How to Watch a Serial
I was perusing some message boards today, and came upon a thread that continually pops up every now and then, namely how different fans or buffs watch serials (and no I’m not going to do the old joke “why on their TV’s of course). Some seem to like the watch three or four in one sitting, others will watched half one night and the other half the next night. Some insist on watching only one episode a day, and then there was the person who claimed that they have to be watched in the manner of which they were made, one chapter a week. As for me, I’m too impatient for that. I generally will watch a serial straight through, especially if it’s a new one I haven’t seen or one that I’m going to be highlighting for the month. Part of it may stem from my relatively young age (40), and not having had the theater experience except vicariously through Matinee at the Bijou (I also blasphemously fast forward through the recaps and the economy chapter). Personally I don’t think it matters as long as you enjoy what you’re doing.
I began watching serials back in the ’70’s when PBS/Channel 13 in New York City would broadcast a- chapter-a-week of serials like ZORRO’S FIGHTING LEGION, THE MIRACLE RIDER, and FLASH GORDON … needless to say, I got hooked! When I vbegan buildiong a video collection and learned that labels like Republic and VCI were selling these classics on videotape, I naturally began buying (the only type of serial that I wouldn’t or did not want to buy was the Western serial). I was also reluctant to collect the “Superhero” serials like BATMAN, ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL and SUPERMAN, but I mellowed with time.
I would also like to bring to your attention that certain museums are keeping the movie serial alive, particularly the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York, which has a small matinee theater called “The Tut Theater” (seating at most twenty-five people) which shows movie serials in the traditional way, a chapter a week, three times a day.
Getting back to the subject of how to watch a serial, I agree with all the ways that a viewer can watch: one chapter a day or a week, a whole serial in one day, etc. It doesn’t really matter in what way you watch it, just so long as you’re enjoying yourself and losing yourself in the plot and action (even if some of the dialogue sets your teeth on edge!). If there’s a way to enhance the pleasure of the moment (like a bowl or paper bag of popcorn), then by all means go for it! You can even switch serials in midstream as it were by watching a chapter or two of one serial, then switching to one or two chapters of another serial!
I usually wait a day in between episodes if they are all there on the site to watch.