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Comment by ozzythecat | Hacker News Reader

I cancelled because it’s not worth the time investment. Good shows are not only difficult to find, but Netflix will release a season or two and unreasonably no longer continue on, without closing out the story. They try to cater to a mass audience and use a large net, but then due to capital costs or whatever reasons, they force their customer to feel stupid for getting invested into a show in the first place.

I miss the days where I could binge watch a series on release date. Now all the streaming services also seem to rate limit each episode to once a week.

All the qualities that drew me into streaming have slowly faded away.

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This is underrated.

I recall hearing a discussion on the extreme desire humans have to hear a story's ending, even when they aren't that interested in the story. There is simply a need to know how it ends. I've caught myself to often watching something I think is a waste of time but needing to know how it ends. This is as much of a weakness as the reciprocity rule.

Netflix burned me to many times on this. It's bad taste to re-use the same story time & time again to pump out tons of content. It's unforgiveable to not finish the story though.

There is a series with a sentient entity, living in a star. I think by Pohl.

Anyhow, he passed before writing the next book, and it literally bugs me at least once or twice a year, and yet I read it 20? 25? years ago.

So yes, at least here endings matter.

If there aren't more than 2 seasons worth of episodes, I don't watch it.* It doesn't guarantee a conclusion, but it cuts down on that sense of abandonment when a great show gets chopped too early.

*exceptions for shows, mainly anime, where a season is a self contained story. And Firefly, cause it's Firefly.

i have abit opposite "filter". If it has 7 seasons, I assume they will milk it for many years to come.

"It's unforgiveable to not finish the story though."

Not to repeat myself, but we all clearly need a little perspective, because for several generations the norm has been television shows being cancelled without closure. To have an expectation that all shows, or even most shows, should have proper conclusions is completely out of line with reality.

Those shows tended to be episodic with only weak overall story in. You had ending for each story. The writing is much different now (and better then used to be, but abrupt end is annoying people more).

Entire seasons being released at once was such a massive positive for streaming. The fact that they're moving away from that just to boost numbers is very disappointing.

I disagree. The wait and the suspense it builds and the talking between friends is amazing.

People surging ahead leads to a difficulty in conversation that week-to-week episodes do not.

Depends on the type of content. Not everything is a nail biter.

I watch primarily for my own enjoyment. Binging "dumb" sci-fi or fantasy (Witcher, etc) on a cold Sunday afternoon is the best (well, skiing would be better, but it doesn't snow much in DC).

The "talking between friends" works great when it's something everyone is watching, or there's only a few channels available, etc.

Once everyone is split into various streaming camps, the talking between friends begins to drop.

I do find weekly drops for 30 minute comedies sort of annoying but I'm fine with weekly releases of serialized dramas which mean that you can discuss things/read discussions only with other people watching along at the same pace.

That said, I mostly don't binge watch and maybe it would bug me more if I did.

I actually find it tends to split groups between those that watch episode drops and those that wait to binge later. Not to mention the spoilers that people drop when they assume someone is watching along.

I much prefer to binge it’s cheaper and easier to fit into your life. Finished a project and have a break? Turn Netflix back on, binge, cancel. I guess I don’t watch TV to talk about it with friends though.

Disagree. We wait till itnis released all so we don't have stupidly long delay between episodes ... and it means dodging spoilers and debates.

Once a week episode is good for episodic content, nit for something with good writing.

As long as they episodes stay up, I don’t mind the week-to-week model. I’ll just wait until the entire season (or seasons) is complete.

It's exhausting to find good content on Netflix. I found myself dreading opening the app because it would take 10+ minutes to find something decent to watch. So I stopped using it.

I totally agree. Overall the quality just dropped dramatically and what made Netflix great is disappearing.

>I miss the days where I could binge watch a series on release date. Now all the streaming services also seem to rate limit each episode to once a week.

Haha this just means that I have to wait longer to resubscribe.

This.

I cancelled it when they raised their prices, it made me think about how much I watch things on there. Which was rarely - my guess was around 1 show/month on average.

> Now all the streaming services also seem to rate limit each episode to once a week.

Yeah, screw that noise. Torrents are still their primary competitor, and the operative issue is not cost, it is convenience.

"without closing out the story"

To be fair, that was the fate of almost every television show ever made. In fact, your entire first paragraph is just describing what we used to call "television".

that is why netflix was so appealing. at first

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