In general, I prefer serialized series to episodic ones. The trouble is, it's an investment. I've been sucked into time-wasting crap TV series before (Heroes and Falling Skies come immediately to mind), and I don't want it to happen again. I thought the first episode of Revolution was decent but I thought the second one was pretty awful. I'm going to watch the third episode tonight and decide whether it's worth continuing or not. If it's bad, I'm done. I told myself the same thing two episodes into Falling Skies season 1, though, and ended up watching it up through the end of season 2. After a while, the wife and I were watching just to make fun of it.
I heard a piece on NPR last week about new shows this American TV season. The reviewer enjoyed both Revolution and Last Resort but wouldn't recommend them, claiming that serialized shows had a very low survival rate. He said that serialized shows are unlikely to pick up new viewers after a handful of episodes because people just tuning in don't really know what's going on plot and character-wise and they give up pretty quickly. He said that networks keep gambling on serialized dramas due to the success of LOST.
I really liked LOST until the final season when it all kind of fell apart for me. My sister-in-law bought me a season a year for Christmas while it was on air and I was thinking about taking them to a used media store because I can't imagine watching them all again knowing what I know now. But then a friend suggested that I save them until my son is old enough to appreciate them, watch them all up until the last season, and then make up a better ending together. I thought that was brilliant.
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