To watch season 2 without having watched season 1?

[Ultravox]

Settle an argument please. DH would happily start watching a TV series on a later season without having seen the previous ones. I won’t do this and only want to start with season 1. I’m not talking about something like Married at First Sight that is different each season, I mean stuff like Happy Valley or Suits.

YABU: perfectly normal to start on a later season

YANBU: of course everyone starts on season one

Depends on the show - if you can pick up the key plot points pretty easily from season 2 I think it’s fine (especially when some shows take a while to find it’s feet) - but if there are a lot of plot points and establishing character stuff from the first series still relevant to the second - he is BU!

My husband drives me mad with this. If I start a series on my own (he works shifts), I'd love it if he just gave it a go and got into it from episode 3 or whatever I'm on when he's next in, but he will never ever start anything that's not from season 1 episode 1. He will then never get around to starting it on his own so I just watch it on my own and he never watches it.
There's so much he's missed out on because of this bloody rule.
I've got into loads of things because a housemate or ex had it on and I happened to be in the room and got into it.

Divorce him.

And you married this man?! (I’m joking, but…) Really, how the hell are you supposed to understand everything happening in season 2 or later, if you didn’t watch season 1? Or worse, the later seasons mention or reference events that serve as spoilers for season 1 and so you can never watch and enjoy it properly.

I do understand the point @NinaGeiger is making, but that’s incidentally getting involved with a show, not making the conscious decision to just start on season 3 because you’re a fucking agent of chaos. Ha.

I do this, I’m sorry- especially when something is 3 seasons in! I write at night so don’t get much time to watch tv so I just pick up wherever!!

My Mum used to do this. She’d start something on Netflix or whatever on season 4 / 5 / 6 and wonder why on Earth none of it was making sense to her…!

It depends on the show/genre. Sitcoms are easier to jump into at any point than dramas. Certainly something like Happy Valley needs to be watched from the beginning!

Having said that, in the old days before streaming, it used to be quite common to start a show at random points as you'd just have to watch it on the telly. It was less of an option to start from the beginning. So depending on your ages perhaps your DH is just accustomed to watching shows that way?

He’s nearly 50 so I guess we’re at an age where we remember telly before on demand! He thinks it’s silly that I won’t watch anything if we’ve missed e.g the first episode or first season. His view is there are so many recaps that we’d figure out what had previously happened.

I just think there’s so much stuff we can watch where we can start from episode 1 - why would I bother watching something else half way through!