Monday, November 26, 2018
Should You Skip the Opening Credits of TV Shows?
Collider: Has Peak TV changed the way we watch television? Is it the ease of the streaming binge model, or the fast-forward function of DV-Rs that makes us want to rush so quickly into the next episode of a favorite series? Basically, is it ok to skip the opening credits to a TV show, or are we meant to watch them to start each new chapter as part of the program itself?
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6 comments:
I am an intro skipper. I am impatient and agree with the counterpoint author, once per season tends to be enough, or once per binge watch session if it’s a good opener and deserves a rewatch the next time I start up again. I feel like opening credits work so much better when you watch a show’s episodes a week or more apart as was originally intended on actual television TV (as opposed to streaming sites). They do help bring you in to the show and then the end credits bring you back out, nice bookends to the episode’s story. I think that if show creators conceptualize their show intros as having a meaning and tone integral to the episode they should consider reformatting the traditional opening. I tend to, when I first watch a show, watch the opening credits of the first two episodes to see if they change. If they do, I’ll watch the credits to see how they okay with previous content and hint at story lines to come. It’s a good way to keep the audience engaged when they’re realistically seeing the intro three to six times in a row. Or a good song, a good song and I’ll watch the intro over and over every time.
I think this is interesting that someone is just so passionate about not skipping opening sequences for TV show episodes. I don't watch very many shows, but over this summer I watched Stranger Things on Netflix with a few friends and that is when I discovered that Netflix has a button to be able to jump the intro. I think it really is just that, is someone wants to skip it, great, you have that ability, if you want to watch and get in the right headspace or the episode or dance along, then even better - just watch. I think it is a more interesting conversation about the creation of the intro sequence, do shows feel the need to have them anymore, assuming people will most likely just skip is anyway? But, a theme song often becomes such a big and the most iconic part of a show, why miss out on having that?
I’m most in the camp of the Counterpoint. I watch them the first time, and if they are particularly fun and I enjoy them I watch them every time (The Great British Baking Show is one of those for me as well, as is Psych). But if I don’t feel like I’m getting anything out of the intro, I might skip it. Especially long ones, like the Orange is the New Black intro which is over a minute long. I also tend to skip The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt intro because otherwise it will be stuck in my head for a week. I don’t think it really matters if you skip the intros or not unless you are watching with someone else and you both feel strongly in the opposite direction. Otherwise watch it if you want or don’t if you don’t want to, I don’t think skipping it is really a symbol of how impatient we’ve become.
This is an interesting article in that it didn't bring up many of the points that I had expected to come up. The overall view seemed to be more about the artistic intent of the opening credits and what they did for the viewer's experience of the show overall. Where I had expected to see the counterpoint of they are credits that are there to give credit to someone or some group for there work on the episode or film and should be watched to pay respect to that person's work and effort. However looking at it form the articles point of view I find myself found in the middle of the two. First off if the series has the same opening credits for every episode and they are uninteresting or have little to do with the story, I will more often then not chose the skip option on Netflix or Amazon, or even sometimes decided to fast forward the good old fashioned way. In contrast, if the opening has something to do with the story or is visually or audibly intriguing, then I often find my self-watching the opening and not being frustrated by a seeming waste of 60 seconds of my time.
One of the best features of Netflix is that it has a skip intro section for all of its content. While I know its only 30-45 seconds saved time, it’s still very annoying watching the same intro when you have been watching 5 episodes of a show in a row. I do think that the industry has moved towards shorter and shorter intros as more people are not interested in watching them. One interesting point this article made was that if you skip the intro you are missing part of the episode. Not every show out there has a good intro worth spending the time to watch. However, shows like American horror story you would want to watch the intro. For that show I think they take the time to plan the intro and not only does the intro tell a story itself, it also gives us a glance at what is to come in the episode and series using symbols.
I am sort of in between both of the articles just because it depends on the show for me. Like when I’m watching Family Guy, I HAVE to watch the opening credits because it’s so fun and I’ve been watching the show for years. But when I get to my guilty pleasure show, Supernatural, I skip the opening credits because they’re so long and it’s the same thing over and over again, it just recaps what happened previously. So I guess I’m mostly for the counterpoint, but I can definitely argue for the other side as well. As Julian said, I don’t think it signifies that we’re impatient. I think that skipping a 60 second intro you’ve already seen 20 times is justified because it’s already in your brain when you start watching the show. I can see both sides but I feel the first point is a little too harsh in its argument.
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