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There's a term in comics known as 'Waiting for Trade' where, rather than buying the monthly magazines, you wait for the trade paperback that collects the whole story between two covers. Smith exclusively reads comics in this way, as do a few of my other friends, who rarely dabble in the world of the 'funny books'. Even I'm partial to it on occasion, as I'm more likely to re-read trades and I refuse to read Brian Bendis' work any other way. After trying to read his Daredevil run as it came out I got extremely frustrated as the story seemed to be set up in such a way that trades were the only way to read it.

This is a trend I've noticed developing with TV shows too. Shows like Chuck, Stargate Universe and Human Target can be enjoyed as they come out, but others seem to infuriate people having to wait for the next showing. Lost is a huge example of this with each episode ending on a huge cliffhanger and a story that has taken six seasons to tell. Leaving it a week between each show would mean missing a lot of the finer details of what's going on and references to something that happened three or four episodes ago would be totally lost on some viewers.

The first time I was really aware of this was back in university when Smith, Chris, me and a couple of others did Babylon 5 marathons. We went in knowing that J. Michael Straczynski had written the show as a five year arc, so we expected a lot of themes and stories to keep running throughout and it wasn't going to be a 'done-in-one', like shows such as Star Trek and Stargate are known for. However none of us expected the level to which the show goes with ongoing story threads. Even to the extent that throughout the first season Delenn is seen in her quarters playing around with something. Watching episodes straight after each other you realise that she's not just messing about, but building something, and when she reveals the device it's not some handy little object that's just turned up, but something that the Ambassador has spent most of the season preparing.

It's really come to light again for me recently as I've finally gotten around to watching the first series of 24. I know, nine years late to the party, but when I realised even my Mum had watched two seasons I felt I needed to pull my finger out of my arse. But watching 24 I think I'd go nuts if after one episode finished I was made to wait another week for the next part. Sure, I've gone without watching any episodes for a couple of days, but when I sit down I usually get at least two episodes done and if there's a major cliffhanger, and I have time, I'll watch the next one hoping for a slightly better stopping point. I think I've managed to watch the whole season in just under two weeks. 24 really benefits from this way of viewing as it's really one big story; the first season is how they stopped a Senator being assassinated. Yes, there are arcs within the show that are resolved in just a few episodes, but the full story takes the whole season.

The more I think about it, I know that having to watch any of the shows like these over a course of 20-24 weeks would drive me insane. And that's if it's not broken up by something more 'important' like a sporting event. It seems that these shows are besting waiting for DVD when you can sit down and enjoy them properly, not weekly where it's quite easy to miss some important details.