Asking people if they prefer to binge a show or watch it week to week can cause quite heated debates; in fact, I’ve been in them many times. For years now, there’s been a big, passionate discussion about which release strategy is better, and it feels like it only gets more heated as the 2025 TV schedule features a mix of the two release methods. So now, Chuck Lorre, an acclaimed producer and writer who has a hit on Netflix right now and has created shows that were dropped both ways, has weighed in.
As Cuck Lorre’s latest sitcom, Leannedebuts at No. 2 on Netflix’s Top Ten TV Shows in the U.S., he spoke to us about his 2025 Netflix release as well as how TV shows are released these days. When asked by CinemaBlend’s Nick Venable about the weekly episodes vs. binge-all-at-once strategies, he started out by saying each have their own merits:
You know, I think they both have merit. I don’t know that one is arguably better than the other.
He’s right, they both have benefits, and you can get major hits with both.
Some of the biggest hits of the last few years came after all their episodes were dropped at once. For example, all four seasons of The Bear have been dropped the binge way for those with a Hulu subscription. Also, some of Netflix’s most binge-worthy shows, like Wednesdayand Stranger Things, have found major success this way (even though both will premiere new seasons with Netflix’s largely disliked parts model, where the season is dropped in two or three chunks).
However, the week-to-week schedule also has major benefits, and shows like HBO’s The White Lotusand Apple TV+’s Severance have thrived on it. This model is great because it has the ability to easily keep audiences talking for weeks on end. That’s a point Lorre made to us, too, when discussing the advantages of it, saying:
There’s something to when a show comes out once a week, it maybe has a better chance of developing a relationship with the audience. And the audience can speak with one another and share their feelings about, ‘Did you see the show last night?’ As opposed to if you watched them all at once, the conversation that follows is the only conversation you’ll have, and then it’s over.
With a week-to-week model, there’s already a built-in weeks-long timeframe for folks to talk in great detail about what happens on a given show. That’s incredibly valuable, and something binge shows can’t naturally have. However, as we’ve seen, if projects dropped all at once can hold on to the public’s attention and create mass discourse, they can stick in the zeitgeist for a very, very long time.
Lorre likely personally knows the benefits and pitfalls of both models. Since 2007, he’s had either The Big Bang Theory or one of its two spinoffs airing week-to-week on CBS, and we can’t forget the hit sitcom Two and a Half Meneither. Meanwhile, he’s also worked on hits you can stream with a Netflix subscription, like The Kominsky Method.
His new series, Leanne, which stars Leanne Morgan and follows her titular character in the aftermath of her husband leaving her, is also proving to work well. It’s only been out for a few days, and it’s trending on Netflix, so clearly, people are tuning in to stream it.
However, there’s something about the week-to-week way that hits different. Lorre continued to make a point about how much deeper conversations about shows can be when you’re only given one episode at a time:
But if it’s over 16 weeks or 22 weeks of one [episode] a week, that conversation amongst the audience, I think, can get deeper and more interesting. ‘Did you see Cheers last night?’ is how I grew up. Or Get Smart, if I can be honest.
I’ve experienced this water cooler talk Lorre is referring to first-hand. Using examples from only 2025, every week, for months, my friends and I would check in and discuss shows like Severance, Eslbeth and Abbott Elementary in detail before theorizing about what would happen next. Meanwhile, when Season 4 of The Bear dropped, we enjoyed the episodes in one sitting, talked about it for about a week, and then moved on to the next thing.
To me, week-to-week is the way to go; however, you can’t deny that a good binge is nice here and there. And right now, you can do just that with Cuck Lorre’s sitcom, Leanne, which recently dropped all 16 of its episodes on Netflix.
