My buddy kept saying to skip the first 3 episodes of The Wire so I finally tried it

I was stuck on episode 2 for a month and he swore it was just setup, so I jumped to episode 4 and suddenly I'm 8 episodes deep in one sitting. Has anyone else skipped episodes of a slow starter and had it work out better?

3 comments

3 Comments

milaprice1mo ago

Your buddy kept saying to skip the first 3 episodes" - thats wild but honestly it worked for you. I did something similar with Breaking Bad, skipped the first two because a friend said it picks up at episode 3, and @park.robin is right, sometimes you just gotta jump in where it gets good. I actually started The Wire at season 2 by accident once and it still made sense.

park.robin1mo ago

Used to tell people to just push through slow starts but nah, you're right, skipping a few episodes and getting into the good stuff actually works way better for some shows.

kimreed13d ago

I actually see it the other way though. I feel like skipping episodes means you miss the setup that makes the payoff work later. With Breaking Bad, the first two episodes set up Walt's whole desperation and why he snaps, so jumping in at episode 3 would lose all that tension for me. Don't you ever worry that you're missing the small moments that make a show great by skipping ahead?