It Gets Better Later

[Norithics]

You know what else gets better? A root canal. The medicine eventually kicks in, or you get used to the dull agony.

Got better: Mobile Suit Gundam. I was straight-up excited the further in I got.
Stayed good: Rosario Vampire. I understand it got dumbed down a little, but I found it charming from start to finish. Plus I'm a sucker for youkai and Gegege no Kitarou is just too kiddy for me.
Stayed bad: Combattler V. He is the best super robot with the worst cartoon. Good LORD. I dare anybody to watch that series start to finish; I'm dumber having watched it.
Got worse: Demon King Daimao. Thank you for turning something that looked interesting into a hyper-compressed clusterfuck-tastrophe.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

I seem to be fairly picky with what I really really like when it comes to media and entertainment, but in terms of something I can just enjoy, I generally can stick through a few episodes, or finish the first book of a series regardless of whether it's truly to my taste or not. Well, so long as it came recommended from a friend/family member; I'd like to try and see it from their point of view.

But there have been a fair share of series I sort of 'forgot' to finish. Not always because they were awful, but mostly because something more appealing showed up. I do like to get back to the unfinished ones when I can, but if it's still a struggle to watch the second time around, that's it for me.

In terms of 'it gets better later', I have a great example: I love Breaking Bad (how uncommon!), but my boyfriend had never seen it, and I really wanted to get him into it before the finale. We started watching episodes a few months ago, maybe got to episode 4, and my boyfriend just wasn't sold. So, it drifted by the wayside, but with all the hype recently with the last few episodes coming out, I finally convinced him to give it another go. After watching the first few episodes again, and trying to see it from his perspective (extremely beloved and praised show; high expectations), he was just expecting more action; more momentum. Truly, the first few episodes of the series have great moments, but it's mostly about developing Walt to the point where we understand why he turns to meth cooking. Really - go watch them again - in comparison to the remainder of the seasons, those first few episodes were very soap opera-esque for someone who was looking forward more to the action/conflict of the series.

But truly, it gets better later.

(He loves the show now).

 

[Sethzard]

With anime or TV series I normally have a 3 episode rule. If I don't enjoy it, or at least find something enjoy then I will just stop.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Of course, in your example it'd still be, as you say, a book significantly better than average. But I myself usually find that authors incapable of writing a solid beginning are also incapable of writing refined and purified textual nirvana, it could still happen of course. But I'd say that once a piece of work gets off on a bad start chances are stacked against it and you're probably better off spending your time looking for another piece of work that starts off significantly better.

This might apply to books singular, but not to a wider series of work. Just because someone's early stuff isn't that great doesn't mean they won't learn and improve; the Dresden Files is one of my favourite series, and the first couple of books are enjoyable-but-not-great. The writing really picks up after that though.

Discworld is another good example. The first handful of books are crappy standard-fantasy-parody stuff for the most part, but as the series gets older the writing becomes sublime. Of course, then the alzheimers hits and it turns to trash, which makes me a sad panda. Point stands though! A great many TV series I've enjoyed have begun pretty badly - the first season of Buffy is pretty crap - but improve pretty quickly once the creators find their feet.

Damn I was going to use The Dresden Files as my example. I agree abut the first few. I enjoyed them at the time but while I have re read all of Dead Beat and onwards (think it is number 6?) alot I have never b othered to re read the ones before that. But Dead Beat upto Turn Coat are among my favorite books. Changes and Ghost Story changed alot so still making my mind up on them and I was not a fan of how Cold Days ended.

OT:
There are a few things that I enjoy that did take a while to get going (The Dresden Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, MAss Effect) but they were all thing that I liked, that were good (to me) that went on to become great/epic. I don't thing 'It gets beeter later' can excuse something that I think is bad.

FF 13 for example. I was told that it gets good about 20 hours in because you get to do some exploring but I found the first 20 hours so boring, with such a bad story and characters so inoying that they would make even Gandhi want to kill something that it did not matter. (plus when I did get to the area that opens up it was still crap)

 

[Iron Criterion]

I disagree, but then maybe I'm just more forgiving. Does one mediocre episode downgrade an entire body of work? Being consistently quality is hard;

Well... yeah...

Making quality things IS hard... If it were easy it wouldn't be quality, it'd be average as everyone would be making it.

One mediocre episode does downgrade the entire body of work, not by a huge margin but it still decreases the overall quality. The work would have been better if there wasn't a single mediocre or worse episode.

But the main factor, for me, still is that there's no shortage of works which don't get better later, they are better now and stay good.

I've got a decently sized backlog of books I still want to read, series I want to watch and games I want to play. I really don't see much reason to stick with something I'm not enjoying on the chance that it might get better later.

You sound like you're extremely hard to please. Being a little forgiving towards a work isn't too much to ask now is it?

Look at Red Dead Redemption 2/3 of that game were amazing, whilst the middle third was a bit sluggish; but because the beginning and ending were so strong, the game as a whole stands up as an amazing experience.

 

[b.w.irenicus]

Depends on how bad the experience is. For example I was playing Deadpool some days ago and after the first 2 missions I was just like "hmm, some how I don't have fun with this despite really wanting to like it. Begone!". And that was that. On the other hand I was able to pull myself through FF XIII. Yeah, it does get better once you reach pulse and the battle system is finaly completely unlocked. But you know when that happens? In the 12th of 13 chapters. F*ck you, game. I really dont know why I made myself play that. An example for me really trying is Skies of Arcadia for the Gamecube. Everyone seems to love it, I just could'nt get into it. The characters were borinh, the design was ugly as hell and the combat sucked. I quite it like 18 hours in.

 

[bafrali]

For me the most recent example would be the Fist of the North Star. First twenty or thirty episodes, it went like "an unbelievable asshole is oppressing the people and Ken beats him up by the end of the episode". But later on some serious drama kicked in and to tell you the truth I wasn't expecting to tear up so many times as I did in a cartoon whose cast included so many speaking logs. But boy did it mess me up when those logs cried like babies.

It was also this series that thaught me to never watch the finale to the any show as it will inevitably disapoint you. Wish I had remembered this in Legend of Korra.

 

[Phantom Kat]

Gurren Lagann. I heard how amazing it is so I watched the first episode. Apparently it gets better but I was so turned off by the premise of it in the beginning that I just can't be bothered watching it.

I also had this problem with Dragon Age: Origins. The game itself has boring combat and the first half of the story is boring as hell. There's only so much "go here, fix this problem, choose between two factions you have no reason to care about" I can take before saying "nope!" and doing something else.

 

[Hagi]

You sound like you're extremely hard to please. Being a little forgiving towards a work isn't too much to ask now is it?

Look at Red Dead Redemption 2/3 of that game were amazing, whilst the middle third was a bit sluggish; but because the beginning and ending were so strong, the game as a whole stands up as an amazing experience.

It's not about how hard I am to please, that's irrelevant to the point I'm making.

What I'm saying is simple, if you aren't enjoying a work then don't continue to read/watch it. Whether you're easy to please or hard to please doesn't matter, if it pleases you then you should continue reading/watching it. If it doesn't please then you should read/watch something else.

A bit sluggish isn't the same as not enjoying something. A bit sluggish is completely fine, it's perfectly possible to enjoy something that's a bit sluggish.

But if you're not enjoying it, if the work isn't engaging you at all. If you're playing this game and you're simply not enjoying yourself at all, you feel no engagement, you feel it's a chore, you're forcing yourself to play through it all on the vague promise that it 'gets better later' then I think you should stop. I think you should do something else, something you do enjoy. It doesn't have to be a mind-blowing, earth-shattering, planet-moving orgasm of pure enjoyment that transcends reality itself. Just something that you enjoy, something that engages you.

I don't think that that's such a high standard. That a work should at all times, even if it has sluggish parts, still maintain a bare minimum of enjoyment and engagement for those experiencing it. And saying that something 'gets better later' is no excuse for failing to meet that standard.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

I watched 5-6 episodes gurren lagann and decided to stop there. from what I heard it was one of the best anime's ever made and failed to meet such an exceptions. It's a watchable anime and there far worst out there. I did not care about the characters, the action was ok, and over all it kinda bored me.
I'm probably not into these kind of anime, the hyped made me more critical of it, or both.

Five or six episodes? I'd suggest sticking with it for just one or two more: you're about to enter the show's second story arc.

I quit Gurren Lagann twice before I finished it, so you're in good company.

I have learned from dealing with anime In the past that It probably won't get better later on. this was caused by bleach, Naruto, and other anime I watched past the point that It deserved to be watched.

But Bleach got better later. And then it got worse. And worse. And worse. And better. And worse. And worse. And worse.
And Naruto got better later. And then it got worse. And better. And worse. And better. And worse. And then I stopped watching.

I have learned from my experience and I am done watching things and hoping "it gets better later on" if it fail to interest me after I have given it a fair chance.

My record for dropping an anime is about thirty seconds. Started the first episode of Shakugan no Shana, something about the opening scene annoyed me. I quit and started watching Heaven's Memo Pad instead. Much better.

You know what has weird paths of getting better and worse? The Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Season 1: Why does this exiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiist? (Bad)
Season 2: This is kinda fun... (Better)
Season 3: Holy shit! (Better)
Season 4: Is basically just the main character being brooding and awesome for twenty episodes. (Technically worse but idgaf)

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Season 1: Why are they on motorcycles? Eh, who cares, this is cool. (Good)
Season 2: Hell yeah this is awesome. (Better)
Season 3: what is this i dont even (Worse)
Season 4: What is...? Robots...? From the future...? Oh god I'm so confused. (Somehow both better and worse)
Season 5: "This is dumb." "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over how AWESOME this is." (Better)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Season 1: Why does this exiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiist? (Bad)
Season 2: This is kinda fun... (Better)
Season 3: Holy shit! (Better)
Season 4: No. Stahp. Zexal. Stahp. (Worse)
Season 5: Phew. You stahped. (Better)

 

[Username Redacted]

With anime or TV series I normally have a 3 episode rule. If I don't enjoy it, or at least find something enjoy then I will just stop.

Right now I'm, unless whatever I'm watching or playing is incredibly long, at a 25% rule. In that by the time I'm 25% complete with your material you'd best have impressed me or I'm done with you.

I'm also glad to see I'm not the only person who peaced out on Gurren Laggan. From the reviews I've seen on most sites I assumed that the series was so godlike that it dispensed steak and blowjobs with every episode. I got six episodes in before calling it a day. I can also say that there is only a minuscule chance of me ever going back to the series for another shot because based on my experience the amount by which it would have to improve for me to consider not even good but just watchable it substantial.

I also had this issue with Baccano, another widely liked series. This one I did give two shots to. First attempt I made it four episodes before dropping it. The second time I tried watching it with my roommate subjecting my roommate to it as well. We got the aforementioned eight episodes in before we looked at one another when I suggested putting another episode on and simultaneously went 'Nah!'. This one is a bit weirder to me as I really, really like Durarara which is done by the same group that made Baccano.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Best example I can give of this phenomenon: I'm on the last season of Deep Space Nine. I can honestly say I enjoyed most of the episodes, but Season Five feels like they changed networks and got permission to do more. Not just new sets and special effects, but showing things Trek never used to show -- actual burnt-to-a-crisp bodies in one memorable case. Shifting political agendas that aren't immediately boring, long character arcs ending up in unexpected places...it seems like a whole new caliber of show. Makes me wish there was a sixth season. And no, I haven't watched the last episodes yet, so don't spoil it for me!

The Dresden Files is good in the beginning, and doesn't get great until three or four books in. And there are some things to dislike later on; my pet peeve is the continual escalation of power a la Dragonball. I think it starts pretty well, considering it was essentially a brain fart squeezed out when the author's real project wasn't going anywhere.

Discworld is another great example. It takes a couple books for Pratchett to really find his feet. Once he does, he writes some of the most entertaining and compelling light fiction I've found.

Gurren Lagann is not for everyone. I personally love the series. This is weird, since I don't normally care for absurd over-the-topness. To me, it just seems like it skims perfectly down the Death Star trench of absurdity without ever quite striking the sides. It knows exactly how absurd it is. Rather than making apologies for jumping the shark, it pushes the throttle to max, jumps the shark with a bigger shark, then jumps over that shark with..... well, at no point does the series hide where it's going. You either get on board or don't. I think Gurren Lagann is good throughout, not necessarily getting better later. It simply deals with different subjects over its length.

 

[ronald1840]

Eureka Seven is my all-time favorite anime. I'll calm down and ignore the hate here. Deep breaths.

If you don't enjoy a certain piece of entertainment than you don't need to suffer through it unless there's a moral, physical serious obligation. We don't care what anime you like and there's nobody you need to impress, or wants to be. Watch whatever you want as many times as you want. Have fun!

 

[Spitfire]

I think it greatly depends on the medium. A film might take long time to build up, but eventually, it might become really good. A TV series, on the other hand, is formulaic, so if 2 or 3 episodes in there's nothing to even remotely hold your interest, then that's probably not going to change later on.

 

[Tanis]

Sometimes I think it's also one of those 'you had to BE THERE'.

NGE, for its time, was pretty cutting edge...but now it's, well, like KISS.

Less entertainment, and more franchise for money sake.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Certain narratives are a slow burn, and that's fine if that's the intention. If a narrative is bland and subtly builds up a bunch of different things, then hits you with them all at once it's like "holy shit, everything led to this and i should have seen it coming but I didn't" in cases like this, having a slow beginning can be really effective. But if something is just shit really early on with no payoff, I'm not saying that it doesn't get better later but that should definitely be a mark against its overall quality.