Surely most of us have binge-watched something, and witnessed something else episode by episode recently.
I can't say I've noticed the latter category being more magical.

Perhaps the theory can be definitively tested if we make somebody DVR Gotham season 2 and then watch them all in a row.

Back in the days when I had a VCR, I used to record around 8 hours of TV a week and catch up on it at the weekend - mainly M*A*S*H and Next Generation, but a couple of other series as well. That was because I was working away in hotels all week, so I was only at home from Friday evening through Sunday midday.

These days I hardly watch any TV, my wife watches a couple of soaps, so I have to sit through them, but there aren't any series I really watch. I'm trying to catch up on NCIS LA on Amazon Prime, but I only manage a couple of episodes a week on average. I've been watching it for a couple of months now and I'm mid-way through season 3.

That said, the first 2 seasons of 24, I bought the DVDs after the show had aired - again I was working away, so never saw it air - and I watched them over about 22 hours (with ads it is around 18 - 19 hours, but I was so tired I took a break around episode 18 and slept for 2 hours).

Binge watching is the way forward - you can decide whether to stick with a show, and that's never been more important. I've been able to tell people about great shows they wouldn't have tried otherwise. Next to nobody watches original broadcast stuff and chats about it now, especially with so many shows being American, on different channels and services, and TV Marmite. And that's before box recording...

I've also gone back to shows that were utterly dire in, say, their first five episodes. Plus Netflix and the like have brought back much-loved shows that the studios hobbled on release.

I think all of my wife's family and most of my colleagues watch broadcast TV. Very few people over here pay for Sky (I don't know a single person who has Sky), a few have cable, but for the Internet package and none take the premium TV channels. About 4 colleagues have Amazon Prime Video.

A couple download OV series over the Internet, because it is hard to get any series with OV here - I'm so used to dubbed versions of US shows, that it seems funny now, when I hear the original voices.

In the evening, we'll watch whatever comes on, because it is no hassle to turn the TV on, but spending ages rifling through Amazon Prime looking for something to watch is a hassle. We often moan that there is nothing on TV, but we'll end up watching something or we'll turn it off and play a board game or something or go to bed.

I wouldn't say it was hassle to pick TV shows. I don't use prime but use Netflix and there's tons to watch and I save things I might be interested in to my list. They're good at making suggestions of what you might like. I guess prime is different.

Nearly everything I watch on Sky is pre-recorded, for convenience and because I hate adverts.

I usually only watch the soaps when they are actually on because it's something to watch / listen to while I'm making dinner.

There's several shows that I've binge watched through the first season to get the the good bits in season 2 when if I'd been watching them an episode a week in "real time" I'd have given up on long before the 10th episode.

IMO it can work both for and against a show.