On the 2023 TV schedule, we’ve seen an influx in shows using the two-part plan Netflix has devised. After it released Stranger Things' fourth season in two chunks, it started to do it with other shows too, like You and Firefly Lane. Now, The Lincoln Lawyer is the latest series to use this release plan, and admittedly, I’m having trouble seeing the benefit of it.
As Netflix has started to use this two-part narrative in the same span of time we’ve seen platforms like Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and Disney+ take on an HBO mentality of releasing shows weekly. So, while the series based on Michael Connelly's books gets dropped in two parts, there are so many other series that have reaped the benefits of releasing one episode at a time.
Personally, I think the weekly model is the way to go. It allows for watercooler moments around shows, and it stretches out the amount of time people are actively talking about a series. For example, HBO had a run of four shows in a row – House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, The Last of Us and Succession – that all were major pop culture moments. Week to week fans were obsessing on social media about the latest moments, like Rhaenyra’s wedding in the Game of Thrones prequel and that major and shocking death on Succession, and it was glorious.
Week-to-week releases truly prompt in-depth and longer conversations about a given show, and we’ve seen just how valuable that can be with some of the most successful series of the year – like Ted Lasso, The White Lotus and The Last of Us. Their relevance remained stable as folks consistently talked about the state of AFC Richmond, the mystery in Sciliy, or the terrifying quest Joel and Ellie were on. When a series drops in two parts a month or two apart from each other it just feels a bit clunky and weird.
For example, Volume 1 of Stranger Things’ fourth season left us with questions, however, we had to wait a hot minute for answers. In the month and change of waiting for Volume 2, I developed two problems: I didn’t want to wait, and I had to wait too long to keep caring. Unlike weekly drops, where the seven days between episodes encourage deeper conversations from the end of one episode to the start of another, the two-part drop and the wait in between seems to put a weird pause in the middle of everything. There’s a full stop to the momentum, but there’s never really closure to the first half of the story, making things weird.
Hopefully, Netflix can learn sooner or later that the weekly method is sticking, and it seems to garner some fantastic long-term results. For example, I think The Lincoln Lawyer, which has the essence of a procedural, would thrive on a weekly release. Or if they really don’t want to accept this method, they should go back to releasing full seasons at once.
While I’m not a fan of the two-part model, I do love these shows, and they’re all available with a Netflix subscription. Specifically, The Lincoln Lawyer is the latest in the streamer’s two-part shows, and it just dropped its first group of episodes and will be releasing Part 2 on August 3.
