Cancellations is a big part of it. I'm still quite annoyed that they cancelled Lockwood & Co. after just the first season when it had a good viewer reception. And the book series it was based off...
Cancellations is a big part of it. I'm still quite annoyed that they cancelled Lockwood & Co. after just the first season when it had a good viewer reception. And the book series it was based off (of which I am a fan) was already complete, so no chance of a Game of Thrones fiasco there! They could perhaps have gotten through the remaining books in two more seasons or so. Why should I get invested if they're going to rug pull? I'd much rather them just not have bothered.
The other thing is the idea of optimizing for "second screen viewing". This offends me deeply. Maybe I'm just older and out of touch, but if I'm going to bother to sit down to watch a show, I'm going to watch (and if someone else doesn't want to pay full attention, that's on them), and I prefer a show that's clever itself and doesn't insult my intelligence. Half the fun is paying attention to clues and guessing! (And if the show is really good, rewatching for clues in earlier episodes that are recontextualized by later episodes.)
The last show Netflix-produced show I watched was Kaos, which starred Jeff Goldblum. I saw some articles about it and thought it looked good. But I was hesitant since I knew Netflix tended to...
The last show Netflix-produced show I watched was Kaos, which starred Jeff Goldblum. I saw some articles about it and thought it looked good. But I was hesitant since I knew Netflix tended to cancel shows after one season if they didn't hit Stranger Things levels of notoriety. Which most shows do not.
So I waited for reviews to come out and reception seemed positive. So I bit the bullet and watched it. And liked it! Was it like my favorite show in the world? No. But neither is/was Stranger Things.
It was entertaining and intriguing enough that I'd be willing to watch another season. Of course, like a month or less after I finished Kaos, I saw the news that Netflix had cancelled it. Well then screw it; last time I ever watch a Netflix-produced show.
And then I finally cancelled my Netflix subscription, that I'd had for at least a decade, earlier this year.
One of the most fun shows I've watched recently was an anime called Heavenly Delusion for exactly this reason. Wife and I scrambling back over past episodes to try and piece it all together after...
(And if the show is really good, rewatching for clues in earlier episodes that are recontextualized by later episodes.)
One of the most fun shows I've watched recently was an anime called Heavenly Delusion for exactly this reason. Wife and I scrambling back over past episodes to try and piece it all together after we finished it was a super fun evening. It'd be a real shame if they stopped making shows like that.
For me, it's kind of like the way 17th century natural philosophers would embed anagrams in their current papers to claim priority on new work before it was published. It's a sort of proof that...
For me, it's kind of like the way 17th century natural philosophers would embed anagrams in their current papers to claim priority on new work before it was published. It's a sort of proof that the writers are thinking ahead and not just flying by the seat of their pants. (Or if they are, then at least they're really good at it!)
I think my favorite show for this is Babylon 5. It's been a while, but as a recall, there's stuff there even in Episode 1 that doesn't pay off until a few seasons later. Rewatching, knowing the answers to the little mysteries that might seem like plot holes or dropped threads on a first viewing is a lot of fun.
More recently, my family and I had some fun re-watching parts of Widow's Bay like that after the first season finale. (I'm glad that Apple, at least, is good with renewing its shows like Widow's Bay, Pluribus, and Severance.)
A reader commented: Yup. If Netflix is that lacking in employees who understand their own viewers, they should call me. I'm more than willing to, for just their median salary, put in a couple of...
A reader commented:
It's shocking to me that Netflix doesn't know the answer to this question when everyone asked about it says the same thing
Yup. If Netflix is that lacking in employees who understand their own viewers, they should call me. I'm more than willing to, for just their median salary, put in a couple of hours of work per month summarizing relevant comments. I guarantee I'll do a better job, or their money back.
The only complaining Netflix and every other big co understands is money. As long as they are increasing customers and revenue, nothing will change. I suspect that at some point there will be no...
The only complaining Netflix and every other big co understands is money. As long as they are increasing customers and revenue, nothing will change.
I suspect that at some point there will be no person who never signed up to Netflix left, then they will prioritize retention instead of growth. Then, maybe, shows will have a better schedule and smaller gaps between sessions.
Between Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Dexter, and The Name of the Wind (to name a few), I have basically sworn off of starting series or books until I can independently verify that the thing I'm...
Between Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Dexter, and The Name of the Wind (to name a few), I have basically sworn off of starting series or books until I can independently verify that the thing I'm about to start 1) is completed (or at the very least, the sub-series or first arc is completed in the cases of very large "world building" type of series) and 2) the finale is rated by viewers or readers at least as high as the rest of the series. This chart popped up on Reddit many years ago and I've been meaning to look at the repo and apply it to more recently created tv series. The only thing I don't really keep this rule with is podcasts (shoutouts to Limetown, Malevolent, The Magnus Archives, and Old Gods of Appalachia).
Maybe it's because I've been reading less of straightforward fantasy trilogies, but it feels like stories such as Kingkiller, A Song of Ice and Fire or Locke Lamora were more of an unfortunate...
or books
Maybe it's because I've been reading less of straightforward fantasy trilogies, but it feels like stories such as Kingkiller, A Song of Ice and Fire or Locke Lamora were more of an unfortunate period. Perhaps it's because publishers themselves got wiser and more cautious? The authors I've been reading more recently seem to all have been much more reliable, releasing their stories at a good pace without compromising quality too much.
That said, I can't fault TV shows for having weaker endings than beginnings. It just seems overwhelmingly common in serial tales - I gather endings are much harder to write than beginnings (they're certainly harder for me to write as well). I'll take a reasonably satisfying and dignified ending over none at all.
It's interesting because I mostly no longer have this issue in part by diversifying my reading. Idk that there's a causal reason why those two things correlate but they have. I've also gotten used...
It's interesting because I mostly no longer have this issue in part by diversifying my reading. Idk that there's a causal reason why those two things correlate but they have. I've also gotten used to serial fiction.
But also I'm in the Locked Tomb fandom - I love the books, I read the subreddit still, I peek at Tumblr occasionally. And Tamsyn Muir has been struggling with her mental health and life things and just.... No one is pissed at her? There isn't that entitlement in the community. We love the books we got and we hope we get it Alecto but they're just so much fun to reread. (And if folks do pop up who just seem bitter they're discouraged from hanging around).
The author of He Who Fights With Monsters literally nearly died of illness and had to take a few attempts to restart his writing schedule. And I just didn't see that toxicity there either. (Again occasional folks maybe but I rarely saw it )
I don't really care what Rothfuss or Martin do anymore and haven't for a while. I think Rothfuss's other actions make him detestable, but I don't think either of them owe me a book nor do I hang any hopes on that happening. I wouldn't read them if they did.
It's so much better feeling this way, and idk if I've just learned to let go and move on, or if I've found healthier communities than, say, the ASOIAF ones online, but it makes just a huge difference. Plus expanding the authors I read means theres literally an unreadable amount of good books out there, far fewer written by entitled dudes who desperately need an editor (or anyone) to hold them accountable. All of which to say, there is hope out there and reading on going series can still be fun with the right community/attitude.
Yeah.... you can say that again. That said, I probably would finish reading the series if the finales were ever released. I'm interested in your recommendations since you seem to have good taste....
I don't really care what Rothfuss or Martin do anymore and haven't for a while.
Yeah.... you can say that again. That said, I probably would finish reading the series if the finales were ever released.
Plus expanding the authors I read means theres literally an unreadable amount of good books out there
I'm interested in your recommendations since you seem to have good taste. I recently read the first three Farseer books and am also on the third book of the first Stormlight Archive arc.
Speaking of authors who produce content on a reliable basis...... It's one of the reasons Sanderson is my favorite author. But also Stormlight is a really great series.
and am also on the third book of the first Stormlight Archive arc
Speaking of authors who produce content on a reliable basis......
It's one of the reasons Sanderson is my favorite author. But also Stormlight is a really great series.
Seriously. Even when there’s a break of a few years in the ‘main’ series, he still releases one-off secret projects, some of which have been among my favorites. Plus his communication with his...
Seriously. Even when there’s a break of a few years in the ‘main’ series, he still releases one-off secret projects, some of which have been among my favorites. Plus his communication with his readers is fantastic.
So I read most of Farseer but didn't really enjoy it. I really hit a wall with "horrible things happen to people over and over again" that Hobb does. That said in a similar vein, I do enjoy a few...
So I read most of Farseer but didn't really enjoy it. I really hit a wall with "horrible things happen to people over and over again" that Hobb does.
That said in a similar vein, I do enjoy a few of Mark Lawrence's series, both Red Sister and Daughter of Crows start different series in different worlds where young girls go to murder school/convent. And besides this thematic pattern (idk if he has a thing for this trope but it seems like it) they're different but in a way that rhymes if that makes any sense. Red Sister follows magic assassin nuns on a planet slowly dying to an ice age. Daughter of Crows follows perspectives both of an old woman who is clearly more than it appears and a child who has been turned/sacrificed/given to the Furies, where 100 girls start, and only 3 may graduate (as entities of necromantic vengeance.)
I adore The Locked Tomb series. You could read Gideon the Ninth and never read the rest but every book is packed with references and hints about what is going on in the bigger world, but each is told from the perspective of the character who knows the least about what is going on and, idk it just works. Gideon is a snarky jock with a sword and if that's off putting I swear there is depth in these books. But the tone is a turnoff for some folks.
On a gentler side - I love the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers - it's an anthology so a character or two carries over but not the whole group. I think she realizes alien cultures in space - even two different major human types of cultures in the larger galaxy - so well. These don't feel like humans in funny makeup to me. These make me feel happy, and occasionally sad in a slow achy way. Often because I wish the world would be better. The first is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and it may be my fav.
The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin is the first in a series about people who can control earth magic, but are feared and hated. You follow three people, experiencing being an orogene in different stages of life.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (book two just came out) is about a retired pirate captain, who is pressed back into adventure when her daughter is threatened. So she's got to get the crew back together for one last job. But this is very 12th century Arabian Nights inspired alternate fantastical history, where you are dealing with djinn, trying not to sin too much and go find ancient forbidden artifacts. It's so nice to have an older protagonist IMO.
Arkady Martine writes a space empire of Byzantine Aztecs from.he perspectives of the "yokel" ambassador who's been tagged to replace her murdered? predecessor, while being dropped straight into politics. A Memory Called Empire is the first! Also featuring poetry competitions for status.
And Ancillary Justice is the first in a trilogy set in the world of the Imperial Radch a society where there's just one social gender - everyone is "she" regardless of sex, which is mostly irrelevant in the Radch - but the MC is a single surviving portion of an ship AI who is on a mission. Space tech lets the AIs inhabit/overwrite the bodies of "ancillaries" and something happened to the ship that Breq was.
This world has since expanded with more books and some really interesting looks at aliens as well as other human cultures (not everyone is in the Radch, and it's an empire, so many are who don't want to be).
I’ve been sharing your book reccs with my partner this evening and WOW you’ve got some great picks! I can second most of these, and the rest are now at the top of my TBR. I recently read Fifth...
I’ve been sharing your book reccs with my partner this evening and WOW you’ve got some great picks! I can second most of these, and the rest are now at the top of my TBR.
I recently read Fifth Season on her recommendation and adored it (I think we chatted about this in a different thread?) I also enjoyed the first couple Wayfarers books. I wasn’t in the right headspace for these when I tried reading them the first time but I might be now. (My current read is Monk and Robot and it’s just hitting right.) I can’t say enough good things about the Locked Tomb books! I grabbed the first one in an airport bookstore because the review on the front was funny and intriguing. I read the first book in practically one sitting, and then literally read Harrow and Nona in one sitting back to back as I smoked a brisket.
Someone dropped off Ancillary Justice in our Little Free Library the other day. My partner already grabbed it, so I think that’s next.
I love Monk and Robot! Wayfarers can vary, I think the 1st and 4th are my favs but still all of them are good. I'm glad you like them! I do highly recommend a reread of TLT, I have highlighted the...
I love Monk and Robot! Wayfarers can vary, I think the 1st and 4th are my favs but still all of them are good. I'm glad you like them!
I do highly recommend a reread of TLT, I have highlighted the kindle versions in different colors depending on if it's making a clever reference or a clue to the tomb, etc. there's a lot there! (This may just be an excuse to reread myself, or listen to Moira Quirk do the audiobook.) (◕ᴗ◕✿)
Have you read Metal From Heaven, Fae? It's a debut so it has a lot of super rough edges but I really really loved it and I think we have similar tastes just based on this list, it's a bit like TLT...
Have you read Metal From Heaven, Fae? It's a debut so it has a lot of super rough edges but I really really loved it and I think we have similar tastes just based on this list, it's a bit like TLT or A Memory Called Empire. Communist swashbuckling lesbian political intrigue, that kind of thing. Really rich prose, a bit miserable but in an ultimately cathartic way.
The Gormenghast novels are also excellent fantasy-adjacent classics that inspired a lot of these books.
I've heard good, vague things about Ancillary Justice but this is the first time I've actually heard the premise, which sounds a bit The Left Hand of Darkness, so I'll probably pick it up next time I see it.
I have not read Metal from Heaven but it's going on my list! I love reading more queer fic. I never could get into Gormenghast. It is vaguely on my list to try again in the future. Ancillary is...
I have not read Metal from Heaven but it's going on my list! I love reading more queer fic.
I never could get into Gormenghast. It is vaguely on my list to try again in the future.
Ancillary is more active, more "adventure" or "action" than Left Hand. Breq is not an anthropologist, but she is having to navigate a galactic empire alone and without easy access to her repository of cultural context. And she misses her captain, and her ship body (and all her ancillaries). As a note, Leckie has said, I believe, that written today she'd probably have made the Radchaai use "they" or a neopronoun, but personally I like the way the use of "she" throws you. In Translation State some of those themes go deeper with a mix of aliens in it.
Also Murderbot if you haven't read it! It just wants to watch media, not kill the humans. Mostly.
Also Octavia Butler! Parable is popular for reasons right now but I love her Xenogenesis series. It's a story about aliens saving humanity from ourselves, or a story about colonization and collaboration. Or both.
If you'd like a better pitch on any of these, let me know, I could probably write a better one and not just a vibes based "I love this book"
Fandom aside, I suspect one of the things that makes the Locked Tomb's hiatus more tolerable is that the books we have are fun to reread. They're silly, downright ridiculous in places. Harrow the...
Fandom aside, I suspect one of the things that makes the Locked Tomb's hiatus more tolerable is that the books we have are fun to reread. They're silly, downright ridiculous in places.
Harrow the Ninth spoilersFor example, probably my favorite moment in the series is in Harrow when Harrow extracts her own bone marrow and cooks it into a stew in order to use it as a necromantic focus to murder another character. It nearly works, too, until God intervenes. Gruesome, obviously, but over-the-top in a way that wraps back around into being funny.
In contrast, the thought of rereading A Song of Ice and Fire is just… uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Just thinking about it gives me ennui. The books are long and drag (especially the later ones) and a great deal of what goes on in them is… just unpleasant. It's shocking and subversive when you read it the first time, but when you know
A Storm of Swords spoilersthe Red Wedding… do I really need to spoiler-tag this?
is coming up, it's just more terrible things happening to whoever passes for good characters in the setting.
Yeah I think they're so much fun and there are very few things in TLT that feel like retcons and changes of plans, so you can find so many hints about things in the earlier books after reading the...
Yeah I think they're so much fun and there are very few things in TLT that feel like retcons and changes of plans, so you can find so many hints about things in the earlier books after reading the later ones. GRRM could never!
Its difficult, and sometimes impossible to write a satisfying ending if you don't already have it in mind from the beginning. The longer a series runs for, the less likelyhood there is for the...
Its difficult, and sometimes impossible to write a satisfying ending if you don't already have it in mind from the beginning. The longer a series runs for, the less likelyhood there is for the author to have a cohesive idea for an end. You need to build up more and more story threads as a series goes on for it to remain interesting, which becomes debt you have to pay back in the form of a resolution. If you don't manage it, that debt constantly grows, and will become increasingly difficult to deal with.
If a book series or tv show has more than 5 or so entries/series, it's best to just make mental peace with the fact that it probably won't resolve in a satisfying way. The point of a story isn't the endjng though. Its the whole ride. People have become way too focused on the endings of tv shows recently in my opinion. If you enjoy the show, keep watching it, but you shouldn't keep watching a show you don't enjoy in the hopes of a big payoff, because the longer the show goes, and the more convoluted the plot is, the less likelyhood there is that that's ever going to happen.
See I fundamentally disagree here. A story should have an ending, not simply cease. In todays world where a series might only have 6 episodes, it shouldn't be hard to make the series at least...
See I fundamentally disagree here. A story should have an ending, not simply cease.
In todays world where a series might only have 6 episodes, it shouldn't be hard to make the series at least satisfyingly self contained. That'd be okay. Then you can do that again in the next series if people are interested.
Leaving folks with giant unresolved cliff hangers then cancelling the thing is just rubbish.
Ah, the Manga Problem! I don't disagree about length, but I'm demanding. My enjoyment is maximized when a story is good as a whole - the journey is very important, but so is the conclusion. The...
Ah, the Manga Problem!
I don't disagree about length, but I'm demanding. My enjoyment is maximized when a story is good as a whole - the journey is very important, but so is the conclusion. The story stands as a cohesive construct with a beginning, middle and end (however long that is).
(Plus I prioritize good characters too!)
I have massive respect for the authors of serials who know to wrap things up and put an end to a story as originally planned even if it's at the height of its popularity. The problem with a lot of shows and comics is that they artificially extend the story not only in an unplanned manner but in actual contradiction of what they had previously envisioned for the whole of it.
I also loathe retcons, prequels and filler. Matter of personal taste though. Note that this isn't the same as a dislike of episodic tales, which I actually quite enjoy.
I'm not sure what you mean about an unfortunate period - does this mean the writers don't have publishing support for future books? I don't know much about the writing or publishing industry, only...
I'm not sure what you mean about an unfortunate period - does this mean the writers don't have publishing support for future books? I don't know much about the writing or publishing industry, only the stories themselves and discourse around them.
I think that's the nice thing about the graph I posted. I'm fine with a finale that's only slightly worse than its own average rating. But some of them seem to go so far off-base that it's not even worth starting.
I mean those high profile disappointments haven't been reoccuring. Of course sometimes writers still can't finish their stories for one reason or another, but for the most part, successful...
I mean those high profile disappointments haven't been reoccuring. Of course sometimes writers still can't finish their stories for one reason or another, but for the most part, successful mainstream writers seem to be keeping up with their successful mainstream writing.
I would recommend some nuance with rule 2. If a show is on average really good, even a really good finale might be less than average. Just look at MAS*H on that chart. It has (imo) one of the best...
I would recommend some nuance with rule 2. If a show is on average really good, even a really good finale might be less than average. Just look at MAS*H on that chart. It has (imo) one of the best finales in all of television, and yet it is rated as worse than average because the rest of the episodes were also great.
My point is just to not only consider it in relation to the rest of the show, but it's raw score also. I'm sure you probably would have anyway, but I just thought I'd point it out for others to consider as well.
Enterprise has firmly the most infamous finale of the franchise. It's a redress of a TNG episode that plays out the Enterprise-relevant parts on the holodeck and kills off a fan favorite character...
Enterprise has firmly the most infamous finale of the franchise. It's a redress of a TNG episode that plays out the Enterprise-relevant parts on the holodeck and kills off a fan favorite character for no good reason. That's just correct. It sucked.
TNG is a matter of questionable statistical choices. This chart isn't using the average rating across all episodes as it's baseline, but the overall rating of the show. Star Trek TNG has an overall rating (8.7) well in excess of it's average episode rating (6.7), fitting for a show with a huge amount of decent content and a handful of real standout episodes that everyone remembers. All Good Things was one of the highest rated individual episodes - safely in the top 20 and probably top 10 - but at the time this chart was created it still lagged behind the overall rating. Today even that minor statistical malpractice would still have placed it much more favorably: All Good Things has apparently jumped from ~8.6 to 9.1 on IMDB's ratings, which puts it over TNG's 8.7 overall rating.
So to be clear, All Good Things is an excellent and well regarded finale. This chart does it dirty.
Firefly I assume is mostly the same as TNG (a decent episode on a show with an overall rating (8.9) above it's average episode rating(8.7)) plus a dusting of the age old "why the hell did you end it here" dragging it down a bit.
I've heard this opinion before, and it's just weird to me. It seems like people are just watching a show for its conclusion. I've enjoyed lots of shows despite terrible endings, or bad final...
I've heard this opinion before, and it's just weird to me. It seems like people are just watching a show for its conclusion. I've enjoyed lots of shows despite terrible endings, or bad final seasons, and am glad I watched the shows despite the bad season.
I've seen The Wire all the way through 3 times, but I've never been able to make it through the final season because it's terrible. Its still one of my favorite shows. Same goes for Battlestar Galactica.
I really loved the first season of severance, but the second season sucked. I'm still glad I watched it though.
Shows rarely start with any idea of how they're going to conclude anyway, why cut yourself off from otherwise good shows that may or may not end well?
Honestly? I don't agree. A lot of people had a huge problem with the Sopranos because the ending was basically the sentence fragment you just posted. At that point though, so much had happened in...
Honestly? I don't agree. A lot of people had a huge problem with the Sopranos because the ending was basically the sentence fragment you just posted.
At that point though, so much had happened in the series that there's no satisfying conclusion. It was just a glimpse into the life of mobsters dealing with modern problems. There's no resolution there. The mobsters keep doing mobster stuff, they still have problems that are unresolved, and they keep causing problems for other people. It wasn't one story, it was dozens, all packaged as a glimpse into the lives of these characters.
Its kind of the central thesis of the show, the cycle of temptation, crime and justification grinds forward just as it always has.
It ended because that's where it ended, not because there was some grand narrative to be wrapped up. The glimpse into the lives of mobsters just ended, because it has to end at some point.
In a way, it's a really honest ending, and the way that most long running series probably should end. These are long running dramas with hundreds of little twists, grey morality, and character shifts. They're not tight hour and a half stories with a clear beginning, climax, and end like Star Wars or something.
In this comment, you have said something much more interesting than if you'd said 'ending'. The abruption is the ending now, and it's a different story. Holding onto our ideas of narrative can...
In this comment, you have said something much more interesting than if you'd said 'ending'. The abruption is the ending now, and it's a different story. Holding onto our ideas of narrative can spoil the ones in front of us.
And that's exactly the depth we wouldn't have gotten without your elision! Now, I'm not sure what we'll learn from this millimeter dip, but hey, it happened.
And that's exactly the depth we wouldn't have gotten without your elision! Now, I'm not sure what we'll learn from this millimeter dip, but hey, it happened.
Perhaps it's a bit shortsighted on my part, but I'm reminded by the charts you shared of why the common sentiment on a show is really not a good measure of if one is worthwhile to watch. I didn't...
Perhaps it's a bit shortsighted on my part, but I'm reminded by the charts you shared of why the common sentiment on a show is really not a good measure of if one is worthwhile to watch.
I didn't watch much of the shows listed, but The Sopranos one really feels stupid. The last scene is so brilliant I can't fathom it was given such low score.
But for your general feeling on stories not completed, I feel we forget the appeal of these stories even without their ending.
I think its something I can more easily apply on stories with worse ending than their main course, where I can still retrospectively find it worthwhile even though I would have liked having a better ending.
This is also probably why some stories will never be finished, the author do not want to waste their efforts on a rushed ending that will diminish the whole.
There are three obvious reasons for this: Netflix tends to cancel shows (or just never produce more) Netflix seasons are too short Netflix takes way too long between seasons As an example, if you...
There are three obvious reasons for this:
Netflix tends to cancel shows (or just never produce more)
Netflix seasons are too short
Netflix takes way too long between seasons
As an example, if you look at Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Season 1 - 26 Episodes - 1987
Season 2 - 22 Episodes - 1988
Season 3 - 26 Episodes - 1989
Season 4 - 26 Episodes - 1990
Season 5 - 26 Episodes - 1991
etc... you can find similar things for other TV shows.
In the article they mention Avatar: The Last Airbender
Season 1 - 8 Episodes - 2024
Season 2 - 7 Episodes - 2026
And One Piece
Season 1 - 8 Episodes - 2023
Season 2 - 8 Episodes - 2026
It took them 2 years to make 7-8 more episodes. In the example of ST:TNG they were making 20+ episodes reliably per year. It seems to take Netflix at least 2 years, if not longer, to make a season 2. The episode counts are almost always under 13.
I think it takes a truly standout show to survive a multiple year break and continue to grow the audience. If you want momentum with your audience you need to release more episodes and quickly.
Sandman was a show I really enjoyed, but it took them roughly 3 years to make season 2. I haven't watched it yet. I barely remember the details of season 1.
This one is important to me. Unless I'm really interested in something I probably won't remember most plot points and I'm not about to re-watch an entire season just to catch back up. A recap...
I barely remember the details of season 1.
This one is important to me. Unless I'm really interested in something I probably won't remember most plot points and I'm not about to re-watch an entire season just to catch back up. A recap works but because of the nature of recaps you're missing a lot of detail that made it interesting in the first place.
It's not even losing interest, when it's two or three years between a season I probably flat out forgot what I liked about it.
Finding a good recap is hard, too. There's a lot of low-effort AI ones that just don't do a good job of summarising it. Just dross. Someone's out there doing good ones, but I haven't found them yet.
Finding a good recap is hard, too. There's a lot of low-effort AI ones that just don't do a good job of summarising it. Just dross. Someone's out there doing good ones, but I haven't found them yet.
That's why I never got back into Stranger Things after Season 3. It just took too long. I wanted to watch Season 4, but my attention was elsewhere and I just never got around to it. I got on the...
That's why I never got back into Stranger Things after Season 3. It just took too long. I wanted to watch Season 4, but my attention was elsewhere and I just never got around to it. I got on the Stranger Things bandwagon a bit late, so I think I was able to binge Seasons 1 and 2 together. And then Season 3 didn't come out that much later after I watched S1 and S2.
But by the time Season 4 came around, I just didn't care as much. I know S5 came out last year, but then it was more like "Well, I haven't watched Stranger Things since 2019; do I really care to catch up?" Maybe one day. But I got other shows I can watch, too.
This is me for so many shows. At the end of season 1 I'm dying for more. Season 2 rolls around and I barely remember the show existed, let alone all the characters and various subplots
This is me for so many shows. At the end of season 1 I'm dying for more. Season 2 rolls around and I barely remember the show existed, let alone all the characters and various subplots
As Netflix begins to meet the consequence of turning their backs on their patrons while Sony faces a backlash for abandoning physical media, Blockbuster Video has the opportunity to do the...
As Netflix begins to meet the consequence of turning their backs on their patrons while Sony faces a backlash for abandoning physical media, Blockbuster Video has the opportunity to do the funniest thing right now.
They seem to have fully embraced metrics driven short term goals and are optimizing their shows and how they surface them as such. Funny thing about metrics is that they never tell the full...
They seem to have fully embraced metrics driven short term goals and are optimizing their shows and how they surface them as such.
Funny thing about metrics is that they never tell the full picture, or at least the highly compressed narrow numbers won't.
They have gained a reputation for cancelling shows and instead of having ever growing catalog that someone could come back to they have unsatisfaing productions left hanging on cliffhangers.
The few times I've been subscribed to them in the past few years it was also strikingly empty.
Par down the shows in which I have no interest in due to their themes or genre, then bungled up shows that are either unfinished or low quality and there are maybe low double digits number of series. A lot of them I've already seen and trying to find anything in their awful interface is a chore so now I am heavily disincentivized finding anything new when I am subscribed to them.
Yeah, I have a feeling that sooner or later Netflix will end up with the reputation as “the streaming service with all the unfinished series”. Back when I was a subscriber I remember being...
Yeah, I have a feeling that sooner or later Netflix will end up with the reputation as “the streaming service with all the unfinished series”. Back when I was a subscriber I remember being constantly frustrated at finding out that some story I was interested in had no ending.
Amazon Prime canceled a show I liked called Upload, but gave the producers a budget for four episodes to wrap up the story. That’s a decent compromise, and Netflix really ought to do the same.
I'm not surprised at all. Others have said similar, they focus too hard on the statistics and not on the actual art/media. That plus the fact there are like 2 billion other streaming services now,...
I'm not surprised at all. Others have said similar, they focus too hard on the statistics and not on the actual art/media.
That plus the fact there are like 2 billion other streaming services now, no-one is paying for Netflix every month.
I won't lie, I completely gave up a few years ago and refused to keep paying for so many services for the handful of shows I wanted to watch. And I will not spend my time and energy juggling subscriptions.
So yeah, I just setup stremio with debrid, and it's been an excellent service for the most part.
I swear though, if someone actually managed to get all the services under one payment, even if they were still separate apps but I could have one sub at a reasonable price, I'd do it. But no way when you expect me to manage that all myself for some media.
Patrick Willems had a good video recently on a related topic (streaming "blockbuster" movies), core to his argument was that the streamers are obsessed with frictionless content that is easy to...
Patrick Willems had a good video recently on a related topic (streaming "blockbuster" movies), core to his argument was that the streamers are obsessed with frictionless content that is easy to get into, but the lack of friction means that there's nothing your brain hangs onto when they end.
I feel like a lot of streaming shows have the exact same problem. They're tv-shaped pieces of content, they just aren't interesting, because they people who've made decisions to greenlight them don't have taste and don't want to take risks with insane moves like... trusting writers.
Cancellations is a big part of it. I'm still quite annoyed that they cancelled Lockwood & Co. after just the first season when it had a good viewer reception. And the book series it was based off (of which I am a fan) was already complete, so no chance of a Game of Thrones fiasco there! They could perhaps have gotten through the remaining books in two more seasons or so. Why should I get invested if they're going to rug pull? I'd much rather them just not have bothered.
The other thing is the idea of optimizing for "second screen viewing". This offends me deeply. Maybe I'm just older and out of touch, but if I'm going to bother to sit down to watch a show, I'm going to watch (and if someone else doesn't want to pay full attention, that's on them), and I prefer a show that's clever itself and doesn't insult my intelligence. Half the fun is paying attention to clues and guessing! (And if the show is really good, rewatching for clues in earlier episodes that are recontextualized by later episodes.)
The last show Netflix-produced show I watched was Kaos, which starred Jeff Goldblum. I saw some articles about it and thought it looked good. But I was hesitant since I knew Netflix tended to cancel shows after one season if they didn't hit Stranger Things levels of notoriety. Which most shows do not.
So I waited for reviews to come out and reception seemed positive. So I bit the bullet and watched it. And liked it! Was it like my favorite show in the world? No. But neither is/was Stranger Things.
It was entertaining and intriguing enough that I'd be willing to watch another season. Of course, like a month or less after I finished Kaos, I saw the news that Netflix had cancelled it. Well then screw it; last time I ever watch a Netflix-produced show.
And then I finally cancelled my Netflix subscription, that I'd had for at least a decade, earlier this year.
One of the most fun shows I've watched recently was an anime called Heavenly Delusion for exactly this reason. Wife and I scrambling back over past episodes to try and piece it all together after we finished it was a super fun evening. It'd be a real shame if they stopped making shows like that.
For me, it's kind of like the way 17th century natural philosophers would embed anagrams in their current papers to claim priority on new work before it was published. It's a sort of proof that the writers are thinking ahead and not just flying by the seat of their pants. (Or if they are, then at least they're really good at it!)
I think my favorite show for this is Babylon 5. It's been a while, but as a recall, there's stuff there even in Episode 1 that doesn't pay off until a few seasons later. Rewatching, knowing the answers to the little mysteries that might seem like plot holes or dropped threads on a first viewing is a lot of fun.
More recently, my family and I had some fun re-watching parts of Widow's Bay like that after the first season finale. (I'm glad that Apple, at least, is good with renewing its shows like Widow's Bay, Pluribus, and Severance.)
And Silo, For All Mankind, Ted Lasso. Apple is doing pretty great actually (IMO).
A reader commented:
Yup. If Netflix is that lacking in employees who understand their own viewers, they should call me. I'm more than willing to, for just their median salary, put in a couple of hours of work per month summarizing relevant comments. I guarantee I'll do a better job, or their money back.
The only complaining Netflix and every other big co understands is money. As long as they are increasing customers and revenue, nothing will change.
I suspect that at some point there will be no person who never signed up to Netflix left, then they will prioritize retention instead of growth. Then, maybe, shows will have a better schedule and smaller gaps between sessions.
Between Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Dexter, and The Name of the Wind (to name a few), I have basically sworn off of starting series or books until I can independently verify that the thing I'm about to start 1) is completed (or at the very least, the sub-series or first arc is completed in the cases of very large "world building" type of series) and 2) the finale is rated by viewers or readers at least as high as the rest of the series. This chart popped up on Reddit many years ago and I've been meaning to look at the repo and apply it to more recently created tv series. The only thing I don't really keep this rule with is podcasts (shoutouts to Limetown, Malevolent, The Magnus Archives, and Old Gods of Appalachia).
Maybe it's because I've been reading less of straightforward fantasy trilogies, but it feels like stories such as Kingkiller, A Song of Ice and Fire or Locke Lamora were more of an unfortunate period. Perhaps it's because publishers themselves got wiser and more cautious? The authors I've been reading more recently seem to all have been much more reliable, releasing their stories at a good pace without compromising quality too much.
That said, I can't fault TV shows for having weaker endings than beginnings. It just seems overwhelmingly common in serial tales - I gather endings are much harder to write than beginnings (they're certainly harder for me to write as well). I'll take a reasonably satisfying and dignified ending over none at all.
It's interesting because I mostly no longer have this issue in part by diversifying my reading. Idk that there's a causal reason why those two things correlate but they have. I've also gotten used to serial fiction.
But also I'm in the Locked Tomb fandom - I love the books, I read the subreddit still, I peek at Tumblr occasionally. And Tamsyn Muir has been struggling with her mental health and life things and just.... No one is pissed at her? There isn't that entitlement in the community. We love the books we got and we hope we get it Alecto but they're just so much fun to reread. (And if folks do pop up who just seem bitter they're discouraged from hanging around).
The author of He Who Fights With Monsters literally nearly died of illness and had to take a few attempts to restart his writing schedule. And I just didn't see that toxicity there either. (Again occasional folks maybe but I rarely saw it )
I don't really care what Rothfuss or Martin do anymore and haven't for a while. I think Rothfuss's other actions make him detestable, but I don't think either of them owe me a book nor do I hang any hopes on that happening. I wouldn't read them if they did.
It's so much better feeling this way, and idk if I've just learned to let go and move on, or if I've found healthier communities than, say, the ASOIAF ones online, but it makes just a huge difference. Plus expanding the authors I read means theres literally an unreadable amount of good books out there, far fewer written by entitled dudes who desperately need an editor (or anyone) to hold them accountable. All of which to say, there is hope out there and reading on going series can still be fun with the right community/attitude.
Yeah.... you can say that again. That said, I probably would finish reading the series if the finales were ever released.
I'm interested in your recommendations since you seem to have good taste. I recently read the first three Farseer books and am also on the third book of the first Stormlight Archive arc.
Speaking of authors who produce content on a reliable basis......
It's one of the reasons Sanderson is my favorite author. But also Stormlight is a really great series.
Seriously. Even when there’s a break of a few years in the ‘main’ series, he still releases one-off secret projects, some of which have been among my favorites. Plus his communication with his readers is fantastic.
So I read most of Farseer but didn't really enjoy it. I really hit a wall with "horrible things happen to people over and over again" that Hobb does.
That said in a similar vein, I do enjoy a few of Mark Lawrence's series, both Red Sister and Daughter of Crows start different series in different worlds where young girls go to murder school/convent. And besides this thematic pattern (idk if he has a thing for this trope but it seems like it) they're different but in a way that rhymes if that makes any sense. Red Sister follows magic assassin nuns on a planet slowly dying to an ice age. Daughter of Crows follows perspectives both of an old woman who is clearly more than it appears and a child who has been turned/sacrificed/given to the Furies, where 100 girls start, and only 3 may graduate (as entities of necromantic vengeance.)
I adore The Locked Tomb series. You could read Gideon the Ninth and never read the rest but every book is packed with references and hints about what is going on in the bigger world, but each is told from the perspective of the character who knows the least about what is going on and, idk it just works. Gideon is a snarky jock with a sword and if that's off putting I swear there is depth in these books. But the tone is a turnoff for some folks.
On a gentler side - I love the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers - it's an anthology so a character or two carries over but not the whole group. I think she realizes alien cultures in space - even two different major human types of cultures in the larger galaxy - so well. These don't feel like humans in funny makeup to me. These make me feel happy, and occasionally sad in a slow achy way. Often because I wish the world would be better. The first is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and it may be my fav.
The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin is the first in a series about people who can control earth magic, but are feared and hated. You follow three people, experiencing being an orogene in different stages of life.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (book two just came out) is about a retired pirate captain, who is pressed back into adventure when her daughter is threatened. So she's got to get the crew back together for one last job. But this is very 12th century Arabian Nights inspired alternate fantastical history, where you are dealing with djinn, trying not to sin too much and go find ancient forbidden artifacts. It's so nice to have an older protagonist IMO.
Arkady Martine writes a space empire of Byzantine Aztecs from.he perspectives of the "yokel" ambassador who's been tagged to replace her murdered? predecessor, while being dropped straight into politics. A Memory Called Empire is the first! Also featuring poetry competitions for status.
And Ancillary Justice is the first in a trilogy set in the world of the Imperial Radch a society where there's just one social gender - everyone is "she" regardless of sex, which is mostly irrelevant in the Radch - but the MC is a single surviving portion of an ship AI who is on a mission. Space tech lets the AIs inhabit/overwrite the bodies of "ancillaries" and something happened to the ship that Breq was.
This world has since expanded with more books and some really interesting looks at aliens as well as other human cultures (not everyone is in the Radch, and it's an empire, so many are who don't want to be).
I’ve been sharing your book reccs with my partner this evening and WOW you’ve got some great picks! I can second most of these, and the rest are now at the top of my TBR.
I recently read Fifth Season on her recommendation and adored it (I think we chatted about this in a different thread?) I also enjoyed the first couple Wayfarers books. I wasn’t in the right headspace for these when I tried reading them the first time but I might be now. (My current read is Monk and Robot and it’s just hitting right.) I can’t say enough good things about the Locked Tomb books! I grabbed the first one in an airport bookstore because the review on the front was funny and intriguing. I read the first book in practically one sitting, and then literally read Harrow and Nona in one sitting back to back as I smoked a brisket.
Someone dropped off Ancillary Justice in our Little Free Library the other day. My partner already grabbed it, so I think that’s next.
I love Monk and Robot! Wayfarers can vary, I think the 1st and 4th are my favs but still all of them are good. I'm glad you like them!
I do highly recommend a reread of TLT, I have highlighted the kindle versions in different colors depending on if it's making a clever reference or a clue to the tomb, etc. there's a lot there! (This may just be an excuse to reread myself, or listen to Moira Quirk do the audiobook.) (◕ᴗ◕✿)
Two is just, hard for me. I do like 3 alright so I don't want to slight it. I want more in that universe so much though, I love the cultures.
Right? Or just like drop in every now and then! Visit!
Have you read Metal From Heaven, Fae? It's a debut so it has a lot of super rough edges but I really really loved it and I think we have similar tastes just based on this list, it's a bit like TLT or A Memory Called Empire. Communist swashbuckling lesbian political intrigue, that kind of thing. Really rich prose, a bit miserable but in an ultimately cathartic way.
The Gormenghast novels are also excellent fantasy-adjacent classics that inspired a lot of these books.
I've heard good, vague things about Ancillary Justice but this is the first time I've actually heard the premise, which sounds a bit The Left Hand of Darkness, so I'll probably pick it up next time I see it.
I have not read Metal from Heaven but it's going on my list! I love reading more queer fic.
I never could get into Gormenghast. It is vaguely on my list to try again in the future.
Ancillary is more active, more "adventure" or "action" than Left Hand. Breq is not an anthropologist, but she is having to navigate a galactic empire alone and without easy access to her repository of cultural context. And she misses her captain, and her ship body (and all her ancillaries). As a note, Leckie has said, I believe, that written today she'd probably have made the Radchaai use "they" or a neopronoun, but personally I like the way the use of "she" throws you. In Translation State some of those themes go deeper with a mix of aliens in it.
Also Murderbot if you haven't read it! It just wants to watch media, not kill the humans. Mostly.
Also Octavia Butler! Parable is popular for reasons right now but I love her Xenogenesis series. It's a story about aliens saving humanity from ourselves, or a story about colonization and collaboration. Or both.
If you'd like a better pitch on any of these, let me know, I could probably write a better one and not just a vibes based "I love this book"
Absolutely loved the Wayfarers series. Book two is the only time I've literally been moved to tears by a book.
Fandom aside, I suspect one of the things that makes the Locked Tomb's hiatus more tolerable is that the books we have are fun to reread. They're silly, downright ridiculous in places.
Harrow the Ninth spoilers
For example, probably my favorite moment in the series is in Harrow when Harrow extracts her own bone marrow and cooks it into a stew in order to use it as a necromantic focus to murder another character. It nearly works, too, until God intervenes. Gruesome, obviously, but over-the-top in a way that wraps back around into being funny.In contrast, the thought of rereading A Song of Ice and Fire is just… uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Just thinking about it gives me ennui. The books are long and drag (especially the later ones) and a great deal of what goes on in them is… just unpleasant. It's shocking and subversive when you read it the first time, but when you know
A Storm of Swords spoilers
the Red Wedding… do I really need to spoiler-tag this?is coming up, it's just more terrible things happening to whoever passes for good characters in the setting.
Yeah I think they're so much fun and there are very few things in TLT that feel like retcons and changes of plans, so you can find so many hints about things in the earlier books after reading the later ones. GRRM could never!
Its difficult, and sometimes impossible to write a satisfying ending if you don't already have it in mind from the beginning. The longer a series runs for, the less likelyhood there is for the author to have a cohesive idea for an end. You need to build up more and more story threads as a series goes on for it to remain interesting, which becomes debt you have to pay back in the form of a resolution. If you don't manage it, that debt constantly grows, and will become increasingly difficult to deal with.
If a book series or tv show has more than 5 or so entries/series, it's best to just make mental peace with the fact that it probably won't resolve in a satisfying way. The point of a story isn't the endjng though. Its the whole ride. People have become way too focused on the endings of tv shows recently in my opinion. If you enjoy the show, keep watching it, but you shouldn't keep watching a show you don't enjoy in the hopes of a big payoff, because the longer the show goes, and the more convoluted the plot is, the less likelyhood there is that that's ever going to happen.
See I fundamentally disagree here. A story should have an ending, not simply cease.
In todays world where a series might only have 6 episodes, it shouldn't be hard to make the series at least satisfyingly self contained. That'd be okay. Then you can do that again in the next series if people are interested.
Leaving folks with giant unresolved cliff hangers then cancelling the thing is just rubbish.
Ah, the Manga Problem!
I don't disagree about length, but I'm demanding. My enjoyment is maximized when a story is good as a whole - the journey is very important, but so is the conclusion. The story stands as a cohesive construct with a beginning, middle and end (however long that is).
(Plus I prioritize good characters too!)
I have massive respect for the authors of serials who know to wrap things up and put an end to a story as originally planned even if it's at the height of its popularity. The problem with a lot of shows and comics is that they artificially extend the story not only in an unplanned manner but in actual contradiction of what they had previously envisioned for the whole of it.
I also loathe retcons, prequels and filler. Matter of personal taste though. Note that this isn't the same as a dislike of episodic tales, which I actually quite enjoy.
I'm not sure what you mean about an unfortunate period - does this mean the writers don't have publishing support for future books? I don't know much about the writing or publishing industry, only the stories themselves and discourse around them.
I think that's the nice thing about the graph I posted. I'm fine with a finale that's only slightly worse than its own average rating. But some of them seem to go so far off-base that it's not even worth starting.
I mean those high profile disappointments haven't been reoccuring. Of course sometimes writers still can't finish their stories for one reason or another, but for the most part, successful mainstream writers seem to be keeping up with their successful mainstream writing.
I would recommend some nuance with rule 2. If a show is on average really good, even a really good finale might be less than average. Just look at MAS*H on that chart. It has (imo) one of the best finales in all of television, and yet it is rated as worse than average because the rest of the episodes were also great.
My point is just to not only consider it in relation to the rest of the show, but it's raw score also. I'm sure you probably would have anyway, but I just thought I'd point it out for others to consider as well.
Huh, Trek Enterprise, TNG, and Firefly are all in the reds .... How much were people hyped to begin with?
Enterprise has firmly the most infamous finale of the franchise. It's a redress of a TNG episode that plays out the Enterprise-relevant parts on the holodeck and kills off a fan favorite character for no good reason. That's just correct. It sucked.
TNG is a matter of questionable statistical choices. This chart isn't using the average rating across all episodes as it's baseline, but the overall rating of the show. Star Trek TNG has an overall rating (8.7) well in excess of it's average episode rating (6.7), fitting for a show with a huge amount of decent content and a handful of real standout episodes that everyone remembers. All Good Things was one of the highest rated individual episodes - safely in the top 20 and probably top 10 - but at the time this chart was created it still lagged behind the overall rating. Today even that minor statistical malpractice would still have placed it much more favorably: All Good Things has apparently jumped from ~8.6 to 9.1 on IMDB's ratings, which puts it over TNG's 8.7 overall rating.
So to be clear, All Good Things is an excellent and well regarded finale. This chart does it dirty.
Firefly I assume is mostly the same as TNG (a decent episode on a show with an overall rating (8.9) above it's average episode rating(8.7)) plus a dusting of the age old "why the hell did you end it here" dragging it down a bit.
Firefly was cut off at the knees. That finale was fine as a launching point for Season 2 that never happened.
I've heard this opinion before, and it's just weird to me. It seems like people are just watching a show for its conclusion. I've enjoyed lots of shows despite terrible endings, or bad final seasons, and am glad I watched the shows despite the bad season.
I've seen The Wire all the way through 3 times, but I've never been able to make it through the final season because it's terrible. Its still one of my favorite shows. Same goes for Battlestar Galactica.
I really loved the first season of severance, but the second season sucked. I'm still glad I watched it though.
Shows rarely start with any idea of how they're going to conclude anyway, why cut yourself off from otherwise good shows that may or may not end well?
Because a story is no good without a
Honestly? I don't agree. A lot of people had a huge problem with the Sopranos because the ending was basically the sentence fragment you just posted.
At that point though, so much had happened in the series that there's no satisfying conclusion. It was just a glimpse into the life of mobsters dealing with modern problems. There's no resolution there. The mobsters keep doing mobster stuff, they still have problems that are unresolved, and they keep causing problems for other people. It wasn't one story, it was dozens, all packaged as a glimpse into the lives of these characters.
Its kind of the central thesis of the show, the cycle of temptation, crime and justification grinds forward just as it always has.
It ended because that's where it ended, not because there was some grand narrative to be wrapped up. The glimpse into the lives of mobsters just ended, because it has to end at some point.
In a way, it's a really honest ending, and the way that most long running series probably should end. These are long running dramas with hundreds of little twists, grey morality, and character shifts. They're not tight hour and a half stories with a clear beginning, climax, and end like Star Wars or something.
In this comment, you have said something much more interesting than if you'd said 'ending'. The abruption is the ending now, and it's a different story. Holding onto our ideas of narrative can spoil the ones in front of us.
Ah, but would it have been ending really? I was going for conclusion.
And that's exactly the depth we wouldn't have gotten without your elision! Now, I'm not sure what we'll learn from this millimeter dip, but hey, it happened.
flamingo?
Perhaps it's a bit shortsighted on my part, but I'm reminded by the charts you shared of why the common sentiment on a show is really not a good measure of if one is worthwhile to watch.
I didn't watch much of the shows listed, but The Sopranos one really feels stupid. The last scene is so brilliant I can't fathom it was given such low score.
But for your general feeling on stories not completed, I feel we forget the appeal of these stories even without their ending.
I think its something I can more easily apply on stories with worse ending than their main course, where I can still retrospectively find it worthwhile even though I would have liked having a better ending.
This is also probably why some stories will never be finished, the author do not want to waste their efforts on a rushed ending that will diminish the whole.
There are three obvious reasons for this:
As an example, if you look at Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Season 1 - 26 Episodes - 1987
Season 2 - 22 Episodes - 1988
Season 3 - 26 Episodes - 1989
Season 4 - 26 Episodes - 1990
Season 5 - 26 Episodes - 1991
etc... you can find similar things for other TV shows.
In the article they mention Avatar: The Last Airbender
Season 1 - 8 Episodes - 2024
Season 2 - 7 Episodes - 2026
And One Piece
Season 1 - 8 Episodes - 2023
Season 2 - 8 Episodes - 2026
It took them 2 years to make 7-8 more episodes. In the example of ST:TNG they were making 20+ episodes reliably per year. It seems to take Netflix at least 2 years, if not longer, to make a season 2. The episode counts are almost always under 13.
I think it takes a truly standout show to survive a multiple year break and continue to grow the audience. If you want momentum with your audience you need to release more episodes and quickly.
Sandman was a show I really enjoyed, but it took them roughly 3 years to make season 2. I haven't watched it yet. I barely remember the details of season 1.
This one is important to me. Unless I'm really interested in something I probably won't remember most plot points and I'm not about to re-watch an entire season just to catch back up. A recap works but because of the nature of recaps you're missing a lot of detail that made it interesting in the first place.
It's not even losing interest, when it's two or three years between a season I probably flat out forgot what I liked about it.
Finding a good recap is hard, too. There's a lot of low-effort AI ones that just don't do a good job of summarising it. Just dross. Someone's out there doing good ones, but I haven't found them yet.
That's why I never got back into Stranger Things after Season 3. It just took too long. I wanted to watch Season 4, but my attention was elsewhere and I just never got around to it. I got on the Stranger Things bandwagon a bit late, so I think I was able to binge Seasons 1 and 2 together. And then Season 3 didn't come out that much later after I watched S1 and S2.
But by the time Season 4 came around, I just didn't care as much. I know S5 came out last year, but then it was more like "Well, I haven't watched Stranger Things since 2019; do I really care to catch up?" Maybe one day. But I got other shows I can watch, too.
This is me for so many shows. At the end of season 1 I'm dying for more. Season 2 rolls around and I barely remember the show existed, let alone all the characters and various subplots
As Netflix begins to meet the consequence of turning their backs on their patrons while Sony faces a backlash for abandoning physical media, Blockbuster Video has the opportunity to do the funniest thing right now.
They seem to have fully embraced metrics driven short term goals and are optimizing their shows and how they surface them as such.
Funny thing about metrics is that they never tell the full picture, or at least the highly compressed narrow numbers won't.
They have gained a reputation for cancelling shows and instead of having ever growing catalog that someone could come back to they have unsatisfaing productions left hanging on cliffhangers.
The few times I've been subscribed to them in the past few years it was also strikingly empty.
Par down the shows in which I have no interest in due to their themes or genre, then bungled up shows that are either unfinished or low quality and there are maybe low double digits number of series. A lot of them I've already seen and trying to find anything in their awful interface is a chore so now I am heavily disincentivized finding anything new when I am subscribed to them.
Yeah, I have a feeling that sooner or later Netflix will end up with the reputation as “the streaming service with all the unfinished series”. Back when I was a subscriber I remember being constantly frustrated at finding out that some story I was interested in had no ending.
Amazon Prime canceled a show I liked called Upload, but gave the producers a budget for four episodes to wrap up the story. That’s a decent compromise, and Netflix really ought to do the same.
I'm not surprised at all. Others have said similar, they focus too hard on the statistics and not on the actual art/media.
That plus the fact there are like 2 billion other streaming services now, no-one is paying for Netflix every month.
I won't lie, I completely gave up a few years ago and refused to keep paying for so many services for the handful of shows I wanted to watch. And I will not spend my time and energy juggling subscriptions.
So yeah, I just setup stremio with debrid, and it's been an excellent service for the most part.
I swear though, if someone actually managed to get all the services under one payment, even if they were still separate apps but I could have one sub at a reasonable price, I'd do it. But no way when you expect me to manage that all myself for some media.
Patrick Willems had a good video recently on a related topic (streaming "blockbuster" movies), core to his argument was that the streamers are obsessed with frictionless content that is easy to get into, but the lack of friction means that there's nothing your brain hangs onto when they end.
I feel like a lot of streaming shows have the exact same problem. They're tv-shaped pieces of content, they just aren't interesting, because they people who've made decisions to greenlight them don't have taste and don't want to take risks with insane moves like... trusting writers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6YvkbqAhAY