Binge Watching or Week-to-Week TV?

For me, it very much depends on the show. Some shows like The Witcher, BoJack Horseman and Dear White People(as well as most other streaming service shows, these are just my current watches) have been plotted and designed for audiences to watch multiple episodes at once. And I very often do binge shows. But there are shows that I love to spread out and savour almost, whether that has been intended or not. BoJack Horseman is such brilliant show that I want to really get the most out of each episode, and so I watch a max of two episodes in a sitting. The compliment to this are shows like Line of Duty, Watchman and other cable shows, where the pacing lends itself to week to week/seralized viewing habits.

TLDR: It all depends on the show.

If it's my first go through a series, I'll try to space the episodes out (if it's during broadcast then one a week, if I have access to the whole series, usually a couple of episodes a day at the most). If it's something I've seen before, I'll happily sit down and watch as much as possible in a single sitting. I find bingeing a new show very exhausting (not sure why).

Weekly, or if on home video, then one or two episodes per sitting.

From a marketing standpoint, I think weekly is better because it keeps the show in the public consciousness longer. I remember last year (I think?) everyone was losing their minds over The Boys. For a couple of weeks. Then I heard absolutely nothing about it until very recently. Meanwhile, I'd hear people discussing Game of Thrones on an ongoing basis for the full duration of the season.

For my personal enjoyment, I like to digest the show a little at a time. I like to talk about it online, and I enjoy that weekly watercooler/forum discussion as we bat the looney theories back and forth ad nauseam. I loved doing that with The X-Files, Lost, Twin Peaks, 24 etc. You don't get that with binge watching for very long because things die down faster after the season is released.

Furthermore, I feel as though a lot of these streaming shows have eroded the memorability of the episode in favor of the season overall. Even on serialized shows that broadcast weekly, an episode had its own identity. I can remember specific episodes from The Sopranos like "Funhouse" or "Pine Barrens" with clarity. I couldn't tell you what Part 7 of Daredevil  Season 1 is about. It just blends together.

It's also led to 6-13 serialized episodes becoming the standard format, and it's absolutely killed the digressions and one-offs that give a show character. I miss that X-Files/Buffy format where you had your arc episodes, but also all these fun little tangents. If you get the balance right, that's what fleshes out a universe. Maybe, logically, Sisko should not have been screwing around on the holodeck playing baseball during the height of the Dominion War. But it's one of the most memorable, most loved episodes of Deep Space Nine. There's no time for that now because it's all about The Arc and keeping people watching for hours.