What is the point of midway season marathons?

Watching The Americans and they're advertising to set DVR for the first five eps in a row tomorrow. Not like I've never seen it before, and I understand the point somewhat - draw eyballs. But if you haven't turned in for an episode or two by now, what makes them think you will now?

 

Word of mouth. I've been watching this one from the beginning, but with a lot of serial dramas I wait and see what people say about it before investing the time. It usually means catching up with the first season or two on DVD or streaming Netflix, but in this case I'd likely DVR the marathon and catch up because I've read good things about the show here and other places.

 

Because it works. It's especially worked for shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men and - most recently - The Walking Dead. And it mirrors the way a lot of people watch TV now, in multiple-hour chunks from Netflix or Hulu, rather than one hour at a time each week.

 

I wish they'd do this for American Horror Story. I have 13 episodes on my DVR, but I missed the first one. Therefore, I can't watch the others.

 

http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/internet/american_horror_story/

 

On shows like that, not being caught up is a huge barrier to entry. I fell behind on 24 at the beginning, and now what is it, 10 years later and I still haven't seen a single episode.

 

Well, I forgot about the first episode and I wanted to watch it. But I need to see them all in order, so I am not tuning in two or three episodes in. Now I can. Thanks for the alert!

 

That show is awesomely twisted.