[DouglasPHill]

Wife and I have been trying to find things to watch on Netflix. A few frustrations:
1) 10 episodes does not a season make.
2) Nothing like watching season 1 of a show that is new to you and finding out it was filmed a few years back and never renewed.
3) Many of the shows follow the Breaking Bad model with bad things continuing to happen and the main characters barely getting past them.
4) Auto playing footage from a show just because you selected it to read about it is wrong.
5) The ability to skip opening credits is good.
IMHO

 

[MikeMar]

Wife and I have been trying to find things to watch on Netflix. A few frustrations:
1) 10 episodes does not a season make.
2) Nothing like watching season 1 of a show that is new to you and finding out it was filmed a few years back and never renewed.
3) Many of the shows follow the Breaking Bad model with bad things continuing to happen and the main characters barely getting past them.
4) Auto playing footage from a show just because you selected it to read about it is wrong.
5) The ability to skip opening credits is good.
IMHO

1 - That's pretty standard on almost all non-sitcoms/network shows now, not just Netflix
For comedies and other 30 min stuff, yeah give me 20'ish eps
For an hour long drama, 10 is usually perfect, otherwise it drags a ton

2 - Yeah you basically need to quickly lookup a show on IMDB or something to see if it's ended or not

3 - ??? Isn't that most non-comedy shows?

4 - I hate that too, why I never actually browse any streaming service anymore, I know what I am going to watch when I load it up

5 - Yes very much so

 

[Steveknj]

1 - That's pretty standard on almost all non-sitcoms/network shows now, not just Netflix
For comedies and other 30 min stuff, yeah give me 20'ish eps
For an hour long drama, 10 is usually perfect, otherwise it drags a ton

2 - Yeah you basically need to quickly lookup a show on IMDB or something to see if it's ended or not

3 - ??? Isn't that most non-comedy shows?

4 - I hate that too, why I never actually browse any streaming service anymore, I know what I am going to watch when I load it up

5 - Yes very much so

On #1 my issues is not so much the short seasons as it's that 10 episodes, especially if you binge can be watched in a few days or weeks, but then you have at least a year until the next season and by then, I've either:
A) completely forgotten if I've even WATCHED the show or not (so many SciFi type shows out there that I can't distinguish between many of them for example)
B) And once I have determined that I HAVE watched it, I can't remember anything about it, so I have to at least watch a few episodes from the previous season to remember.

The rest I agree with, don't generally care that seasons are short, except for my comment above.

 

[TonyD79]

Netflix has an option to not auto play the preview.

 

[MikeMar]

Netflix has an option to not auto play the preview.

Didn't know they added the trailer option! thought it was just next episode

1. Go to Netflix.com in a web browser.
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Tap Manage Profiles.
4. Select your user profile.
5. Uncheck the button that says "Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices."
6. Hit save.

 

[hapster85]

Netflix has an option to not auto play the preview.

Yes. Profile specific, though. So may have to be done more than once.

 

[Bierboy]

Wife and I have been trying to find things to watch on Netflix. A few frustrations:
1) 10 episodes does not a season make.
2) Nothing like watching season 1 of a show that is new to you and finding out it was filmed a few years back and never renewed.
3) Many of the shows follow the Breaking Bad model with bad things continuing to happen and the main characters barely getting past them.
4) Auto playing footage from a show just because you selected it to read about it is wrong.
5) The ability to skip opening credits is good.
IMHO

You have posted many reasons why my son is dumping it when the rate hike takes effect. None of us really watch anything on it anymore, and the grandkids have outgrown the "kids" programs on Netflix. I'm an old fogey, but he is not.

 

[rharmelink]

1) 10 episodes does not a season make.

Sometimes it's only 6...

 

[DouglasPHill]

>>>Sometimes it's only 6...

 

[hapster85]

1) 10 episodes does not a season make.

As already mentioned in another post, it isn't the short seasons, it's the long wait between them. Quality is more important than quantity anyway. Besides which, there's just so much out there nowadays, it's impossible to see everything, even with short seasons. Could you imagine if things were still like in the 50s and 60s, when 30+ episodes per season was common?

 

[Saturn_V]

As already mentioned in another post, it isn't the short seasons, it's the long wait between them. Quality is more important than quantity anyway.

I don't mind waiting as long as the quality is there. We've had to wait 18-24 months between seasons for adult animated shows like Rick & Morty and The Venture Bros. 8-10 weeks of new airs, then back to waiting over a year for the next.

Could you imagine if things were still like in the 50s and 60s, when 30+ episodes per season was common?

In reading a Batman history, I learned there were 120 episodes of the Adam West Batman series over three seasons. Airing two episodes a week for the first two seasons too. Granted, it was a phenomena at the time, but less than 10% of those episodes were good or warranted repeated views in syndication.

Except for the Catwoman episodes with Julie Newmar.

 

[TonyD79]

Didn't know they added the trailer option! thought it was just next episode

1. Go to Netflix.com in a web browser.
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Tap Manage Profiles.
4. Select your user profile.
5. Uncheck the button that says "Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices."
6. Hit save.

Thanks. I was in my phone and couldn't look up the process. It took a while for all my devices to "learn" the behavior but it worked.

 

[moyekj]

Didn't know they added the trailer option! thought it was just next episode

1. Go to Netflix.com in a web browser.
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Tap Manage Profiles.
4. Select your user profile.
5. Uncheck the button that says "Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices."
6. Hit save.

Had no idea those settings were there either. THANKS! Good riddance unintended trailer views.

 

[Beryl]

Sometimes it's only 6...

I prefer these when binge watching with family/friends across the world. There is less of an investment.

 

[jr461]

Didn't know they added the trailer option! thought it was just next episode

1. Go to Netflix.com in a web browser.
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Tap Manage Profiles.
4. Select your user profile.
5. Uncheck the button that says "Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices."
6. Hit save.

That works when browsing in general from show to show. When you click into a specific show's main page, you can't stop the first episode from starting even if you're just there to read more about it, see how many episodes there are, etc This is painful.

I actually think shorter seasons make for better plot progressions since things need to move along. In a typical network scenario of 20+ episodes, there's a lot of filler. I do agree that after watching a 10 or so episode season I tend to forget what happened when it returns in a year.

As far as not knowing when a show was made or if there are more seasons, they usually have the year in the synopsis and you can see if there were more seasons. So a show from 2016 with one season is not likely coming back.

 

[madscientist]

Just browse Netflix as a TiVo app; that version doesn't support the auto-start feature at all

Agreed about auto-starting but it's just a few seconds until you go down to Episodes menu item and select it. It doesn't play behind the episodes viewer screen.

I still watch a lot of Netflix; it's probably the single most watched streamer in our house. Beyond for-the-family stuff like Queen's Gambit etc. I watch a lot of stupid shoot-em-up movies that my wife rolls her eyes at (with good reason!) while I'm working out in the basement "gym" we upgraded for Covid times. This week I watched Peppermint for example. Obviously ridiculous but fun to see Jennifer Garner back on screen kicking butt and not even bothering with the names.

 

[mr.unnatural]

Lots of shows on cable are anywhere from 10-13 episodes nowadays, it's not just Netflix or any other streaming services. Most British shows are only good for about 6 episodes per season. Clearly a "season" is however long the producers want it to be. There's no set length anymore. Very few shows run a full 22-26 episode season like they used to and they're all on broadcast OTA TV. I actually prefer the shorter seasons unless the show is more like an anthology series where each episode is a standalone story with maybe a tie-in to an earlier episode. The downside of the shorter seasons is that by the time the next one rolls around I've completely forgotten what happened in the prior season. Fortunately, some shows have a recap episode the precedes the new season so you can get caught up.

 

[Rob Helmerichs]

That works when browsing in general from show to show. When you click into a specific show's main page, you can't stop the first episode from starting even if you're just there to read more about it, see how many episodes there are, etc This is painful.

My trick is I immediately hit "Episodes" (or whatever the option is called), which takes you to the episode list where auto-play doesn't happen. Not a perfect solution, but it avoids the problem.

 

[Unbeliever]

Uncheck the button that says "Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices."

If only that worked.

This has been my setting for as long as I remember:

It still plays either the movie or next episode when I browse. On all my stream devices, Smart TV, CCwGTV, FireStick, etc.

So I browse on a Web browser, and go direct on streaming devices.

--Carlos V.

 

[jr461]

My trick is I immediately hit "Episodes" (or whatever the option is called), which takes you to the episode list where auto-play doesn't happen. Not a perfect solution, but it avoids the problem.

That's exactly what I do. It's like a game - can I get there before the episode starts.