The original post: /r/television by /u/Cobrabat333 on 2026-01-15 04:32:09+00:00.
The concept of a water cooler show is one that would air on live cable TV and would have coworkers discussing the episode the next day at work by the water cooler. Sopranos, Lost, Twin Peaks, X-Files, Game of Thrones. These series would release weekly episodes that would have coworkers discussing the crazy moments from that episode the next day. This concept however, has seemingly died.
Some may say the rise of social media allows people to have these “water cooler” discussions online. Others would say that the rise of binging content has disabled the need for watercooler conversations. If the entire show can be seen in one sitting, there’s no reason to theorize about it in-between episodes, especially if different coworkers can choose to watch it at their own pace without having to catch it live. Plus, a lot of streaming episodes are structured in ways to not have big “WTF” moments until the last episode of their season (as that’s where all the budget goes). The question however is why? Why wait until the last episode for the hero to get their name and costume? Why wait until the last episode for some big CGI fight?
As studios struggle to compete for online real estate (particularly on X), how do you think modern day TV shows can bring back water cooler conversations? Go back to the one-episode-per-week format? Would you support that? Or perhaps making sure they have crazy moments for people to discuss/theorize throughout the week? What do you think?