What TV/Streaming Shows Are Better Binged? Which Are Better Weekly?

[Parmandur]

Given the male lead (Caviezel) basically seems to give up on acting entirely in S3/4 (he's decent in S1, okay in S2 but it's steeply downhill from there), the entire emotional heft of the show ends up being on the supporting cast and minor characters. And they definitely have the strength to carry it, but normally they wouldn't have to.


I've watched the whole thing and I don't think it's worth struggling through. It does get good and has some of my favourite actors in it (not the lead lol), but I think it's got too many episodes which are just sort of dithering and Caviezel becomes less and less compelling. Accounts from people who were making the show rather suggest this is because he was in the process of essentially vanishing up his own ass, ego-wise. His behaviour actually got so bad that he eventually got banned from filming certain kinds of scene which a lead normally would do (particularly car-related ones). It's a pity because Emerson, Henson, Shahi, Acker and Chapman do great work here and seem to be having a good time too.

It's a bit like the X-Files too in that sometimes the filler episodes are better than the mythos ones, and sometimes it just sucks.

A good rundown of PoI: what a schizophrenic mess, unsure if it was a warning about the dangers of a surveillance police state or an apologia for the concept.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

unsure if it was a warning about the dangers of a surveillance police state or an apologia for the concept.

Yeah that was the other (i.e. beyond Caviezel giving up on acting or projecting any kind of mystery or charisma) major ongoing issue with the show that lead directly or indirectly to a lot of the problems. I get that there could be nuance or complexity to that issue, but most of the time it just seemed confused or inconsistent on it.

 

[Vael]

I don't know if any show really benefits binging. Certainly the week to week wait and discussion builds buzz and ... content.

 

[payn]

I don't know if any show really benefits binging. Certainly the week to week wait and discussion builds buzz and ... content.

I think the week to week discussion and buzz needs a water cooler level of attention to warrant it. Maybe 10% of shows reach that point.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think the week to week discussion and buzz needs a water cooler level of attention to warrant it. Maybe 10% of shows reach that point.

I agree completely. The week-by-week model generally only benefits very episodic shows or shows that are extremely popular, at least in the current streaming environment. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle. I was 10% is generous but that's maybe about right (somewhere between that and 5% anyway) if we're talking about shows which aren't necessarily getting discussed literally by the watercooler/coffee machine, but on your WhatsApp groups and so on, which can allow for slightly more niche shows to make the cut.

The balkanization of TV has hurt the entire concept of "watercooler" shows more than binge-ing existing though, because the odds of any given person even being able to watch any TV show at a specific time are way lower than they used to be. Like, I can recommend a friend a show on Apple TV, but if he only subscribes to Apple TV a couple of months a year, if that, it'll be a while before he actually sees it. Even Netflix isn't as universally subbed as it once was. In the UK the BBC has a better chance because you're legally required to pay for an annual licence (which is about the same cost as a streaming service for 12 months, I note) if you watch any live TV at all (which most people do), so BBC shows do still get that a bit.