Once upon a time it was a given that a drama deserved your attention for at least the first four episodes until you decided whether to give it a pass or not. The general argument, as I understood it, was that for a 16-episode drama to really start showing its color and getting into the rhythm of its storytelling, it needed a bit of time from us. A brief suspension of judgement. A grace period.
This practice served me well for years of drama watching, and there were so many times when I started a drama, didn’t love the first episode, but kept watching to keep the 4-episode (unwritten) contract agreement going. And more often than not, by the time I was four episodes deep, the drama had won me over.
Lately, I sense this practice has been changing across the fandom, and I think it’s for two major reasons: 1) that there is now such an overabundance of dramas to choose from that if something doesn’t grab you right away it’s easy to drop it and explore your 20 other options; and 2) the production of dramas has changed, and there’s a much stronger focus on grabbing an audience with that first episode (due to the aforementioned competition).
For me, though I can’t always afford the time commitment of the 4-episode grace period these days, I still think it’s the fairest approach; it shows not only that you have faith in the story’s potential, but that you’re willing to be won over by it.
Do you still give dramas a 4-episode grace period? Or do you find your viewing and dropping habits are shifting over time?