That moment I realized most 'binge worthy' recommendations skip the first season entirely

I was scrolling through a thread last night where everyone was raving about a show, saying it gets good after episode 6. That's when it hit me. Half the shows people call binge worthy have rough first seasons that nobody mentions. Why are we acting like a show that needs a full season to find its footing is actually great? Anyone else notice this pattern with older popular series?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_jake1mo ago

Wait, episode 6? That's like half the season in most shows. That's wild that people are okay sitting through that much setup just to get to the good part. It reminds me of all those shows that get called "slow burns" but really they just have bad first seasons. Some of the biggest shows out there are basically unwatchable until season 2 and everyone just pretends that's normal.

knight.dylan1mo ago

The thing is, episode 6 is actually more than half for a lot of shows since seasons are usually 8 or 10 episodes now. But your point still stands. I sat through the ENTIRE first season of a fan favorite once and it was just people standing around in a room talking. Then season two started and suddenly it was this AMAZING thing everyone talked about. It's like we've been trained to just accept that the first season is basically homework before the real show starts.

jason_lewis31mo ago

Wait, half the season just to get good? That's wild to me lmao. I sat through a whole season of a show everyone hyped and it was like watching paint dry until episode 7 or something. I feel like people just gaslight themselves into thinking a show's great because they invested so much time in it already.

parkerbrown1mo ago

Had a buddy who swore by this one show, said it was the best thing ever. Made me watch the first six episodes and I was bored out of my mind, kept asking when it gets good. He finally admitted "around episode 8" and I just turned it off.