max_brown•25d agoProlific Poster

Why does nobody talk about watching shows at 1.25x speed when you're short on time?

I tried it last week with a slower drama I wanted to finish, and it actually kept the story moving without making the dialogue sound weird. Has anyone else found a specific speed that works for them?

4 comments

4 Comments

aaron_perry25d ago

Is the point of a slower drama not to soak in the mood it creates? Speeding it up feels like rushing through a meal just to be done. I tried it once and it made everything feel anxious, like the show itself was stressed out. The pacing is part of the art, and you lose that.

xena_bailey1825d ago

Yeah but sometimes the mood is just boredom, you know? I get what you're saying @aaron_perry, but not every slow scene is deep art. Some shows drag on way too long. Speeding it up a little just cuts out the empty parts. It lets me enjoy the actual story without my mind wandering off. Why waste time on filler when you can get to the good stuff?

jana88125d ago

Actually used to speed up slow shows all the time, thought it was just being smart. Then I tried it with a show like Better Call Saul, where a guy just stares at a wall for a full minute. At normal speed, you feel his dread. At 1.5x, it just felt like a weird tech glitch. Totally killed the heavy feeling they built. Changed my whole view on it.

ward.olivia25d ago

Honestly, @aaron_perry has a point about ruining the mood for some shows. But it really depends on the show itself. A lot of modern streaming stuff has so much dead air and recaps that speeding it up just trims the fat. You still get the story beats and the acting, just without waiting five seconds for a character to react. It turns a slow burn into a normal fire. I save the real speed for movies or shows I know are carefully made.