“WandaVision” is a reminder not all TV needs to be binged

WandaVision, the first TV series developed by Marvel Studios, will stream the finale of its first and likely last season on Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, on Friday (March 5). And fans are demanding answers to the many loose ends that have emerged during the show’s nine-episode run.

Those fans have become restless in recent weeks, in part because many have been trained through binge-watching TV series to expect resolution at whatever pace they want. The pendulum of TV structure was already swinging quickly from weekly episode releases—long the predominant format—to all-at-once release dumps, due to the prevalence of streaming. During the pandemic, when the whole world was watching a ton of Netflix, viewers were primed to require instant gratification from their content.

But WandaVision is an increasingly rare series: a true break-out hit that is delivered to its audience as a slow drip, forcing fans to watch on the story’s timetable and not their own. Disney+, unlike Netflix and many other streaming platforms, releases its TV episodes weekly. It made no exception for WandaVision or for the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, despite Disney’s knowledge that fans would grow debilitatingly thirsty for new information from the moment those shows streamed their first episodes.

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