Television re-runs: only 235 episodes to go

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Television re-runs: only 235 episodes to go

Where's the appeal in watching the likes of Friends, The Sopranos and The West Wing from the beginning again? It's more than just nostalgia, says Mark Lawson

<span style="font-size:120%;">It was American television networks that introduced the weekly narrative recap: "Previously on The West Wing." This has now been adopted as standard by British dramas. Now Sky Atlantic, the UK's new dedicated network for US TV, is offering an extreme version – the chance to watch famous series including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and ER, right from their opening episodes.These end-to-end retrospectives bring box set-style viewing to scheduled television. While not every viewer of these marathons will be rewinding from the end – they will also attract new generations of viewers, curious about the legend, and those who became addicted late – there's a particular fascination in watching a show in this way, especially within the regular flow of programmes, because the experience is so contrary to the medium's usual rules.

These reruns satisfy two impulses. One is completism: the desire to experience the full shape of a complex narrative. In that sense, these start-to-end screenings have a connection with the recent trend in pop music for bands from Brian Wilson to Sonic Youth to play gigs that consist of every track from a particular album, performed in the original order. Such run-throughs make a stand for the idea of the album in a time when iPods make tracks easy to skip and shuffle.

In television, the motivation is different. The majority of TV drama differs from novels, films and stage plays in that...

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Edited March 7, 201114 yr by Sylph