The art of continuity and... to be contd

The art of continuity - continuing things incrementally to heighten engagement - has a science of its own. Drag things out too long like a spent chewing gum, and you lose interest. Expend it too quickly and you are likely to have undervalued what could have been happily teased out. Take television serials, or at least the more successful ones. Viewers value the stickiness that waiting for things to proceed further brings, if the play-pause-play button is used deftly. Even old-style comic strip cartoons serialised in print, especially in the non-English language regional press, brings about a sense of habit that is part of the larger attempt to make newspaper-reading a daily habit - or, for that matter, 'to-be-continued' podcast-listening a weekly habit.

Streaming shows with their multiple episodes and seasons are most tellingly showcasing the drawing power of the 'to- be-continued' format. Some provide the choice of binge-watching with the whole thing 'out there' for the consumer to decide on the watching pace - and the size of each 'morsel'. The weekly episodic format harks back to an older era where the thrill of waiting is part and parcel of the show. 'Waiting eagerly' is an emotion that all content producers hope viewers will develop. And that can happen when continuity, rather than finality, is dealt out just right. To be continued....