The beginning of 2025 had one of the most banger stretches of TV since pre-pandemic. Severance Season 2, The White Lotus Season 3 and Invincible Season 3 were all airing at the same time. All these shows that I’m obsessed with were finally returning with their long awaited follow ups. Expectations were huge and I wanna talk about how these expectations affected my viewing experience.

In the digital world we live in, I’ve made a habit out of checking forums like Reddit after I finish TV episodes. It’s fun to experience the “moment” with fellow fans and to participate in the zeitgeist as it's happening. But this habit is largely a parasitic relationship. Reddit can be a cesspool of negativity and doom posting. I have no doubt it made my viewing experience for the aforementioned shows worse off.

Severance was probably the biggest offender. The audience demanded a lot from this comeback. And immediately I saw so much vitriol online about how slow the pacing was and how “nothing” was happening. Uh... did we watch the same season one? Because Severance has always been slow as fuck. We can’t expect season two to be exhilarating immediately just because the season one finale was.

This collective amnesia around a show’s vibe is pretty hilarious. Literally the exact same phenomenon happened with The White Lotus. I saw SO many complaints that season 3 had no plot and was meandering. THAT IS THE POINT OF THE SHOW. The White Lotus has always been a show about the characters and not the plot. Are we daft? Are we watching a show hoping it’ll be an entirely different show?

There’s a few variables at play here. The long wait times between seasons certainly do the shows no good. By the time we watch the new season we can really only recall the high points of what came before. My other crackpot theory is that these discussions suffer from new viewers who jump on the bandwagon. Not to gatekeep, but when people binge the series and then have to switch to weekly releases, it’ll be a different experience.

However, I do think there’s a flipside to this coin. TV series have a heavy burden to live up to this hype. Season one of Severance pops off, they get asked to do a season 2, and now they have to recapture lightning in a bottle. It's not crazily outlandish to suggest degredation can occur as a series continues. I hate when the sequels completely abandon what made the original great.

Severance honestly did a pretty good job. Season two expanded on the world in a smart way, raised the stakes, and answered a lot of the big questions. I kind of preferred season one’s focus on the Severed Floor and the four innies, but the story can’t linger there forever.

White Lotus did suffer from this though. Season one is pure comedy. I adored every moment of season one. But now the show is gradually becoming more of a dramedy and is taking itself a little too seriously. There's a noticeable tonal departure season by season. Still one of my favourite shows ever, but I hope Mike White corrects course a bit.

As a semi-relevant non sequitur, I HATE Reddit for spoilers. Reading episode threads as they air, everyone and their mother is theorizing what the big twist will be. Everyone wants to be the smartest person in the room. And everytime someone correctly predicts the twist and then the twist is no longer a twist. That sucks.

To wrap this up, Severance and White Lotus delivered fantastic A+ TV this year. I’m so happy we have high quality TV being made right now. And I’m staying far away from Reddit from now on. I don’t need internet strangers telling me how I should feel about specific media.