Television Series

I've been watching Narcos on Netflix lately and have come to a conclusion about television series: I like them only in small doses. My hope was that this series covering the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar would work like a mini-series (if a bit longer), ending with the tenth episode of the one and only season. Well, at this point, I have seen eight of the ten episodes. But as of September 3, there will be a second season of (I suspect) at least ten more.

I'm not sure how many times I can watch drug kings kill each other or police ignore the law. The worst scenes, of course, are those in which the innocent are murdered, usually brutally. Now, I can handle most genres and watch many violent films, but television series ramp this up way too dramatically for my taste.

Instead I prefer old fashioned mini-series like the old Roots or the new True Detective, which takes a lesson from the British and ends story-lines each season, starting something new the next. Most series like to end with cliff-hangers and keep audiences waiting for months to see how conflicts are resolved.

Now episodic television, especially the 30 minute or less variety, does work for me. I found Catastrophe and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fun to watch. Of course there's only verbal violence (if bad language counts). But the shows end quickly and can stand by themselves. I enjoy watching them on my computer on the back patio late at night--with my little dog beside me.