How many episodes will you give a show before giving up?
1? 2? 3? 4 or more?
When I was producing Dark Matter, the president of the production company emphasized the need for those first three episodes to be absolute bangers because, according to him (And this is an opinion held by many in the industry), if you can get a viewer to commit past the third episode, then you have them for the long haul.
I suppose it depends on the show and expectations going in. Usually, if a show is highly recommend, I’ll give it a longer leash whereas shows that prove pedantic or sloppily written will turn me off (and I it) even fore that first episode is completed.
And you?
Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking of getting back into anime and asked for recommendations over on X. I provided a visual summary of some of my favorites – but there are plenty missing….
I’m not a huge fan of fantasy or RPG=themed anime. Nor am I a fan of anything magic-related. I do lean towards more sci-fi or humorous offerings.
What do you think? Anything to recommend?
Speaking of which…
Finally, I asked my X followers to give me an under-appreciated rarely mentioned sci-fi series (for possible rewatch purposes). No Star Trek or Star Wars or Stargate. Of course I ended up getting mentions for shows that are neither under-appreciated nor rarely mentioned (ie Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, Fringe, etc.) from individuals unable to follow the assignment. Also got a lot of mentions for some pretty awful shows (Which is always kind of dispiriting when someone says they love your show and then mentions they also love some atrocious t.v. as well).
So, what do you think? What is an under appreciated, rarely mentioned not awful sci-fi series?
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Joseph – what were the “awful” recommendations that you got on X? I bet it was mines.🤣🤣
I recommend the sci-fi with Sissy Spacek. It was slow but very interesting.
If a show has an interesting plot line or humor with little to no “woke themes”, I’ll stick with it. Example: Cleopatra 2525 – that show was pretty awful but it was light hearted, fun, and spacey!
Charlie Jade.
How many episodes will I give a show? That is not so cut and dry for me. I answered this question with a “4”, so as not to look like a bu$$hole. BUT it really depends. Actually only 1 or 2 for a new show. I’m more of a re-run watcher. If a show was successful and lasted several years you can usually see it in syndication. That’s some good, fun, no pressure watching right there.
If a favorite actor is in the show, I will watch it every week no matter if I like it or not. My TV will be on, even if I’m multitasking and not really glued to the screen. I’m still supporting my favorite actor.
I think they can tell what you are watching nowadays. You don’t have to be a Neilson viewer, do you? They are spying on you constantly. When I turn my TV on in the morning it automatically goes to the station I usually watch. Spying!
I used to try and stick with a series for a while to give it a fair go. Nowadays, when a show can be cancelled after 1 season, I find myself less inclined to stick with something unless it grips me from the beginning or I know it survives long enough to get a satisfying conclusion to persevere with it.
I gave up on Andor after two and half episodes of Season 1 a few months ago but revisited it last week when I realised my discounted Disney+ subscription was coming to an end! It picked up in the second half of episode 3 and I’m half way through season 2 now and really enjoying it.
I think I mentioned the short lived Star Cops on X. It passed me by as an 11 year old in 1987 but I enjoyed it in my mid 40s, despite the limited BBC budget!
I usually give a show around 3 episodes, but like you say that’s very dependent on a number of things like recommendations, how I feel about the quality of the shows even if it doesn’t grab me right away, and I feel like it’s actually going somewhere. Then sometimes the show itself changes – I’ve watched the first season of the show before and liked/loved it, and then the quality falls off in S2 or S3 and I completely lose interest. I put “Barry” in that category. So, all to say – it depends.
For the sci-fi series, I immediately thought of “Starlost”, but then you said not atrocious so that takes out that option, LOL. Rarely mentioned is a bit of a vague scale, as most sci-fi shows get discussed a lot in the right circles. I’m assuming you mean shows that get at least somewhat into the popular culture. One’s I didn’t see that I heard were good are “The 4400” and “Caprica”, while I did see the new version of “Lost in Space” which was fun though a bit uneven in early episodes, “Killjoys”, which I felt suffered the S2/S3 problem I mentioned above, Amanda Tapping’s “Sanctuary” (though I guess that’s more of a fantasy genre) and “Travelers” which I thought didn’t get nearly the recognition it deserved. Then there’s this show called “Dark Matter” from the mid-2010s. You may have heard of it!
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles(2008-2009) this one is appreciated but maybe is rarely mentioned.
Dollhouse(2009-2010) maybe ticks both.
Alphas(2011-2012) probably close to both.
Almost Human(2013-2014, only one season) might tick both. Fox as usual changed the episode order and that messed up the timeline of events a bit here and there.
Continuum(2012-2015) maybe hits both.
The Ark(2023-) still airing and it could be a close call. It’s watchable, not good but also not that bad and I’m not sure how many people even know it exists. I can’t tell how under appreciated it might be.
The under appreciated but not awful part is tricky. You are looking for a narrow sweet spot, like the movie Pandorum(2009) maybe. So the examples I mentioned are shows that I kind of liked but they didn’t find an audience and where canceled fairly quick. They might not be in the sweet spot but their quick demise should put them pretty close because they don’t have cult followings like Firefly and the others.
I’m usually pretty forgiving on shows and will stick with them for at least one season. Maybe it’s a sunk cost fallacy that keeps me watching? But at the season break if I decide I didn’t like the show I usually won’t continue with subsequent seasons.
I’m definitely more picky these days than I used to be. There’s so much non-traditional media that I consume, like YouTube and Twitch, as well as interactive media, like video games, that I don’t have a lot of time for TV shows or movies anymore. I guess I’m part of the problem, sorry Joe!
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I’ve tried anime in the past and haven’t managed to finish any of them. I got most of the way through “Serial Experiments Lain” before I got distracted. I was really enjoying it, though. I should finish it. My problem is that I don’t want to commit to a show that has 20 years and 500 episodes of lore. I need short, tight stories with a definite ending.
I like sci-fi, lots of action, and don’t mind the odd bit of ultra-violence. Oh, and I hate reading subtitles so I need dubs only. Yes, I know, I’m a heathen.
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My absolute favourite sci-fi TV show growing up was “The Tomorrow People” (the ’70s version, not the 2013 remake). Teenagers with ESP teleporting around searching for their own kind while protecting the Earth from evil aliens? Sign me up! Sadly it has not aged well and whenever I decide to watch an episode it just makes me cringe. But as a kid this was the coolest thing ever!
Would “Alien Nation” qualify as rarely mentioned and under-appreciated? I remember really liking it at the time but I haven’t seen it since it first aired. I really like the concept of “aliens among us” but they’re not hiding, they’re just part of society. Like “V” and “District 9”.
How many episodes I will give the show depends on the show and the creators. (I also have to admit that as I get older I have less patience for the number of episodes I will watch before I give up.) When Dollhouse was being aired, I remember sticking with it and then telling people that you had to watch through episode 7 because episode 7 was where it got good and finally kicked in to what the show was about. But I remember thinking that a show shouldn’t need you to watch through to that episode to keep an audience.
If the creators are a known quantity to me and I like them, I will probably give a show about five episodes nowadays to keep me. If I don’t know them at all and I was drawn to watch the show, something in the first episode will need to be compelling enough to keep me watching.
“What is an under appreciated, rarely mentioned not awful sci-fi series?”
“Flashforward”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441135/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
“Diver Dan” (Yes, I’m that old.)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441135/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Usually, I give a show two or three episodes before deciding to give up. There are a few I quit after just the first one, especially when excessive vulgar language gets on my nerves. Luckily, Dark Matter hooked me right from its very first episode.
I tend to know within two episodes if I like any series, the odd one here and there I have gone to a third episode.
However, there are the rare ones that hook me from the start.
From my childhood / youth, The Tomorrow People and Blakes 7 were oustanding.
Red Dwarf was english humour at is finest, slapstick, silly, childish, wooden sets and terrible FX – whats not to love.
Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Dark Matter, Game Of Thrones, Startrek Enterprise, The Last of us (Blegh, the less said about season 2 the better), Fallout (if Amazon finally gets it act together for Season 2), The Bondsman (Kevin Bacon) and Reacher. All of these I knew almost straight away that I was hooked on and I still am.
If the pilot is mostly ok, I might give a show one or two more episodes to see if gets better. However I have been known to turn off mid-episode eg. Peacemaker. I found it so cringey that I couldn’t even watch the whole episode. I’m obviously not their target audience and that’s ok.
When I was a kid, part of my Saturday morning TV schedule was watching “Time Tunnel”. Loved that show, don’t hear it mentioned much. Haven’t watched it as an adult, so not sure how it holds up.
Cheers, Chev