Netflix/Marvel show pacing

I know how you feel. Jessica Jones slowed down around episode 6 and didn't recover until the final episodes (which are good). Luke Cage also had the problem in that, when Cottonmouth died and Diamondback started showing up, I got a little bored, although it had a lot to do with me not caring about Diamondback as a character and the actor being too over-the-top. I liked both seasons of DD, but I can understand if people thought they slowed down a bit.

I think part of it is that they only have so much story they can tell over the span of 13 episodes. I even wonder if there are some budget issues. The effects and fight scenes are usually beautiful, but I'm sure they're not cheap, so they can only do so much.

Not sure if this will answer your question or help, but I had friends who enjoyed watching 2 episodes per day. I personally binged watched it and at times felt underwhelmed by certain episodes.

The pacing is fine to me but I don't always find every character interesting... or sometimes I don't particularly like the actor(s). I can't really sit through Daredevil because I find the core cast to be rather boring.

Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are amazing. I loved every minute of them though there were some times in Jessica Jones and Luke Cage where it seemed like they forced them to make dumb decisions for the sake of story and yeah the Cottonmouth to Diamondback transition was pretty terrible.

The problem with the Netflix shows aside from DD is that they're too long for their own good.

If Jessica Jones had been a 9 or 10 episode series it would've worked out better, and Luke Cage wrapped up its main plot 7 episodes in.

Seems they learned their lesson, since Defenders is only 8 episodes long.

I've had no trouble with the pacing, generally speaking.

I don't know how you watched them, but I think they're built more for a weekend or week-long binge watch than for plowing through them in a day. The shows seem to break naturally into blocks of a few episodes each.


If your theater is a space safe from ideas and opinions, you're doing theater wrong.

I loved the shows and didn't find pacing to be a problem.

BUT I will say I think Marvel is still finding their way somewhat with respect to Netflix. They have all the freedom in the world but probably aren't really used to that (nobody is yet). I think they may have agreed in advance with Netflix to provide 4, 13-episode seasons and one 8-episode "event" for Defenders. Then sort of had stories that didn't fit perfectly into 13 episodes.

I think they'll get better and sort of take the training wheels off. JJ could have certainly been 10 episodes with maybe one or two being well over an hour and the rest being closer to an hour. To get that really psychological tension you need a couple of episodes to run longer. So maybe the episodes about Jessica's past with Kilgrave could have been longer and they could have dropped some of the side stuff.

DD2 sort of was a bonus season and I think they might have split their focus a bit between some material they had planned and then trying to "launch" Punisher. Might have been better to stick to one story only (Punisher I assume) and go with a shorter season.

It's not like people pay per season or episode, so having shorter seasons or episodes within the seasons that vary widely in length should be fine. I think it's just a case of "TV people" being so used to the 13 or 26 episode format and episodes of about 1 hour in length.

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