So. Current TV shows show up on Netflix. They catch my eye, and I end up watching the season’s episodes over the course of several days. And I find myself hooked on a show.
Problem: Season 1 of a show doesn’t make its way to Netflix until Season 2 is underway. So unless I find the time to binge-watch Season 1 in one or two sittings, I’m completely screwed out of getting “caught up” in time to jump into Season 2 as it airs. I managed to get “caught up” in time to jump into Season 2 of The Blacklist after watching Season 1 on Netflix. But goddammit, I can’t do that with every single show!
So I recently got hooked on the CW series, “Reign”, after Season 1 arrived on Netflix. But I didn’t finish Season 1 in time to jump to watching Season 2 online (I don’t have a TV, so I watch online). So Season 2 of Reign is over and … the only full episodes still available online are the final five episodes of the season. Today I sat through 3-minute highlight reels of most of the Season 2 episodes, and then finally got to the first full episode still available online, and…
… I find Mary Queen of Scots/Queen of France having an affair with some fuck I’ve never seen before, and then get to watch Bash murder Clarissa with very little fucking context, and I’m so fucking confused.
Five episodes available online? Seriously? What, these multi-billion-dollar TV networks can’t afford to buy another hard drive to store the whole season? I can fucking store a whole damned season on the hard drive of my aging Mac!
GAH! I like this show enough that I want to see all of Season 2, so I guess I’m going to have to wait for S2 to appear on Netflix, and then attempt to binge-watch it as quickly as possible so that I can jump right into watching S3 on the CW site as each episode airs.
Make the content available in an easy-to-use and reasonably priced format and let everyone choose how and when they want to watch it in a time and manner that is convenient for the viewer.
Or, barring that, try not to whine so loud when your customers just pirate the content because pirating is so much easier and more convenient then having to schedule one’s life around a stupid tv show.
I don’t have Netflix, but I frequently am in a situation where I want to watch a show, but need to go back further than the current episodes available online. I just pay the $1.99 to watch the earlier episodes on Amazon Instant Video. It’s a good indication of how badly I want to watch the show: The Fosters, purchased. Major Crimes, purchased. Poldark – I’ll wait until it’s free on Amazon Prime.
Seasons 1 & 2 of Reign are currently available for purchase. You can pay, or you can wait.
OP, you don’t remember the good old days: the current episode will be shown once at Wednesday at 9 pm; it will then be rerun in the summer once and then it will be syndicated 4 or 5 years from now where you will have a third chance to see it.
I think it’s incredibly stupid on the part of the networks - don’t they want people watching their shows first run, with all those ads in them? So why make it so they can’t catch up? That isn’t going to make people pay to watch your show, it makes them pirate it, lose interest, or wait for Netflix or the DVD. Which serves you right if they pirate it.
First - Reign Season 2 is available on Amazon Instant Video for 1.99/episode or 29.99 for the whole season. It’s a CW show. Once the show is over 5 episodes old, CW shows tend to be available for purchase on Amazon.
So, the OP could get it for a reasonable price there.
Second - Last year, Season 1 became available on Netflix on 10/2 - the same day that Season 2 premiered. It is likely that they’ll do something similar this year, the new season is set to begin on 10/9, Netflix will probably get season 2 about the same time. That will give the OP 5 weeks to watch 23 episodes (season 2 and the first episode of season 3) before it disappears. 23 episodes over 5 weeks isn’t that much of a binge.
Okay, then Netflix must have some weird algorithm to determine what they show/offer me, because Reign didn’t show up on my Netflix until a couple months ago.
I’d have some sympathy with the OP if he hadn’t named a bunch of shows I’m not interested in.
“Oh, it’s so hard to catch up on Mike & Molly! Why doesn’t Amazon carry the Real Housewives? Why does Season 9 of Law and Order: Elevator Inspection Unit only have four episodes available on Netflix?”
Sorry, but there complaints are as hard to sympathize with as not getting enough rehydrated onions on your 99 cent McDonalds cheeseburger.
That’s basically what I do when I start liking a show. Start recording it on TV, so that once you’re caught up to where it’s no longer streaming, then you have it your DVR and you can watch that and you’ll be caught up, then you can start watching it live.
For example, you find a new show on Netflix and decide to start watching it. Netflix has three seasons available, S4 is currently airing. Start recording it now.
Binge through Season 1-3 (and half of season 4 if you want). When Season 4 comes out on Netflix you can watch that, plus you’ll have part of S5 on your Tivo since it’s probably on right now. Watch those episodes and you’re up to date.
Yes, it might take a Season and a half to catch up and you’ll have a bunch of shows sitting on your DVR for months or years, but it’s better than not getting caught up until the show ends.
I’ve had Season 3 of Orphan Black on my TiVo since it aired (minus the first episode, that’s when I started watching it on Amazon and decided I liked it).
Netflix is really frustrating that way. Its algorithm effectively hides shows that it doesn’t think you’ll like or isn’t really popular. If you go actively looking for a show, it’ll be there. But you’ll never happen upon a show that isn’t in line with what you’ve already watched/rated. If you weren’t using Netflix to watch other CW shows or shows generally aimed at teenage girls, it’s not surprising you didn’t see it.
Thanks to the threads in Cafe Society I decided to check out Mr. Robot on USA Network. It was available on my cable systems’ On Demand so I watched Episode 1 (they’re cleverly named as .mov files). I loved it!
So I went to watch the next episode, but the next episode available On Demand is episode 5! They have episodes 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Why? Why not put them all on demand? (They are all available on their web site, but I’d prefer to watch on a real screen).
Yes! Or when they won’t put up an episode until 8 days later … aka after the next episode airs. WTF, fuckknuckles? You realize you make it literally impossible to catch up on your show to actually start watching it first-run without pirating, right? :smack:
Growing pains, we’re in the infancy of this business model and companies are afraid to go too far with letting things be widely available. Cutting the cord is possible because there’s good content available, but the availability is very sporadic.
The companies are trying to get cord cutters to pay for their new episodes, so they make old episodes available on Netflix, and newer episodes available for pay. But they make the newest episodes available for free on a website or Hulu, because Hulu pays, but they don’t make ALL of them available, because Hulu isn’t paying for all of them for the whole season, they want breadth, not depth.
Eventually it will shake out to something a bit more ‘normal’ and reliable.
