It is a time that the under 20s have not known.
The one where we waited all week for the Saturday night episode of "24 Hours Chrono" on Canal +, wondering how Jack Bauer was going to save the president or the world.
The one where the final of the last season of "Friends" gave rise to collective scenes of emotion, nostalgia, love forever for Rachel, Ross or Monica, all over the world.
A great series, we started it and we finished it together.
Like a soccer World Cup, an election campaign or the summer holidays.
Since the emergence of platforms, it's over.
We watch more and more series but we talk about them less and less: of course, we must especially not spoil, or "disclose", this beautiful Canadian word made from disclosing and spoiling the pleasure.
The older are more patient
Before, we would have fiercely and collectively defended or attacked the temptations of the shrink of "In therapy": "Frankly, is it that clear, Doctor Dayan?
But how can we comment publicly on a series that has accumulated 40 million views on Arte.tv without knowing who finished two months ago and who has only just started?
So, do the series send us back to more loneliness, at least the difficulty of sharing?
Not necessarily, as groups of fans proliferate on social networks.
And the ancient rituals resist.
A question of age, often.
At Arte, we do not analyze the structure of the public of Internet users addicted to the site, but overall, the chain indicates that the average age of the more than a million faithful who waited every Thursday evening for the adventures of Doctor Dayan on TV is very salt and pepper, when young people rush to the site.
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On the Netflix side, we let the subscriber take control.
Obviously, he must activate his remote control very quickly if he does not want to swallow one episode after another.
The platform even offers to skip the credits to save time.
Everyone, however, is free to watch at their own pace.
Netflix has recently attempted a novelty: the broadcasting of series whose seasons have been proposed in 2 parts spaced in time like "Lupine" or "La Casa de Papel".
Disney + often chooses a “spaced and ungrouped” broadcast, as before, and confides in being attentive to the reactions of its subscribers.
A strategy that can prove to be a winning one.
"Broadcasting at the rate of one episode per week has a real impact for series which have a very strong notoriety, such as
The Mandalorian
or
WandaVision
," explains Maxime Valette, director of BetaSeries, a community of fans which claims 1.7 million followers .
It's a great strategy for building loyalty and retaining followers.
With
binge watching (Editor's note: which consists of watching everything at once)
, it is a question of concentrating on the volume: seducing a large number of subscribers at once.
But the risk exists that once all the episodes have been seen quickly, some will unsubscribe after a month for example.
"
With smartphones, series can be consumed everywhere, all the time, like here in the metro.
LP / Olivier Corsan
Even before the arrival of Netflix in France in 2014, it was obviously possible to devour an entire season, the old-fashioned way, with its DVD set.
But the platform made this practice much more massive: "By offering entire seasons immediately, recalls the expert, Netflix stood out from what existed: it was a way of asserting loud and clear that it did not work. not like traditional TVs.
Over time, this has been reinforced, because Netflix's audience, on some series, is very young: pre-teens can't stand waiting a week between two episodes.
But
binge watching
leads to a very rapid forgetting of a series, something else must constantly be offered to keep these young subscribers.
"BetaSeries statistics show it:" only 25% of the members of our community appreciate to
binge watcher
all the episodes of a series quickly ", underlines his boss.
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Simply put, foodies don't want indigestion.
"The supporters of broadcasting one episode per week express their pleasure in participating in a collective event: knowing that, like them, each week, millions of spectators meet in front of their screens to watch the same thing is part of a pleasure. old-fashioned which dates back to the heyday of traditional television, ”recalls Maxime Valette.
So, devour or savor?
We asked fans of series of very different ages to share their rituals.
And the least we can say is that there is no rule.
"It wasn't better before"
Elodie, 42, technical assistant
Elodie caught the series virus with "X-Files", broadcast on M6 in the 1990s. Prod
“I caught the series bug with the Saturday Night Trilogy on M 6. That's how I got hooked on The
X-Files
.
At the time, we expected one episode per week.
For the suspenseful series, it was unbearable.
Since the emergence of platforms, I prefer to consume an entire series.
I subscribe to almost everything: Canal, Netflix, OCS, Amazon, Salto, Disney +, I'll take Starzplay.
I'll never have enough in a lifetime to see it all, but I assume, I love it.
"
“I'm glad I don't have to wait for an episode anymore, because I hate being parasitized by another series.
I like to stay focused on who I am, continues the 40-year-old.
Les Rivières pourpres
, for example, I preferred to swallow season 3 on Salto rather than waiting for it every week on France 2. Even for OCS, which does not give suddenly, I wait to have it. 'integral to begin with.
"
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“It is true that if the series is not exceptional, it is quickly seen, quickly consumed, quickly forgotten, admits Elodie.
But some really marked me like
Chernobyl
,
Unbelievable
or
Euphoria
.
And that doesn't stop me from immersing myself in the classics.
On Canal + Séries, I watched the complete
A la Maison-Blanche
.
The seven seasons, even going fast, it must have taken a long time, with 22 episodes for each.
But it was so exciting that in the end I was nostalgic and sad to leave the characters.
The young woman's thirst for series does not stop at new things: “I also try to watch old productions like
Six Feet Under
,
The Wire
or
the Sopranos
that OCS offers in full.
The fact of looking quickly does not prevent talking about it with colleagues.
We advise each other on things.
For me, with this possibility to see everything right away, it has never been so good as it is now.
"
"I don't like it going too fast"
Hugo, 33, business manager in music
Hugo takes better advantage of sitcoms like "How I Met Your Mother" while waiting between each episode.
Prod
“I much prefer to watch only one episode a week and savor it, even if it's something that has been lost with the platforms, admits his side Hugo.
I watch a lot of sitcoms, including classics like
The Big Bang Theory
or
How I Met Your Mother
, and week after week you get a much better sense of how a character's humor evolves.
The fact of spacing allows to hang more, to print.
“Above all,
binge watching
, which I still practice, leaves a lot more room for mediocrity.
We lose the habit of dissociating, which is nevertheless very interesting.
In
WandaVision
for example, the approach is very different from one episode to another, from one style to another.
If I watch too much, I no longer know what I saw.
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“Every year, I release my 15 favorite episodes, all series combined.
But how do I do with Netflix?
asks the young man.
It is not possible.
Netflix is also very interesting, from a conversation point of view: with whom to talk about what we watch?
There is excitement when the series goes online, we watch very quickly to avoid spoils on social networks, and two weeks later, you've already moved on… ”
“The last series I can remember big group discussions for is Game of Thrones.
We had to wait between each episode, we would see on YouTube videos of people who had a theory on a particular character, it was nice.
Now it's the permanent race, and the end of a big series has become a non-event.
"
"I got tired of binge watching"
Cathy, 25, doctoral student in biology
By broadcasting only one episode of “WandaVision” per week, Disney + has won its bet.
Marvel
“I practiced
binge watching for a long time
.
I could watch up to two seasons in one day, which is about 20 episodes.
But by wanting too much quantity, you lose quality, says Cathy.
Consuming is good, but you have to know how to find the rare pearl yourself on the platforms, because we are too often inundated with information.
“Over time, I got a little bored of
binge watching
.
I learned to savor my series, concedes the young woman.
You get more attached to the story and the characters when you follow them over several weeks, in my opinion.
I used to
binge watching
before also for fear of spoilers.
Right now I'm watching
Wandavision
and
Tell Me Your Secrets
at my own pace
.
It is a beautiful moment of sharing with my loved ones.
Even if we don't always agree on the subject, it's a friendly moment.
"
"With social networks, we cannot wait"
Manon, 17, high school student
The trickle-down distribution of "Game of Thrones" fueled an excruciating suspense for fans.
HBO
For Manon, there is no question of waiting: “I hate seeing only one episode a week, because we always risk being spoiled.
This was the case for
Game of Thrones
on OCS and I found it unbearable.
We would come home at 6 p.m. when there was already everything on social networks because the episode had come out a few hours before.
"
The teenager is addicted to series.
“I can do almost a season all at once, especially on Friday and Saturday night.
Sherlock
, it's going pretty fast.
Addiction is the euphoria, the excitement of knowing everything that is going on without missing a beat.
I am also from a generation where you don't wait: when you want information, you can find it immediately on the Internet.
There is also Tik Tok where a lot of stuff happens in thirty seconds.
Sometimes I have to show a video three times to my parents for them to understand it.
Me, I work at an ultra-fast pace, for the series and the rest.
"