Should an IMS have repeats?

[Terryfic]

If you scan through the first page comments at LonelyGirl15.com or look at the YouTube comments you will quickly notice that many people don’t follow the series that closely and certainly haven't seem all 100+ episodes. Should an Internet Series re-release older episodes again to help them catch up? Or is a better solution to create clip shows that summarize the past few weeks? Or is it solely the audiences responsibility to go back and watch the earlier episodes if they want to understand the show?

[milowent]

they definitely should do a retrospective show, just like what the nohos just did. tons of shows do that on tv - survivor, for example, usually has a full episode in the latter half of the season summarizing what has happened so far.

to clarify, i'm not saying the creators are required to do a retrospective show (which really would break the fifth sixth or whatever wall it is, right), but it would be nice. i wish a fan would do it, frankly, it could be much more interesting to watch. but only a very few lg15 fans have the editing abilities to do it right :-)*

* and i most certainly don't mean me, terry.

[Terryfic]

I think it would have to be done by the authors of the show, for two reasons.

One – Making a recap show is really boring, and I can’t imagine fans being that into it to make faithful consistent recaps. I have thought about it, but there is very little fun or creativity in just summarizing someone else’s story.

Two – This one is a better reason. Fans don’t know what is going to happen in the story. They have no idea what to focus on to remind older viewers, or let know newer ones what they have to, to understand the coming up episodes. For example, if I had made a recent recap it is unlikely it would have included DB kissing Bree, but that is a fact that would be very useful to include in a recap when it is raised again in the next episode.

I think every week or every tens days, or some set number days M&M should release a ‘Last Time on LG’ which is just a short clip show of previous episodes that include information that will be useful for the next weeks episodes. Like the series of clips that are aired before one hour dramas (like Lost, or 24). This would not only make sure everyone understood the references in the narrative, but it would also help to spark conversation between episodes as people would try to figure out why those particular clips were important.

I agree that it shouldn’t be released using Bree’s YouTube account. Or at least logically it shouldn’t, but logic has never been followed that closely in LG. They could simply create a new account on YouTube and use it as an out of character account.

[milowent]

good points terry. nikki bower could do them. whatever her connection to the creators, they could probably feed her enough information about what is important to do the vids.

[slainte]

Frankly Milo I'm not sure you could feed Niki B. enough of anything!

[Icaterus]

I think it's mostly the audiences responsibility to catch up by watching everything that's been released.

With an IMS it's very easy to go watch every single episode. I mean with regular TV shows once the episodes have screened and you come in halfway through a series you can't catch up (well unless you download them or know someone who recored them), but on the net they're available at any time.

But a fan made recap show would be pretty useful .

[lesbrent]

I found Sam not so easy to watch back to back because of the short (and I mean short) credit at the beginning. It got really nerve racking after 20 shows in a row.

Sam needs to have a repeat or summary show before season two. Catch everyone up.