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It’s been a long thread and I’m not going to reread it. There are two salient points and I’m quite sure they’ve already been made perhaps even by me. First, it’s useful to differentiate between series which consist of essentially standalones, even if there’s an evolving narrative through them, and serials, also referred to as series, which are episodic. The first don’t need to be read in order, the second do.
The second point is that they all deteriorate over time. Some get better before they get worse; some start to lose steam almost immediately. I abandon virtually all series before they die of their own accord, or the author does. A serial is more likely to keep me reading, even if most of the entertainment has gone. Just want to see how it plays out. Not always, though.
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