This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
Streaming services like Netflix got us all comfortable either binge-watching TV or watching shows at our own pace. That isn’t always a good thing, however, especially when it comes to series released episodically.
I’ve seen headlines arguing that Succession fans ruined the show’s most anticipated moment Sunday night by flooding social media with immediate reactions. I fully disagree. It’s far more enjoyable to tune in at the same time as everyone else, and it is an immersive experience.
Justin Kirkland helped explain this powerful feeling (via Esquire):
“All of us, as it turns out, are looking for some semblance of structure in our lives. And as silly as it sounds, I think that appointment television represents this weird human connection to look forward to—a friendly interaction, if you will, that you can rely at the same day and time. In an era when everything feels so uncertain and fleeting, appointment television has reemerged as this reliable totem of time and consistency.”
During the final credits, I immediately pull out my phone and check for other reactions, memes, and analyses.
These pesky posts act as spoilers for fans who didn’t get a chance to watch it live. But this show just hits harder when we can all react simultaneously — and there are a lot of people who are tuned in. The premiere episode of the final Succession season drew 2.3 million live viewers across HBO Max and other linear telecasts. (That’s more than the opening night TV ratings (2.2 million) for Nets-Bucks on TNT in 2021-22.)
It is exponentially much more fun and only natural to freak out with everyone else when Succession showrunners shock us collectively with a jaw-dropping plot twist. It’s not dissimilar to reacting with everyone else on Twitter when an NBA star hits a buzzer-beater.
Speaking of basketball: During the 1970s and the 1980s, the NBA would occasionally broadcast playoff games on tape delay. Leigh Montville, in 1980, wrote about why that was so absurd (via Boston Globe):
“A delayed-tape presentation of a sports event is almost worse than not presenting the event at all. It is dried milk as opposed to normal milk. It is mashed potatoes without butter or salt or pepper. The flavor, the excitement are taken away artificially. Even if the viewer doesn’t know the score, if he has steeled himself for the 2½ necessary hours in an airtight bunker, impervious to news reports, wire reports and loud-mouthed friends and family . . . even if he has done all that, hard as it may be, the game is not the same.”
Forty years after that column about basketball, I now feel the exact same way about Succession. Even if you’ve managed to avoid the plot spoilers, if you weren’t watching live, it just … isn’t the same.
RELATED: Succession’s Connor Roy singing Leonard Cohen at Maru Karaoke Lounge will break your heart
Montville mused that the NBA playoffs were “not a show,” but instead, news. I’d argue that the same is true of Succession and any other show that reaches a similar level of success and cultural relevance. Even the Los Angeles Times covered Sunday’s episode as if it actually happened to someone who isn’t a fictional character. That may have annoyed some fans, but it was brilliant work.
We are lucky to have prestige shows like Succession (or White Lotus and The Last of Us) that are must-watch live events and that are still a quality watch even if the plot does get spoiled. If you want to avoid spoilers, you have to try your best to stay offline until you’ve seen the show. Otherwise, it feels like you’re complaining about someone spoiling the score of last night’s game.
Quick Hits: Jon Rahm won the Masters! … Hot MLB mics … NBA teammates throwing punches? … and more
— Masters champion Jon Rahm blamed his double bogey start at Augusta on a text from Zach Ertz
— NBA fans crushed Rudy Gobert after he threw a punch at his own teammate during a timeout
— Saturday Night Live did a very fun impression of LSU’s Angel Reese during Weekend Update
— Mics picked up what a livid Seby Zavala said to Oneil Cruz before benches cleared in Pittsburgh