Pony Idea: TV Episode Ranges
November 21, 2018 5:32 PM - Subscribe

For new TV seasons that get dropped all at once, which is fairly common these days, episode-by-episode is too granular and spammy, but a whole season in one post is awkward for spoiled and unspoiled alike. I think posting half a season at a time would work pretty well for these shows, so being able to select a range of episodes for a post seems like a good idea.

So like:

The Haunting of Hill House Season 1, Episodes 1-5
...

The Haunting of Hill House Season 1, Episodes 6-10
...

Rewatch clubs might enjoy being able to control the granularity as well.

Getting people to use it is another matter, but hopefully they will if they see it's possible whenever they make a post anyway?
posted by fleacircus (6 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
my timing with this request is imho excellent
posted by fleacircus at 11:24 PM on November 21, 2018


Couldn’t that be accomplished by choosing the last episode in your range for the post and then putting ‘episodes 1-whatever’ in the title of the post? I mean, it’s a given that anything from an earlier episode/season is fair game for discussion in the most recent episode.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:37 AM on November 22, 2018


That would look like this, right? (random example)

Supergirl: Something something, Episodes 6-12 Season 4, Episode 12
posted by fleacircus at 4:40 PM on November 22, 2018


To be clear, I think this is something people should probably do, and the current way episodes are indicated really discourage it / make it kind of ugly and hacky.
posted by fleacircus at 4:53 PM on November 22, 2018


Maaaaybe?

I really have no effing idea how to handle this. When I've posted one offs, people ask for an overall season. When I put an overall season, people ask for one offs. I think I just give up on trying to figure out what people want or starting any TV posts any more. I'm not sure if a half a season post works any better or worse for pleasing other people on this topic.

I *think* the issue is that you have to take a guess as to how many people are likely to be posting comments per episode. Like you know any Doctor Who episode is going to get so many comments that you're not going to even waste time with a season only post. Most people aren't watching Superstore much and it's not a series that super requires long in-depth discussion most of the time and it's not a super spoilery show, so it seems pretty easy to make that season-only.

But series that could go either way, who the hell knows what to do? What about a show that used to get discussion and then nobody's posted about it for a season--should we assume that'll be low-interest and season-only or what? What about Netflix all-drops-at-once vs. week to week shows? What about the spoiler issues with shows? Some shows have whopping developments from episode to episode and some don't.

My best guess would go as follows:

Season only:
* Low posting/discussion interest in the show
* Shows without dramatic developments happening on a regular basis
* Netflix all-episode-at-once drops for shows without dramatic developments happening on a regular basis

Half-seasons:
* Low to medium(?) posting/discussion interest in the show
* Netflix shows that only have dramatic developments happen approximately halfway through the series, or shows in general that have a drastically different switch halfway through.

Individual episodes:
* High posting/discussion interest in the show
* Shows that have dramatic developments happen in most episodes
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:25 PM on November 25, 2018


Mrs. Maisel was a show I thought could use a half season, mostly because I wanted to keep discussions about the last few episodes top their own post for spoiler reasons. Because their seasons are so short a lot of streaming shows put the exposition in the first 5 episodes or so and the last 3-4 are all about the finale. Mrs. Maisel could have benefited from this because the finale is apparently a doozy and I'm avoiding the thread until I've finished.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:10 AM on December 28, 2018


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