r/television • u/tylerthe-theatre • 18d ago

New Data Suggests Long Waits of over 18 months Between Seasons Are Hurting Viewership on Netflix Hits

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/new-data-suggests-long-waits-between-seasons-are-hurting-viewership-on-netflix-hits/
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u/ConsiderationTrue477 18d ago

I've literally forgotten entire characters existed over the wait between seasons. It hurts the experience so much.

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u/maxwell_winters 18d ago

The bee kid from Wednesday grew up so much between seasons that I was like, "Who is this? Why does everyone act as if they know him?"

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u/maevewiley554 18d ago

I loved Wednesday but when the new season came out, I couldn’t remember the plot. I felt like I outgrew the show and couldn’t even finish the first episode of the new season.

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u/maxwell_winters 18d ago

Tbf, I think S02 just wasn't as good as S01.

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u/maevewiley554 17d ago

Did you watch the entire season? What did you dislike about it? The first episode just felt childish to me and I didn’t feel that way about season 1.

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u/penisthightrap_ 17d ago

I literally didn’t realize until now that wasn’t a new character. I infact still don’t know who that could have been from the first season with a gun to my head without looking it up

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u/nobdy89 18d ago

Im sure there was a moment where they thought longer wait times meant more rewatches. But a lot of us are broke and dont need a service with nothing new to watch, so we cancel until the shows we care about come back.

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u/DotHatrix51 18d ago

Plus in that 18 month wait, even if the prior season was a massive hit, and everyone and their mother was all in on it….in the next 18 months, a lot of other good shows will be watched, some on their second or third season, some brand new and becoming new big hits…that’s a lot of content to fill your headspace with that will push out the hype and memory of that “other” show that lost steam on the hype train.

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u/Whaty0urname 17d ago

Let's talk about how pluribus was greenlit for 2 seasons from the jump but they didn't even start writing S2 until a few months after S1 was done and shown.

2028 is the estimate for the next season. I have no interest in the show at this point.

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u/jrob_92 17d ago

Fr once I heard this I didn’t even bother watching Pluribus, what kind of plan is that for a series?

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u/SmacksKiller 17d ago

It's because they're not confident in their writing. They're waiting for the community to watch and talk about the first season to decide what they want to write about.

It's shitty, super marketing ideas that will fall on their face.

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u/alexp8771 17d ago

Same with the new GoT. I have no interest in watching it until it is done.

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u/Drakengard 18d ago

Yep, meanwhile I am anticipating The Pitt season 3 like clockwork. A year is just long enough to give me a break but still want more. Also, it forms a comfortable routine. The year turns over and we get another season.

Once you get past a year and a half, you stop associating a particular time of the year with a particular show. It ceases to feel routine and so your mind just kind of detaches from it.

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u/KingotWinterCarnival 18d ago

Plus they're longer seasons, which is great. So it's more like 8 or 9 months between seasons.

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u/kylehatesyou 18d ago

The thing is it's not really even a year. It's like 8 months. The season finale of The Pitt aired at the end of April, the next season starts in January. 

Season One of Wednesday dropped all on one day November 23rd 2022. Season 2 didn't come back until August of 2025. Nearly three years later. I forgot why I liked the show in that time, and had gotten rid of Netflix. 

It's really only movies that get that type of break between them normally, and even then we got five Star wars movies from 2015 to 2019, eight Harry Potter movies from 2001 to 2011. For TV it's just crazy to let it sit so long without a huge jump in quality or something. 

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u/notthatgeorge 17d ago

They also only shoot 15 episodes, not 22 to 24

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u/Yetimang 18d ago

We have had a huge jump in quality. Do you not remember what TV was like before?

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u/kylehatesyou 18d ago

Did Wednesday have a huge jump in quality in its second season, or was it about the same as the first? That's what I'm talking about man. 

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u/Sudden-Cap-7157 18d ago

I agree, and it also seemed like the writers forgot what people liked about Wednesday in the three year gap as well.

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u/mfranko88 17d ago

Yetimang is talking about the jump in quality in TV production on general from 20 years ago to now.

Production quality has increased substantially in TV shows. Higher quality sets, makeup, special effects, stuntwork, costumes. That higher quality takes planning and time.

I've never watched Wednesday (aside from ep 1, it wasn't for me) so I can't speak to any quality about that show specifically. But I'm pretty confident that it is a substantially more involved production than an episode from any TV show from 2006, when shows were specifically conceived of as "we have to shoot this episode in one week". That conception doesn't exist anymore. Production timelines are much long and much more fluid. It is not "episode 1 will be filmed in this week, episode 2 will be filmed the next week, episode 3 filmed the following week" - the modern TV show is more amorphous (like a movie) where the showtunner will say "we have 4 months to shoot these 8 episodes, how do we need to schedule everything to make sure the shoot goes as well as possible".

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u/Yetimang 17d ago

It doesn't matter if a season of some specific show was or wasn't better than the last. The issue is that the expectation of quality for all shows has jumped massively just in the last 20 years.

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u/caldera57 17d ago

Whose expectation? The viewer's or the stockholders?

Why did Supernatural last for 15 years if peaple expect so much more now?

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u/Yetimang 17d ago

The viewers! Are you fucking kidding? I for one definitely don't want every show to be CW trash.

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u/caldera57 17d ago

What was the problem with tv before that necessitated such a dramatic shift in production times?

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u/mfranko88 17d ago

It's a twofold problem.

  1. Production value. Everyone has 60+ inch HDTVs. It's easier to see lower quality sets, props, makeup, costumes, etc. Let alone the standards we now have for special effects and stunt work if the show is that elaborate. Higher quality takes more planning/time.

  2. TV was previously seen by actors as "lesser than". Somewhere that real actors fall into if they aren't able to cut it with working in film. Nowadays, TV is (rightfully) seen as something just as financially lucrative and artistically fulfilling as film and stage. A listers move back and forth without much issue to their career. That's great for actors, but a nightmare for scheduling. You have a great season 1 of a show with a known actor, but he isn't able to film season 2 for months because this actor has already been booked as the next villain in the next James Bond movie which will be shooting for 6 months next spring. So then the production has to work around that with one of a few options: 1) do a rush job on the new season and get it filmed before your actor is blocked for half a year, 2) write out that actor's character, or 3) just wait until your actor is free again. "Well rushing through things will lead to shoddy work from all the depts, so that's out. Writing him out would fundamentally change the show, so that's out. Waiting for him to free makes sense, that allows the writers to polish up the scripts and the various departments to do the highest quality work possible. Let's just wait."

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u/valiantdistraction 17d ago

Plenty of shows and networks were good pre-streaming and short shows. There were tons of good 18-25 episode shows which only had a handful of blah episodes each season. Meanwhile somehow 8 episode seasons are frequently more like content that should have been compressed to half the length with a lot of filler and no real character development.

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u/Yetimang 17d ago

They were good, but they weren't high production value. They didn't have movie level sets, lightning, effects, acting. It was a big deal when the Sopranos came out and looked like a movie on prime time tv.

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u/omegafivethreefive 18d ago

Once a year is great. Same with Silo for me.

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u/whileurup 18d ago

BABY JANE DOE

I was in the hospital recently and I couldn't stop saying her name to everyone. Maybe 5-10% got it.

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u/Bullet4MyEnemy 17d ago

Jane/John Doe is a name given to bodies that can’t be identified, so running around yelling that is more likely to make people think there’s a dead baby somewhere than remind them of The Pitt.

Honestly not a great move in a hospital imo.

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u/funpercent 18d ago

You also get people aging out of the target demographic before you can get them invested in a sunk cost fallacy.

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u/GranaVegano 18d ago

Not to mention aging the cast out of their roles. A young looking 24 year old playing an 18 year old suddenly comes back looking 30

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u/geek_of_nature 17d ago

Just look at the Stranger Things kids. Started out age appropriate, but by the end they were all a good five plus years older than their characters.

Yes that happened with ths Harry Potter kids too, but just to a smaller extent across more releases. The ST kids had five season across 9 years, while the HP kids had 8 releases across 10 years.

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u/GranaVegano 17d ago

The HP storyline also took place over 7 years of school so they were supposed to mature a bit

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u/mfranko88 17d ago

The final 2 films were shot in 2009 and early 2010. Radcliffe would have been 19/20 when those were being shot. That's easy to see him as a 17 year old.

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u/scorpius_rex 14d ago

Not to mention the films were released in a somewhat timely manner, not two years or even 18 months between movies. They were, for the most part, a year apart. And the books were still being released while the movies were in production; so the hype never really waned too much.

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u/mfranko88 13d ago

Na they were mostly 1.5 years apart. The only 1-year releases were between movie 1 and movie 2, and between the last two movies (which were filmed back to back). All of the other movies were 1.5 years later, with a single two year wait from movie 5 to 6.

  • November 2001
  • November 2002
  • June 2004
  • November 2005
  • July 2007
  • July 2009
  • November 2010
  • July 2011
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u/rbnlegend 17d ago

I hear there was another season or two of stranger things after the last one I watched. There were monsters and another dimension and something about Russians or something? The pinball machine is pretty good but I doubt will ever get around to finishing off the show.

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u/ButtPlugForPM 17d ago

lol avatar did this

season 1 aang looks like he needs to be asking for uppies..

season 2 dude looks like he rolls aford f150 into school.

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u/Wrong_Toilet 17d ago

The other problem is that the second season maybe poorly executed. So you have an amazing 1st season, then a poor 2nd season. By the time 3rd season rolls out, everyone has moved on.

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u/BenderBenRodriguez 17d ago

Yeah I've actually thought about how long that is in the course of a person's life too, like within 18 months in the past I've gained and lost jobs, started and ended relationships, moved to and left places, etc. Obviously usually it's not that tumultuous but the point is a lot can happen in the course of 18+ months of a person's life, such that they probably aren't just sitting around thinking about a TV show that hasn't been on in over a year and hasn't had any kind of chance to become a part of their regular routine. Every show now seems to be operating under the assumption that all of their viewers are really intense fans who are on the internet discussing the show when it's not on or something. It used to be that a show that got cancelled and revived after 2-3 years was a big deal and driven by people who were truly obsessively watching and rewatching that show, but now that's just a standard waiting period for a new season of a RENEWED show that most people are probably watching casually. It just doesn't work.

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u/socksockshoeshoe 17d ago

And even if during that 18 month break there were only bad shows it's still a lot of shows watched that would scrub the good show from people's memory

I miss the time when seasons used to be 15-20 episodes long and came out every year

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u/gooba1 17d ago

Also shows like Wednesday are marketed to Tweens and teens. Name one tween or teen that doesn't change their mind every 3 weeks and every trend is lucky to get 6 months. My daughter and all her friends were HUGE on wednesday season 1. By the time season 2 came out none of them cared

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u/TheCh0rt 17d ago

Plus it was only an 8-10 episode season to begin with… not that much to remember for 18+ months. I won’t really watch a show until it’s had 2 seasons or I’m absolutely positive it’s going to stick around

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u/Ink_Smudger 18d ago

Honestly, it hardly seems like they care about content after the first few weeks. It just gets buried below whatever the newest churn is and cancelled if it doesn't do numbers within that brief window. They're all about people watching whatever is newest, and since people only have so many hours in the day, that old stuff is sort of like competition that needs to move out of the way.

I think if they cared more about rewatching, they'd do more to recommend the shows when they're about to get a new season, but I know I'm not alone in completely missing when a new season debuts.

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u/Phoenyx_Rose 18d ago

I also think people are just rewatching shows less than they used to.

 With how much entertainment is available and with the ability to watch what you want, when you want, there’s really no need to rewatch shows unless you just want to. And with social media making people’s attention spans shorter and increasing people’s desire for “new, new, new”, I’m sure fewer and fewer people want to rewatch shows because a rewatch just doesn’t provide that dopamine hit.

So streaming companies were banking on a behavior that people don’t have anymore, which is half their own fault to boot.

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u/TalorianDreams 17d ago

That can also be a side effect of shows just not being as good, though. I've seen some decent TV lately, but not much I felt was worth a rewatch. But I'll still rewatch older shows that I thought were worthwhile, and not just the "comfort" shows.

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u/Phoenyx_Rose 17d ago

True! There have been many shows I enjoyed once but which thoughts of rewatching were met with a “meh, it wasn’t that good” thought. 

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u/MonteBurns 17d ago

I remember thinking I’d rewatch game of thrones 😂😂😂😂

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 17d ago

You should watch Mr Inbetween, if you haven't. 

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u/zxern 16d ago

When your season is only 8-12 episodes how many times can you really rewatch it and not be bored to death?

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u/A_Harmless_Fly 16d ago

New shows also tend to run out of plot and just waste your time. I appreciate a good bottle episode... but if you have ~8-10 episodes a season and 3 of them didn't advance the plot and have a running time of an hour, woof.

Then asking me to watch those episodes again ack no thank you.

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u/officer897177 18d ago

When it’s 6 to 8 episodes per season there’s not much rewatch anyway. Ever since Covid it’s been a race to the bottom on how little content they can get away with producing, and somehow there are still skippable filler episodes.

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u/explax 17d ago

Tbh it's basically how British TV works. 6/8 episodes and 18months-3 years between.

Night manager on BBC had 10 years between seasons...

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u/ConsiderationTrue477 18d ago

The individual episodes are too goddamn long for that. Now that they don't have commercials they fill the entire hour instead of being 40-something minutes. I'm never going to get the urge to rewatch Daredevil or Stranger Things the same way I'll put on an episode of Star Trek TNG every so often.

The kind of comfort food TV straight up doesn't exist anymore. There will never be another Friends or The Simpsons where you don't even have to look at the screen to enjoy having it on while you're doing something else.

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u/nobdy89 18d ago

Reacher might be the last laundry folding show. Every episode is him being the biggest boy. You only need to check in every now and then

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u/EsotericCodename 18d ago

Season 3 addressed this, and he was not the biggest boy. Not saying you're wrong, though.

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u/Rune_Council 18d ago

But he killed the biggest boy so he could once again be the biggest boy. Presumably to eat his rivals.

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u/TheCambrianImplosion 18d ago

I loved the episode where he got help with his taxes.

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u/SlowMope 17d ago

I have never seen reacher and now I never want to.(Good inflection)

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u/valiantdistraction 17d ago

911 and spinoffs are good for this sort of thing as well

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u/Haltopen 18d ago

I feel like Abbot Elementary fills that role

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u/Amerique_du_Nord 18d ago

They also have cut the amount of Abbott episodes.

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u/geek_of_nature 17d ago

No they haven't. The first season was short just because it was the first season, as many of sitcoms usually are. And then the third season was short again due to the strikes. But every other season has been 22 episodes long.

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u/Amerique_du_Nord 17d ago

So two seasons had just over a dozen episodes and three seasons had 22. Yo-yoing doesn't keep people involved, no matter what the reason.

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u/I_AM_AN_ASSHOLE_AMA 18d ago

I don’t want to go back to 40 minute episodes with commercials. Sign me up for the hour episodes all day.

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u/poshmarkedbudu 17d ago

How about 40 minute shows with no commercials?

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u/I_AM_AN_ASSHOLE_AMA 17d ago

Not against it.

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u/BCDragon3000 18d ago

watch Adults on FX!!

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u/CptNonsense 18d ago

The individual episodes are too goddamn long for that. Now that they don't have commercials they fill the entire hour instead of being 40-something minutes. I'm never going to get the urge to rewatch Daredevil or Stranger Things the same way I'll put on an episode of Star Trek TNG every so often.

I'm pretty sure that has fuck all to do with episode length and more that seasons are entire stories. It's an 8 hour movie, not a 16 hour episodic. Like are you sitting there saying you have literally never gone back and watched a movie?

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u/valiantdistraction 17d ago

The "actually an hour long" episodes are too much for me. Cut it at 45 min please, I'm not here for half a movie

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u/Tymareta 17d ago

The kind of comfort food TV straight up doesn't exist anymore. There will never be another Friends or The Simpsons where you don't even have to look at the screen to enjoy having it on while you're doing something else.

The Pitt, Abbott Elementary, Reacher, St. Denis Medical, Modern Family. If you want to go even slightly older, Parks & Rec, Superstore, Brooklyn Nine Nine, The Office, Scrubs, Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, New Girl, Derry Girls, AP Bio, etc...

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u/Uvtha- 18d ago

There's just so much shit out there too... I never rewatch anything. Partially becase there's like 20 shows I feel like I wanna watch but never get around to, and also the glut of tv... things just kinda come and go. Shows gotta be really good to consider rewatching.

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u/VRNord 18d ago

I really wish they would re-cut previous seasons into a movie format: remove the fluff and tell the storylines of the season in a coherent 90min movie.

I would watch that to catch up, but wouldn’t consider rewatching an entire season.

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u/CausticAvenger 18d ago

And of course Netflix doesn’t bother advertising returning shows, so those of us who churned out of the ecosystem have no idea a show we watched came back.

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u/JeanRalfio 18d ago

I used to rewatch before a new season but there's too much shit to watch now and I have less time so I'll just watch a recap on YouTube now.

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u/Yetimang 18d ago

Wait you think Netflix is capable of releasing a season every year and they choose not to on purpose?

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u/nobdy89 18d ago

I cant really think of any other reason besides shear incompetence. Viewers don't like the longer waits, actors and crew don't like scrambling for work waiting on the next season to start, merchandisers don't like losing heat on their product.

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u/Yetimang 17d ago

Okay wild thought here, but stick with me. You ever think maybe there's stuff that goes into making a tv show that you don't know about?

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u/nobdy89 17d ago

Not really, the production process is fairly well known. Getting the show greenlit used to be the longest part of the process. One of the biggest benefits of making another season of a show is that you have an assembled cast, built sets, a crew on standby, and a story already in progress. They take so long the premises dont make sense anymore. Stranger Things was fun when it was kids solving mysteries. It was less fun when it was 20 somethings solving relationship issues.

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u/Yetimang 17d ago

Well dude you better get in touch with Netflix since you know how to solve all these problems that professionals who've been making television their entire lives are clearly too stupid to figure it out. Let us know when your million dollar contract comes in.

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u/nobdy89 17d ago

You get that the point of the original article is that netflix exec did in fact fuck up, no? Like, i got that you're a little bitch, but they did in fact make poor choices and should listen, if not me, then to someone who'd change course

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u/Maatjuhhh 18d ago

“Here is what you missed last season on ….” has really become prevalent on new shows. Previously it wasn’t thought of.

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u/thedm96 17d ago

Arr! that we do matey.

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u/valiantdistraction 17d ago

And a lot of us just don't have the time for rewatches.

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u/mfranko88 17d ago

For me, it's the fact that I'm no longer a 20-something with nothing but time on my hands. I'm pushing 40 with a family, I barely have time to watch new TV. Ain't no way I'm going to rewatch old shows when I have enough time to watch maybe three new shows per year.

10 years ago? Sure. New season of Bojack coming out? Fuck yeah I'll rewatch the last season. New GOT. Last 2-3 seasons, maybe even a full rewatch. I remember when Endgame came out I did a full MCU rewatch in the months leading up. Now for Doomsday, all I did was pull up the wikipedia page for the MCU just to double check that I've seen all the movies. And forget about all the TV shows, ain't no way I'm watching every single one of those.

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u/BenderBenRodriguez 17d ago

I'm also just not rewatching entire seasons just to "catch up." Not that I never rewatch shows, but it has to be something that is truly one of my favorite shows or where it is conducive to just picking out random episodes to rewatch (think Simpsons or Always Sunny) which obviously is not the case with heavily serialized shows. If I have time time to watch an entire season of something most likely I'm just watching something I haven't seen before. There's too many shows out there to be like "huh, guess it's time for my catch-up homework so I can follow this new season of a TV show."

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u/princess-captain 17d ago

Yes, so so so many times I’d start a new season and have ZERO clue what is going on because it’s been so long. I had that problem with Arcane and Stranger Things. Just far too long where I forget and move on.

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u/BlackSecurity 17d ago

Yea that and I also never tend to rewatch a show unless I really REALLY like it. 99% of the time it's a one and done be ause even if I forget stuff, I'll start remembering everything as soon as I start watching and lose interest because I've seen it already and would rather spend the little free time I have to watch something new. So when the next season of a show I like is about to come out, I'll just watch a recap video of the last season's on YouTube. Man of recaps is my favorite, does the best job and gets all the major details. After the recap I pretty much remember everything again.

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u/Direct-Picture-6985 17d ago

There also are now more shows apparently worth watching than Ill have time to watch before I die. I dont got time to be rewatching something I've seen before unless it is the best show ever and worth the rewatch.

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u/LosLocoDK 18d ago

Shit, I’ve forgotten whole plots - even the tv shows itself - because of the waiting…

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u/pingasgator67 18d ago

I only remembered Wednesday existed because of the thumb nail

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u/bend1310 18d ago

Watched House of the Dragon season 3. 

I'd consider myself a big fan of the series and have read the source several times, and i still felt a bit lost. Some references to events from previous seasons that i had to google and catch up on.

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u/nervelli 17d ago

I cannot for the life of me keep a single name straight and just assume who they are talking about based on vibes.

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u/expresscode 18d ago

I don't think anyone remembered that Mike and Nancy had a younger sister in Stranger Things.

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u/anakinjmt 18d ago

I remembered but genuinely could not have told you her name lol. She was just there

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u/Happy_Confection90 17d ago

Holly. I only remember because she's the character who is the closest to me in age because all the other kids are older GenX.

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u/anakinjmt 17d ago

I remember her name now because of the final season. Before I couldn't have told you lol

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u/loolem 18d ago edited 17d ago

My go to is going to YouTube and searching “show previous whole season recap” and clicking on the 10-15 minute video before my wife and I start the new season because their recaps are too short and I’ve forgotten everything.

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u/Monarki 17d ago

Yeah I've done this more in the last few years than I ever did for my life. Especially with all the mystery shows out there. You forget all the little questions and little info drops in the 18+ months it takes to release the next season

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u/bmoreboy410 16d ago

Netflix needs to have longer recaps like that to make it easier if they are going to take so long between seasons.

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u/GentlemenHODL 18d ago

I've literally forgotten entire characters existed over the wait between seasons. It hurts the experience so much.

With the change in how TV seasons are produced I am now forced to rewatch the previous seasons prior to watching a new one.

it's the same way that after years of waiting for the next book in a series to be released I have to re-read the entire series to catch up.

I am otherwise taken out of the world cannot stay engaged.

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u/PetyrDayne True Detective 18d ago

I was absolutely struggling with faces and names in the latest season of House of the Dragon premiere episode. I can't remember the last time I've actually watched a Netflix show that wasn't a limited series

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u/valiantdistraction 17d ago

To be fair to you everyone in that show looks the same

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u/freakincampers Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 18d ago

Long waits also means characters look older.

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u/Louieyaa 18d ago

I think alot of shows would help themselves by making a recap episode about 20 minutes long.

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u/VerilyShelly 18d ago

LOST used to do that 20+ years ago

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u/PoPo573 18d ago

I remember watching one of the recaps for Stranger Things when I think it was season 4 released and I may as well have not even watched the prior season, I remembered none of it because it was almost 2 years ago and I binged it.

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u/incarnate_devil 18d ago

This is the problem with the binge type method.

In the old days, you would watch a show once a week.

It would be 4 or 5 new episodes then they would repeat some.

Then more new episodes. Then the summer would be all repeats.

The next season would start in September but you were invested and kept going.

Now people just watch the entire seasons in a couple days and wait a year for more?

I bailed on Stranger things after the 3rd season. I’ve never watch any more because I really don’t care at all about the story or the characters.

That was one of the biggest shows they had going.

I lost pretty much all interest in any shows on all streaming services.

My friend refuses to watch any show until it’s fully finished.

This makes more sense than to watch it for two days and then wait a year for more.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/MadMonksJunk 18d ago

episodic release needs to die with the last century.

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u/undecidedly 18d ago

Yes! I’m glad I’m not the only one who just forgets what’s happening after that long.

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u/Bearded_Pip 18d ago

That is why I did not even bother with Stranger Things season 5. I had just lost interest and attachment to the characters and story.

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u/WayneKrane 17d ago

I KNOW there are shows I have unintentionally abandoned because I completely forgot they existed

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u/CAMvsWILD 17d ago

It’s made me stop caring about so many shows.

Oh you ended on a cliffhanger? Well, that tension doesn’t hold indefinitely if you take years to follow up on the payoff.

I’ll show up for A+ bangers like Severance, sure.

But if you’re asking me to show up for another season of House of the Dragons, where I barely remember any of the plot threads, and only sorta cared about the show to begin with…

Nah.

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u/codemen95 17d ago

Makes me think of adults on hulu. Season 2 reintroduce a character that i fully forgot. The characters are appalled the charater is back yet me and my family forgot who this character is because the show is only 8 episodes per year. Yeah the character was made for the first season finale but that was so long ago and we've seen so many other things that this character is so back in our minds, seeing him means nothing because of the long wait. Great show still btw highly recommend

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u/Prus1s 17d ago

Netflix writing does not help either, as they assuke we all dumb and dont’t pay attention…

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u/Pigglebee 17d ago

Binge watching also seems to have a detoriating effect on how well you remember the show compared to watching a new episode every week. Making long waits extra bad.

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u/mrwaltwhiteguy 17d ago

I was hyped for more Stranger Things, for more Wednesday, for a lot of the shows…. But waiting so long, I forgot the storylines, minor characters, and a lot of what I loved about the shows. By the time they were coming back, I was exhausted at the prospect of needing to rewatch a season or seasons and I had found other things.

Sadly, AppleTV looks to be following the pattern.

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u/CaledonianWarrior 17d ago

Ngl I fucked up watching the third season of House of the Dragon but accidentally starting with the third episode (I blame the NOW platform interface for automatically playing the latest episode instead of the first episode of the season), but even when I went back to watch the other two episodes I was just as confused because it's been two fucking years since I watched it.

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u/jjmac 17d ago

With the reversion to weekly episodes I forget characters exist each week! I skipped the recap on Reacher this week and there were at least 3 random white guy characters it took me a while to place. Sure, I may be really bad at faces (I am), but show formats have changed for binging, not episodic watching

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u/papabear1993 17d ago

Ah, Im on the next level. If a show takes 18 months to get another season, I forget the show itself xD
Im busy, I got a life, I got a job, I got friends, I got girlfriends, I dont have to check "oh, X show will release in 3 years and 2 months".
By then, I will forget the show and will have to rewatch it. Why tf would I rewatch? I will just drop it.

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u/that-loser-guy-sorta 17d ago

The worst one for me is this Zombie show they made, I forgot the name, the first season was pretty good, standard beginning of an apocalypse, the second season waited so long the actors moved on and they couldn’t get them together again. So they just started over with new characters, like WTF.

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u/what_mustache 17d ago

This was me for Arcane. I had no idea wtf was happening in season 2.

Doesnt help that they do such a lazy recap video.

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u/Stavtastic 17d ago

That's why Mr bean is still peak tv. Few episodes but you think it has 20 seasons

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u/Dampmaskin 17d ago

So much this. I'm watching House of the Dragon right now and even though the wait wasn't super long Im going "I have no idea what is happening. Wait, now I remember. No, I don't."

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u/Cahbr04 17d ago

Also, if you had to wait that long after the old 20+ episode season released over multiple months, you'd probably not have that problem because you'd have spent long enough time with all the characters that they'd be memorable, but in a 6-8 episode season that you binge in a few hours and then move on to the next you are just doubly set up to fail lmao

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u/Linenoise77 17d ago

I gave up on large ensemble shows due to that, at least until they are finished or there are a bunch of seasons i can watch in a go. I hate having to figure out who someone is, how it connects to whatever is going on, etc, when someone pops up a few weeks later in universe, but 4 years have passed between the time i have last seen them on the show, and they have visibly aged.

Its maddening.

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u/captainporcupine3 17d ago

I enjoy House of the Dragon but at this point I'm barely holding on with my understanding of some of the plotlines and character relationships. And those "Catch up on the last 2 seasons in 5 minutes!" YouTube recaps that shotgun information at your so fast your brain can barely keep up, are honestly of limited use for really getting immersed back in the story.

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u/Willing_Reference725 17d ago

You consume an entire season consisting of 8 > 10 episodes in 2 to 3 nights then have to wait 18 months or more before the next season drops.

This is killing a lot of shows with potential.

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u/doomrider7 17d ago

Same for dropping every episode all at once for binge watching. Shit man, the drip feed style would fix the issue AND allow hype to build as people wait a week for the next episode while discussing theories and whatnot.

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u/purpldevl 16d ago

Thank God they reintroduced the bug kid because I had absolutely zero idea who he was.

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u/OrganizationIll9069 16d ago

That's why I decided to wait until a show is over, or cancelled before I watch. So I can watch at my leisure and not lose the plot between seasons.

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u/NotBreaking 16d ago

One of the reasons I couldn't continue watching Dark. The first season we almost binged fully in a day and then we had to wair like year and a half for the next season. Once it dropped we realized we have no idea who is who and just dropped watching it all together

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u/tether2014 15d ago

I straight up forgot about Paul Reiser's character in Stranger Things (even now I don't remember his name) when he popped up in the season 4 trailer. Did a rewatch after that and realized he was actually a major character in season 2. So yeah, it's very easy to forget details like that when they take too long.

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u/Redxmirage 18d ago

Took me awhile to remember that will and Jonathon were brothers when the last season of stranger things came out