I've been getting better about not being so much of a completionist and letting go of shows that aren't working for me anymore. There is so much good media these days that it feels increasingly foolhardy to commit so much time to shows that I'm not enjoying. So, since the start of the streaming television era, I've amassed a collection of shows that I've abandoned after a season or two or three. The latest is the science-fiction series "Raised by Wolves," which started out great, but completely lost me by the end of its first season. It's doubling down on the holy war storyline this time around, which I have no interest in whatsoever.
Still, sometimes it's difficult to get over the urge to hold out for improvement, especially if a show has delivered in the past. Sometimes it's worth it, like with "Mr. Robot," and sometimes it's not, like with "Game of Thrones" - well, your mileage will vary depending on how much you enjoy the fandom schadenfreude. Since it's been a while since I've done a real navel-gazer of a post, today I thought I'd talk about some of my decision process in deciding when to give up on a series, or at least to wait until it's finished and then consider bingeing the rest. Why am I still watching "Disenchantment" and "Westworld," and not "Barry"?
First off, the shift to streaming led to me dropping a bunch of network shows, because frankly it's not convenient to keep up with them week to week. "The Good Place" was really the last over-the-air program I watched regularly. Others like "Brooklyn 99" and "The Conners" fell by the wayside quickly. However, now that "Brooklyn 99" is finished, I'm more interested in eventually bingeing it, the way that I did with "Parks & Recreation." I don't think I'm ever going to be a regular consumer of late night again either, as I've settled on watching the occasional "Daily Show" or Colbert clip on Youtube the day after the programs air on the networks or cable.
I'm more selective about the shows I watch in general, so I've been better about not getting wrapped up in the types of series I'm eventually going to drop. Tuning in to the reviews and internet buzz has been helpful in leading me away from minefields like "Castle Rock," which had a great cast and IP, but only a tepid reception, and "Euphoria," which is frankly in a genre I'm not going to ever enjoy. It's also been helpful in getting me to think of individual seasons as discrete entities. I watched the first and third seasons of "True Detective," which have nothing to do with each other. I got through two seasons of "The Handmaid's Tale" before realizing that the show worked best as a miniseries, like "Big Little Lies," and I didn't need to see more.
As for the actual reasons I stop watching - they mostly involve drops in quality, changes I don't like, or a show revealing itself to be something I don't have the patience for. One of my biggest pet peeves is storylines getting dragged out. When it became clear that "A Handmaid's Tale" was going to keep manipulating the story to avoid the heroine being able to achieve her end goal of escaping Gilead, I lost interest and peaced out. However, I watched all five up-and-down seasons of "Orphan Black" because that show was very good at keeping itself flexible, and dropping the ideas and characters that had run their course. My tolerance for straight soaps like "Revenge" and repetitive shows like "Merlin," has also decreased significantly.
Most of the shows I stop watching now are ones that I initially enjoyed, but failed to keep my interest. "American Gods" and "The Expanse," both started out great, but they became very different in subsequent seasons, and now that they're finished, it's clear that they never got back to the level of quality they started with. Of course I occasionally do run across series that don't work for me from the outset, like "Locke & Key" or "The Umbrella Academy," but I usually bail out a few episodes now, like I did with "Wheel of Time," instead of wanting to finish the season.
Picking shows back up again is also something I've been doing more often, like with "Better Call Saul" and "Daredevil," so I can mentally tell myself I'm benching something like "Orange is the New Black" instead of giving up on it completely. That helps me to push away feelings that I'm leaving something unfinished. However, what's been helping me the most in abandoning my old mindset is that the flexibility of streaming options has allayed so many of my old fears about missing out and losing access.
It's like what I had to learn with movies - I have more options now, and I'll never have to settle for mediocrity again.
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