1, if you don’t like it, then try something else. You could even read a book.
How many chapters of a book should you read before quitting the book?
If you don’t want to keep reading, then don’t. I’m not your mom.
There’s so much media that I’m sure can hook people and if something fails, then just move on to something else. We have the world’s knowledge accessible to us and more information than any one person can ever hope to consume. It’s OK to be picky about what you spend your time doing when time is your most valuable resource.
If you want to have commitments, make them to communities and those important to you, not to media.
Interesting read. I think episode 3 is the magic number. The first episode is actually a pilot they worked on and maybe rewrote or recut to get the actors and tone, etc. Sometimes the pilot is very different from the rest of the series. Episode 2 should be the actual tone and feel of the series but sometimes that can be difficult to get right so episode 3 is a make or break for me. By that time I should understand if I like the characters, understand motivations and something should have happened to peak my interest to keep watching. “Story of the week” or “non-serialized” shows I think are fine to check out another season episode if people are talking about it.
It episode 1 sucks I’m not going to watch it at all.