There's a show I still listen to, that's 20+ years old and hasn't made any new episodes for 6 years. I don't quite vibe with the newer episodes so I don't listen to them. I however, very annually and religiously, have listened to the backlog of the older shows from 2003 - 2005, 2006 - 2008 respectively. It's to a point where I know them completely by heart and know what to expect per episode.
I've listened to them at various points in my life and at different locations. They are to me, like time capsules, that rewind me back to periods in time that make me think a lot of where I was then, where things were in general, what could've been, what would've been .etc
I just can't seem to get tired of them, despite me having tried to take lengthy breaks, to listen to newer things along the way. I listen to them to sleep to, they've become white noise. The longer I go listening to them however, the more times I'm reminded of various things that isn't just the past. Things like "oh, I was at this point with someone when i listened to this episode" so it has kindof served as a callback of some sorts. Amazing how that works. That's how I resonate a lot with music in general is that I can recall things based on what songs I've listened to, that'll remind me of things based on where I've listened to them and what my surroundings were.
And this show is great at that too.
Yeah, I mean, your time is valuable and it isn't going to make it more enjoyable if you've already made your mind up about something by trudging through it more. People talk about slow build and "wait until it reaches the good part!" but quite honestly, if a show takes an awful long time to get to whatever you believe is the good part or at least the meat of the story that makes it interesting, then it's not a good show. It has bad pacing.
I have a gauge of limit as to when I personally rate or judge something. An album has 5 songs to hook me, less if the album is lesser than the standard. A show, has 5 episodes to get me invested, less if it fails the first two episodes. Movies have maybe an honest 15 - 25 minutes not counting slow logo reveals, previews .etc A game has maybe less than 2 hours to get me to want to revisit it.
So on and so forth. People will nag you about how you can't judge things so early, but again, your time is more valuable.