Whether you realize it or not, every show you love had that episode that hooked you – the point where you said "I'm all in" and never looked back from your Netflix binge.
In the old days, we didn't have the data to figure out when that was, but since we're living in the future, Netflix has got it all figured out. The streaming service has released data on exactly which episode was the turning point for a bunch of popular shows. If viewers watched this episode, they were "hooked," as Netflix put it, meaning there was a 70 percent chance they'd binge through the whole first season.
One big surprise: nobody gets hooked after the first episode, it takes at least two, which was the magic episode number for Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, The Killing, Scandal and Bates Motel.
Mad Men was closer to the opposite end of the spectrum, requiring a full six episodes before people committed, but the shows that took the longest to hook people were Arrow and How I Met Your Mother, which both took eight episodes to suck people in. It should be noted that anyone who actually watched that many episodes of How I Met Your Mother probably just fell asleep with auto-play on, otherwise they'd probably go insane.*
*Netflix did not actually release this data.
Here's the full list, via Variety.
- Arrow – Episode 8
- Bates Motel – Episode 2
- Better Call Saul – Episode 4
- Bloodline – Episode 4
- BoJack Horseman – Episode 5
- Breaking Bad – Episode 2
- Daredevil – Episode 5
- Dexter – Episode 3
- Gossip Girl – Episode 3
- Grace & Frankie – Episode 4
- How I Met Your Mother – Episode 8
- House of Cards – Episode 3
- Mad Men – Episode 6
- Marco Polo – Episode 3
- Orange Is the New Black – Episode 3
- Once Upon A Time – Episode 6
- Pretty Little Liars – Episode 4
- Scandal – Episode 2
- Sense8 – Episode 3
- Sons of Anarchy – Episode 2
- Suits – Episode 2
- The Blacklist – Episode 6
- The Killing – Episode 2
- The Walking Dead – Episode 2
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – Episode 4
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