Every new media mimics what has gone before until it discovers its own form.  The films that followed live theater were created with a single static camera.  A single long shot replicated the audience’s perspective in viewing a stage show. It was assumed that was the perspective an audience would want in viewing filmed entertainment.  Finally, filmmakers realized they could move the camera and create an entirely new perspective and viewing experience.

Most online series are presented in episodic form, just like television.  If you create 22 or whatever number of episodes of bite-sized narrative, each is doled out, one at a time, over weeks and months.  Why is this a good idea?

No one likes to wait.  The Internet is the most impatient medium ever invented.  Going online is all about instant access all the time.  Why not put up a whole series (all episodes) in one shot?  Then the audience can view as much or as little of the narrative as THEY want exactly when THEY want to view it.

They won’t have to wait.  They can sample the series in order or out of order or however they like. Why do we think audiences have the patience or the attention span to come back to very short narrative snippets over time?  Isn’t this just the automatic mimicking of an old medium– episodic television?  Is that one reason why so many narrative series in this new medium fail?