Slow Burn

I just recently finished watching 'The Terror' from AMC.  It was a ten part mini-series about an English expedition to find the Northwest Passage.  It was really well done.  The acting, the sets, the writing, everything.  As I was making my way through it there was something about it that kept me from getting really into it.  About half way through the series it dawned on me.  Nothing was really happening.  I mean, there was stuff going on, but it wasn't engaging.  It's like a movie that people say is almost perfect in every movie making technical way, but it's boring.  Like a Stanley Kubrick film.  Not the good ones.  Like Barry Lydon. 

The show did not pick up steam as far as plot points and action until episode eight.  The last two and a half episodes were amazing too.  By that point you're invested in the show, but you start to wonder why.  I almost gave up on the show.  I was giving it to the halfway point before making my decision as to whether or not to keep watching.  And then they threw in a huge plot point and hooked me.  All I kept thinking was 'why wait this long?'.  I understand that they need to have some episodes to set up character dynamics and story line, but it just felt like it took too long.  Is this just part of the new television and movie watching era?  If we do not have something resembling instant gratification in something we are watching, do we just give up on it? 

I don't think that this is a new phenomenon.  How many times have we heard people talk about shows where you need to get past the first season before the show starts to get better?  Or the first movie in a trilogy isn't that great, but the second and third ones are higher quality.  I've had that problem with books too.  'Oh, just get past the first one hundred pages, it gets better.'  WHAT?!  You need to hook the audience not make them wonder if they should be flossing their teeth instead.