In anime viewing there is conventional wisdom that for a new series, if after 3 episodes it doesn't hook you...

In anime viewing there is conventional wisdom that for a new series, if after 3 episodes it doesn't hook you, that you should drop it, or at least shelve it.
Is the same true for Western Animation?

No in western animation you continue watching forever and never admit that it is bad.

I have a friend who does this but with one episode. She regularly decides she hates the show, then comes back later liking it when everyone is talking about how good it is. Its annoying as fuck.

SUfags will tell you that you have to sit through the entire first season before it becomes watchable.

The truth is that all of it is unwatchable.

>you have to sit through the entire first season before it becomes watchable
"It's a good show!"

The problem with this rule comes when a series falters at first and then gets amazing.
To use an Sup Forums example you may be familiar with, I find that Gurren Lagann didn't really become great until episode 8, when they actively started going to war against the beastmen and the other thing happens.
Another example, particularly relevant now, is Bojack Horseman. The first four episodes are easily the worst in the entire series, as anyone will tell you. You can't even say an episode is bad without someone going, "You think that was bad, remember the first few episodes?"

>you have to sit through the entire first season before it becomes watchable.
I have heard this about so many shows. Not just cartoons, live action like Supernatural too.

Except it's not. That's just a meme we tell shitposters to stop watching stuff.

But Supernatural get's SHITTIER as it goes on.

The truth is you can't enjoy things.

They say season 2-5 are good. Just season 1 sucks cause it took 26 episodes to find its footing.
I agree though. Watched some of it. Got to the bug episode and the racist ghost truck and dropped it.

If the first episode is garbage you better bail, though with shows like Bojack there was sort of a weird exception in that it's unclear to me if the first episode was a red herring pitch so they could get the rest of the less family guy esque episodes by or if it was to bait and switch the audience or what.

Still bailing is the best option to save yourself time, if anything is worth it you will likely hear word or get a genuine clip or recommended episode to prove it. Always be wary of a fanbase that sing praises with no evidence whatsoever to back it up.

...

I liked it from the top

If you actually believe this you should stay with your weeabo shit, don't event bother to try the Western animation.

>In anime viewing there is conventional wisdom that for a new series, if after 3 episodes it doesn't hook you, that you should drop it,

I give anime one episode.

The only exception has been Tonde Buurin, which I gave up at half an episode.

Yes, I'm an oldfag.

Case in point: the legend of korra.

It honestly depends. With anime, they usually have to take that damn long to explain whatever strangeness is going on in that particular universe/introduce characters. Recall that anime is heavy on exposition drops.

Western stuff more often uses media res or at least gets to the meat of the material pretty quickly (which also has a lot to do with western audiences/differences in how shows are produced). You can usually get what it's about much, much more quickly.

That said, especially for half hour shows (which are what, actually 22 minutes?), why not give it 3 episodes?

People actually say that? To be honest it's my first time ever hearing this. It starts out as a fun cartoon with lots of fluff, kinda like the early seasons of Adventure Time, only to progress into a plot with more continuity throughout the latter half of the 1st season.

Honestly, the only reason I can think of for someone who's into western animation not liking SU is them having their panties in a fix over a cartoon having 2 characters referred to as "she" being in a romantic relationship.

I do this with anime, manga, comics. Three rule for pretty much everything.

I've never liked the 3 episode rule for anime because I don't think it works for series longer then 12 episodes since those series can take a longer time setting things up, especially for long running series. For 2 cour series 5-7 episodes would be better and for long runners 20-25 episodes, maybe more.

I've never understood that rule.

Everything that I've loved has hooked me with one episode, and everything I've hated or been disinterested with has remained boring even after however many arbitrary episodes.