Everything from the Boys, to Marvel shows, to Lower Decks waste so much time every episode recapping what happened previously. We’re watching these shows on demand. If we needed a recap we simply watch parts of the last episode. Binging shows is so normal it’s a meme now.
Do the people making these shows seriously think there’s a possibility of network syndication or something? As if we’ll eventually go back to the network model?
What do you think?
Who’s “we”? I love recaps at the start of an episode when the last one I watched was a week ago. If you don’t like them, it’s streaming video. Just skip forward!
I tend to watch shows three or so episodes at a time, but then it can be a few days or even weeks until I get back to it.
Side note: I really appreciate shows that put out a proper recap of the last season. I ain’t rewatching an entire season just so I can watch the new one.
I’d also consider “volume quotas”.
I’ll assume that the show creators have a set format/time per episode. Recaps are a “good” way to have filler time, meeting the target episode’s length without too much additional effort.
Personally, i feel like the recaps are somewhat of a spoiler to the episode. Usually these recaps are aimed at reminding you of things that you will need/want for the current episode (e.g. who was that character?). If you do remember the previous episode, these edits almost spell out what parts of the plot will be developed in the current episode.
I’d appreciate a solution like the one @vinny_93 mentioned, where the recaps exist, but I can skip them on demand.
I agree on the spoilers thing. Like, remember that bombshell someone dropped four episodes ago and then they never addressed? And that character from last season that left to go investigate on their own?
Most don’t, and the good shows have no problem with content. They have to cut things down.
I watch shows 1-2 episodes at a time, then switch to another show.
I’ve been watching Murder She Wrote and each episode has a “this time on Murder She Wrote” at the beginning that is kind of a convoluted spoiler for the episode. I don’t know who would want that, especially on a mystery show.
Murder She Wrote was made with old people as the target demographic and old people have terrible memories.
I hate those too. Especially on Murder She Wrote. I skipped every one of them.
I love those, gives you a feel for the type of episode you are about to watch
I don’t feel like there is a big variety in vibes from episode to episode on Murder She Wrote. But if they make you happy, I’m glad they are there for you.
Columbo spoils all the action scenes at the start of the episode for no reason
I don’t mind it. I wouldn’t care if they stopped doing it, but I don’t skip it when they come up
My only gripe with this is with anime like Bleach. Each episode is 3 minutes of recap, 12 minutes of actual show, and 5 minutes of credits and the outro scenes that have nothing to do with the story. It’s somewhat infuriating to watch a recap of something that happened 10 minutes ago 4-5 times an hour.
Apart from that I don’t mind them as there is so much content out there and many shows are doing weekly releases, making it easy to forget details.
I think they should just number the episodes on the title screen, like Ninjago did. Even with the recaps helping me determine what happened in the previous episode, shows like Avatar often left me in the dark because the recap clips were almost never the parts of the previous episode I remembered.
I’ve been watching Clone Wars with my partner and find the recaps really useful since we usually only watch one episode at a time.
Official chronological order, of course
Honestly, the best treatment of this was in the pre-streaming world with the “next time on Arrested Development.”
The running joke is that they would pretty much never happen, except once in a while when they did.
I like them. I watch stuff in bursts. Like ten episodes at a time, then I don’t have the time to watch anything for a month and my memory gets sketchy.
And The Boys recaps are funny.
Previously on The Boys: Splatter, splash, gloop, burp, blop!
Exactly what I was talking about!
I don’t binge. Can be helpful if it’s been a few weeks since I last watched one, although if it’s been that long and I can’t remember what happened then it’s probably not that good a show anyway.
Maybe have the recap as a separate bit that plays only if you’re not?
So much time being 30s in an hour long episode?
If I’m binging, I’ll skip them if the option is there. Otherwise, they help when I remember a show exists and I come back to it.
You refer to “Previous Leon”? He’s a pesky bugger. Always interfering. Best you can do is hold on and wait until you get through the opening title.
