Showerthought: Is it actually okay to skip episodes in a series or is that a crime against storytelling?

Last night my buddy Mark told me he skipped 4 episodes of The Bear because they were 'too stressful' and he just read summaries online to catch up. I was lowkey horrified but he argued that bingeing should be about enjoyment not completion, and now I'm questioning if I've been gatekeeping this whole time. Does skipping episodes ruin the experience for you or is it just a different way to watch?

3 comments

3 Comments

rosebarnes1mo ago

That's actually a really fair point from your friend. Maybe it's just me but I've always thought skipping episodes ruins the pacing and character development. The Bear specifically uses those stressful episodes to build tension and payoff. Like if you skip the chaos you miss why the quieter moments actually mean something. I mean for shows with monster of the week formats maybe skipping is fine. But for something serialized you're basically reading the last chapter of a book without the setup.

hollyl451mo agoTop Commenter

Basically reading the last chapter of a book without the setup" is exactly how I've explained it to people too. What I've started doing with friends who skip episodes is just telling them to watch with subtitles and at 1.5x speed if they're bored, that way they still get the info without it dragging. Might not be a perfect fix but it's better than skipping entire chunks of story and then wondering why a character's breakdown comes out of nowhere.

terryk281mo ago

@rosebarnes you basically summed up exactly why I'd feel like I was cheating myself if I skipped episodes. I once skipped 10 minutes of a show thinking it was filler and accidentally missed the main character's mom dying, so I clearly have no idea what's important. Fast forwarding is risky enough for me without taking full episodes off the board.