We're starting to get used to five-nights-a-week dramas. Last autumn's Criminal Justice and Collision (on BBC1 and ITV1 respectively) cemented event drama in the schedules, and the return of Five Days this week, only reinforced the trend. As a viewer, I quite like the concept. It shows commitment to and faith in quality home-grown drama, increases the dramatic impact of the show, creates a shared television experience, and brings either the prestige or the budget necessary to attract great writers and actors. But stripped drama also brings with it one problem: the etiquette of discussing it with others.
Obviously the idea is that you will sit down at 9pm every evening this week to catch the next instalment of Five Days. Sadly, that idea bears little relation to real life: social commitments, phonecalls, cooking, kids – they all get in the way of the sofa and the television. The wonder of iPlayer and PVRs might mean you won't miss out on the episode – but unless you view it in the following 23 hours, suddenly the whole series has to be watched on catch-up, each episode a day (or more) behind everyone else.
That's where the idea of shared viewing experience goes rather wrong – and event drama rapidly morphs into after-the-event drama. With no time to get up to speed, you have to spend your days avoiding office conversation about last night's instalment, skip the delicious conversations about where the plot might be going, and hastily close emails that make reference to episodes not yet viewed.
And the situation is just as bad if you've actually kept up to date with events – the constant shushing and exclamations about "Not having seen that one yet". Somehow event drama is different from run-of-the-mill series. Perhaps it's the speed at which events move – if you don't get to chat about what you've just watched the very next day, it will be totally out of date. Perhaps it's the feeling that special drama, with a strong cast and decent promotion merits a bit of discussion. Whichever, I have yet to work out the proper etiquette for discussing Five Days and its progress without annoying about half the people watching it. Any thoughts?
