they come out on PBS — after all, it can’t drop all the episodes at once if they haven’t aired yet. For Rhythm and Flow, Netflix is staggering the release of the episodes so viewers can’t skip right to the end and find out who wins the competition. On social media, they stressed that this is only something they’re doing for Rhythm & Flow, not a new policy that will apply to all of their shows.

Now, even in response to this clarification that Netflix isn’t going to stop releasing episodes in its binge format, a lot of people seemed scared that Netflix was going to step releasing episodes in its binge format, which tells me that people really don’t want Netflix to stop releasing episodes in its binge format. And that puts me in a bit of an awkward position, because honestly…I wouldn’t mind if Netflix stopped releasing episodes in its binge format.

Not for all shows! The binge model has worked plenty well for them, but I think I would have enjoyed, say, Stranger Things season 3 a little more if I could let some of the cliffhangers settle before sitting down to watch the next installment. I like to have time to think on things and come up with theories about what’s going to happen, but I realize that might just be me. I’m not here to take away anyone’s binge time.

Although I wonder if Netflix might not continue with these experiments in scheduling down the line. Disney has already said that it’s going to release episodes of The Mandalorian one at a time, like it’s on old-fashioned tee-vee. Will that put pressure on Netflix to follow suit, or ensure that it remains the master of its own domain?

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h/t The A.V. Club