Serialisation is part of the comicbook reader's decision-making process to continue or stop reading a series.
As a parallel, a friend of mine explained to me that to really understand the more sophisticated anime, I have to give it six episodes, or else I'll hate it. And he was right! Although Cowboy Bebop and _Samurai Champloo grab you right away, stuff like Lane or Evangelion require paying attention for quite a while before you sort out the show's content.
The American model of television has traditionally been stand-alone episodes that could play in almost any order. There's no sequence to The Honeymooners, so two or three episodes will give you a clear idea of what kind of show you're watching, if that many.
But of course, all that's changed with serial TV shows. Ever since Babylon 5, season-long story arcs have been all the rage, even in sitcoms (which is pretty remarkable). [This is all starting to sound familiar. Have I gone off on this rant before?] However, most people (erroneously) regard TV as 'free,' so there's no investment (either ecnomically or emotionally) in a show. The serial nature of TV lends itself to casual viewing, to picking up lost episodes when you get the chance.
So if you watched the first two episodes of a show and didn't like it, you'd only continue if it were free. If you had to pay for each episode, like a comicbook, especially with prices the way they are why bother? (Although the US$ dropping like a stone has made things a bit cheaper in Canada. Thanks George!)
Ironically, piracy has become the 'try before you buy' system of the techno-L33t. If you can casually peruse the first dozen issues of a series then it's much easier to decide if you want to invest money in it.
Posted by orion at August 16, 2005 11:19 AM | TrackBack