c/binge-worthy-shows

15

michael_patel•2d ago

Finally convinced my buddy that The Americans is not too slow

He kept saying he got bored in season 1 and gave up. I told him to push through to episode 8 of season 1 and if he still hated it I'd drop it. He texted me last night at 2am after finishing season 3 saying he was wrong lol. Anyone else have a show where the first few episodes are a slog but the payoff is huge?

16

the_jordan•3d ago

Talked to a tv writer at a bar and now I watch shows differently

I was at a dive bar in Austin last Friday and ended up next to a guy who wrote for a Netflix series I like. He said most shows waste the first two episodes just setting up stuff they could show in a single flashback. That hit me because I binged a whole season last month and felt bored for the first hour. Now I skip the pilot if it drags and check if the show picks up by episode three. Has anyone else tried skipping ahead and missed something important?

21

robert_smith36•4d ago

Just binged 'Dark' on Netflix and now I need a flowchart to explain it to my friends

So I finally started watching Dark last week after hearing everyone rave about it. I was in my living room with my laptop and some snacks, ready for a chill show. But about 4 episodes in, I got totally lost trying to keep track of all the characters and timelines. I had to pause like every 10 minutes to look up family trees online. It got so bad that I started making notes on a piece of paper just to follow who was who. Eventually I found this fan-made timeline graphic that saved my sanity. Has anyone else had to resort to note taking just to finish a series?

13

barbarac95•18d ago

Showerthought: Binge watching The Bear made me forget how food shows used to be all calm and pretty

I started season 1 of The Bear last Friday and by Sunday night I was stress-eating chips in the dark, so how did a show about a sandwich shop turn my cozy cooking show habit into a panic attack?

1

mason_foster68•20d ago

Hot take: Slow burn shows like 'Dark' are way better than fast paced shows like 'Money Heist'

I binged both over the last month, first 'Money Heist' then 'Dark'. With 'Money Heist' I was hooked fast but by season 3 it felt like the same chase scene over and over lol. 'Dark' took me 4 episodes to even understand who was who but once I got it, every episode had me thinking about it all day. The payoff was way bigger because they actually planned the whole story from the start. Anyone else find slow shows stick with you longer or am I just weird?

1

hernandez.morgan•21d ago

Everybody loves The Office but I found out the original pilot only got half the audience of their timeslot

I read an old TV ratings blog from 2005 that said the first episode flopped hard compared to competitors. They barely got renewed after season 1. Anyone else think the hype is overblown for the earlier seasons?

7

graceprice•23d ago

My coworker called me out for skipping the "slow parts" in Breaking Bad

So I told my buddy Dave at lunch that I fast forward through the slow dialogue scenes in shows. He looked at me like I was crazy and said "You're missing the whole point, those scenes build character." I laughed it off but then I watched Better Call Saul without skipping anything. Now I realize I was literally ruining the show for myself by rushing through all the setup that makes the payoff hit harder. Has anyone else been guilty of ruining a binge by skipping too much?

24

paige_ellis59•23d ago

Overheard a guy at the coffee shop say he watched all 9 seasons of The Office in 10 days

That's 201 episodes at roughly 22 minutes each, so he basically watched 4 hours of Dunder Mifflin every single day, and I just wonder if he even laughed at the funny parts or if it all blurred together by season 6.

9

zara_hill46•24d ago

Heads up about that new crime series on Hulu

I watched the first 3 episodes of The Code at 2am last night and it has this weird audio sync issue in episode 2 that really threw me off. Has anyone else noticed that or did I just get a glitchy stream?

13

the_jessica•24d ago

That one line in Succession where Roman says 'you're not a serious person' keeps popping into my head during meetings

Heard it during a rewatch last week and now I can't help thinking it every time my coworker pitches another idea that's just a knockoff of what we already tried, anyone else get stuck on random TV quotes like that?

17

miles_jones39•25d ago

The night my DVR filled up during a snowstorm last February changed how I watch shows

I live in Cleveland and we got hit with 18 inches of snow back in February. My DVR maxed out at 300 hours and I lost the last two episodes of a series I was following. Now I only keep three shows saved at a time and delete as I go. Has anyone else had their recording setup fail on them at a bad time?

5

hayden_rivera•26d ago

Wasted 8 hours on 'The OA' before giving up

I kept seeing people rave about 'The OA' on here and how it's this mind blowing show that changes your life. So I sat down and watched the whole first season, 8 episodes, about 8 hours of my life. By the end I was just confused and annoyed, nothing was explained and it felt like a fake deep mess. I honestly don't get the hype at all, maybe I missed something but I feel like that time is gone forever. Has anyone else felt completely let down by a show that everyone else seems to love?

16

keith264•26d ago

Just realized 'Mindhunter' is way better than I ever gave it credit for

I skipped this show for like three years because I thought it was just another boring cop drama with bad acting... my brother kept telling me to watch it but I figured he just had low standards. Then last month I was stuck at home with the flu and ran out of stuff to watch, so I finally clicked on episode one. Man, I was so wrong. The way they dig into the psychology of serial killers, especially the interviews with actual convicted guys, is just fascinating. It's slow in places but that tension builds so well you can't stop watching. Now I'm mad there's only two seasons and Netflix hasn't greenlit a third. Has anyone else put off a show for years only to binge it and fall in love? What was it?

7

drew_patel57•28d ago

My buddy Dave said The Wire is overrated and I almost ended our friendship right there

He claimed season 2 is unwatchable and that McNulty is just a drunk jerk, but has anyone else had to defend a whole show to someone who clearly skipped half the episodes?

1

morgan_butler•29d ago

Found a nasty trick that saved me from quitting another slow-burn season 1

I was three episodes into this show everyone hypes up and wanted to throw my remote through the TV, so I googled 'when does [show name] get good' and found a site that lists the exact episode it picks up. Now I just skip straight to episode 4 or whatever and it's saved me from dropping like 5 different shows this month. Anyone else use cheat codes like this or do you suffer through the whole thing?

22

taylorlewis•1mo ago

Took me 90 minutes to figure out why my show kept buffering, turned out to be a CAT5 cable from 2005

I was sitting there blaming Netflix and my ISP for three episodes of The Bear stuttering every 10 minutes, finally swapped out an old ethernet cable I found tangled behind the TV stand and the problem vanished instantly. Anyone else ever waste an afternoon on something this dumb with their streaming setup?

15

the_blair•1mo ago

Caught myself watching old 90s sitcoms instead of the new stuff on Netflix

Last Tuesday I had a whole day off, figured I'd finally start that new HBO show everyone's talking about. Made it through maybe 20 minutes before I switched over to an old Seinfeld rerun I've seen a dozen times. Ended up watching like 8 episodes back to back, laughing at jokes I could recite in my sleep. My wife came home and asked if I was sick because I was just lying there with the laptop on my chest. There's something about those old shows that just feels safe and easy, no big plot twists or violence or world building. The new stuff is good but sometimes I just want to watch people argue about nothing in a coffee shop. Anyone else find themselves going back to 90s shows instead of the new seasons dropping every week?

26

the_emery•1mo ago

Warning: Blew through 3 seasons of The Expanse in 4 days and regret nothing

Started watching The Expanse last Friday night after a buddy kept pushing me to try it. By Monday morning I had finished season 3 and barely slept or ate the whole weekend. What got me was how the politics in space actually made sense and the characters felt like real people. Has anyone else found a show that hooked them so fast you forgot to eat?

29

graym49•1mo ago

Why does no one talk about how season 2 of that spy show drops off completely?

I stuck with The Bureau through a slow first season but by episode 4 of season 2 the plot holes got so bad I nearly threw my remote across the room, has anyone else hit a wall with a show that everyone hypes up for being genius?

14

carr.james•1mo ago

Watched The Bear season 1 twice and hated it, season 2 flipped me completely

What changed my mind was seeing how they slowed down in episode 7 of season 2 to show real kitchen chaos and actual character growth, after 8 months of thinking it was just loud yelling with no payoff, anyone else need a second try to get into a show?

13

sean_walker45•1mo ago

Had to pick between finishing a show or sleeping, I made the wrong call

Last Thursday I was on episode 7 of a 10-episode crime drama at 11 PM. My alarm was set for 5:30 because I had a crew starting at a job site in Oakville. I told myself I'd watch one more episode, then two more, and by the time the credits rolled on episode 10 it was 4 in the morning. I showed up to work on two hours of sleep and spent the whole day mixing paint colors wrong because my brain was fried. My foreman kept asking if I was hungover and I just had to admit I was hungover on plot twists instead. Has anyone else ever torpedoed a work day because a show got too good to pause?

12

skyler_adams•1mo ago

Found a way to skip the filler episodes in long running shows during a power outage in Phoenix

I was stuck at home last summer when a monsoon knocked out our power for about 4 hours. Had nothing to do but browse on my phone. I stumbled onto a fan made list online that mapped out every single filler episode for a 500+ episode anime I had been trying to get through for years. It cut my watch time down by like 40%. Never realized how much time I was wasting on episodes that had nothing to do with the main plot. Anyone else use those skip lists or do you just power through everything?

18

christopher402•1mo ago

Just read that the final season of 'The Good Place' was originally supposed to be 14 episodes

Found that in an old interview with the showrunner. They cut it down to 13. Makes you wonder what got left on the editing room floor. Anyone know if those cut scenes are out there somewhere?

16

the_emery•1mo ago

I thought I could finish 'Dark' in a weekend, but that show broke my brain for a solid three days

My friend said it was a quick watch, so I started it on a Friday night. Big mistake. By episode 3, I had to pause and draw a family tree on a pizza box just to keep track of who was who. The time travel stuff is so dense that I spent hours after season 2 just staring at the wall, trying to piece it all together. I actually rewatched the first four episodes before moving on because I was so lost. What was supposed to be a 12-hour binge turned into a 72-hour deep dive with notes. Has anyone else had a show completely wreck their planned binge schedule because it was just too complex to speed through?

13

jenniferb53•1mo ago

Spotted a hidden gem in the new library's media section

I was at the main branch of the Seattle Public Library yesterday and saw they have a whole rack of complete series box sets you can borrow for a full month (which is way longer than their normal movie loan). The librarian said they started it because so many people were asking for shows to watch without ads. Has your local library done something like this for binging?