breaking bad season 1 wasn't slow or boring, and big action or conflict aren't necessarily interesting

people ask because they don't want to gamble their time on whether a show will improve or not. A lot of the time the first episode of a show will serve as a synecdoche for the whole thing, so if it's bad or mediocre it makes me assume that the whole thing is bad or mediocre in a similar manner. Episodic media should still be good on an episode to episode basis.

Good/bad will mean different things to different people, but what they experience is what they will use to make a decision, if theyre asking others then theyre just trying to make a more informed decision influenced by people who have already invested time into a show.

Lately I've felt like mediocre shows are putting the meat of their stories into the beginning and end of seasons, with middle episodes serving as just meandering diversions that don't really serve to forward any thesis/concepts. I would like to avoid these shows in the future so I'll look to reviews I trust