• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, August 19, 2013 4:06 PM

Online TV series recapping has become a booming cottage industry, bringing lots of traffic to the obvious entertainment sites, but also "unlikely outlets from political magazines to local news affiliates," writes John Jurgensen. This very thorough discussion of the phenomenon includes input from a wide variety of sources, from a TelevisionWithoutPity recapper who explains what substances (from "5-Hour Energy drink" to "stovetop expresso") help keep him awake to recap up to three shows a night, to "The Good Wife" executive producer Robert King, who monitors recaps "to help guide storytelling decision," according to Jurgensen.

"The rise of recaps has most to do with the transformation of the TV audience at large," writes Jurgensen. "The best recaps serve a dual purpose: guiding fans of a show through subtleties (or entire episodes) they might have missed, and serving as fixed hubs of discussion for readers whose viewing patterns are staggered by time-shifting."

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