Too Many Reviews 

Everybody loves a good extended series. A series features characters you can get to know and can root for or against. Series also have plots you’re actively following, so you can easily pick up the story daily or weekly.

It used to be that you could watch a series without having any preconceived notion of whether the actors and writers were talented or not or whether it would have a satisfying ending or leave you wanting to strangle the producers. You’d have to watch the series until the end and form your own opinion.

Then websites like IMDB.com and Rotten Tomatoes came along, and social media helped spread these site’s information. They offered reviews that helped us weed out the good from the bad in the rapidly increasing content volume from streaming sites and broadcast TV channels. Sites like these made it possible to form an opinion about a movie or show and the actors in it without ever having seen a second of the actual production. It made us all experts in the quality of a show or series we’d never seen.

Taking a Chance

I want to get out of the ingrained habit of keeping browser tabs of these review websites open when I  start looking through new series on HBO or Netflix. I’ve noticed the reviews I’ve read have often dissuaded me from watching what have turned out to be some pretty decent shows at times.

I’ve decided to start watching a series called Who is Erin Carter without finding out anything about it. I’ve watched the pilot episode and can report that it’s about a woman who, with her daughter, flees a bad relationship in England and sails aboard a fishing boat to Barcelona to start a new life as a schoolteacher. Barcelona looks like it’s a pretty nice place. Beyond that, I don’t know anything about the show.

I hope I’m pleasantly surprised and don’t have to go back to my old, cynical habits of vetting things before I watch them. There’s no telling how much good stuff I missed.