We look at two, three, sometimes even four or even five TV series per week, every week of the year. Not episodes, because who does not look at a handful of TV series in the same period, at one episode a week? No, two-three or even five seasons a week, always different.

Very often new, which means having to meet new characters, new worlds, new stories and new rules. But many times even seconds, third or subsequent seasons: and in this case the point is to remember those characters, those worlds etc. But above all how the previous season ended.

So sometimes, we confess it, we try. We attack the first episode of the new season, confiding in saving initial summaries, or in the fact that we will understand gradually, we are rarely even confident in our memory. But almost always, after a few minutes, we have to stop and go looking for summaries and explanations of previous endings: when we find our old pieces we feel particularly proud of ourselves, of course.

Once the case is made, we can finally enjoy our vision. Which is not always easy, so to speak.

Series for breakfast to be the first

To ensure that our reviews are read by as many people as possible, there are several fundamental rules to be respected: they must be complete but avoid spoilers, of course; They must be SEO ORIENTED, so that if you are looking for on Google “Review Series title” or “Plot Series Title” our articles are among the first results; And of course they must be timely, which almost always means that they must be published within the day of the first episode release, even when the rest of the season will be released weekly.

To achieve this, there are basically two possibilities. The first, which occurs in an unfortunate minority of occasions, consists in having breakfast in front of the screen to look at the episodes just released, as long as they came out in sufficient numbers, and then run to the computer to write our piece. Provided that we had not made some important commitment before the platform on duty revealed the release date, or worse that some unexpected happens to us.

Usually, however, it happens that we look at the preview TV series, before they come out and are available for everyone. And on this allow us to reveal some background of our profession.

The secrets on TV series previewed

For the most important TV series, broadcasters and platforms organize press conferences of presentation and projections reserved for journalists, usually in Rome or Milan, in cinema that can host or that are close to bars and clubs that can host aperitifs, light dinners, brunch, cocktails or other informal moments to drink a drink and eat a tartina with the cast members before or after the projection.

However, usually, in addition to the live presentation, in favor of those who do not work in Rome or Milan, or in any case for the series that do not have dedicated conferences, the previews are also possible in … Smart Working.

Over the past five years, the “Screener”, as the previews of the series and films sent to journalists and media are called to have the reviews within the day of the release, have evolved considerably. But you know that feeling of annoyance when what in theory is technological progress translates into reading QR Code + APPEAPPEAN DEDICATED APP previously downloaded + previously downloaded App Update + Reopening App + Access with Username and Password email + SPID Authorization + APPROVE SPID APPROP SPID SPID PASSWORD RECOVERY AND THIS POINT YOU DON’T REMEMBER WHAT DO YOU WAS TO DO? Here, more or less.

Until 4-5 years ago, the Screener consisted for the most part in private links that referred to private sites, at most with a password provided by those who sent the Screenner, and you could start vision.

Of course, there was no lack of drawbacks: because some sites were not optimized for all operating systems of all mobile and fixed devices, and therefore it was necessary to remedy with improvised solutions or resign yourself to vision experiences significantly under dignity.

Then came the apps, which have now almost completely supplanted the links. And this is where anxiety comes from access with Spid. Yes, because there are apps and apps. Some, we know only two but maybe there are others, they are very simple: when our account is authorized to the Screner, we just need to open the app, which has memorized email and password, and go looking for what we have to watch.

However, it is almost always much more complicated. Before getting to crush the play button, we must perform different operations (not necessarily all every time, but many yes): insert a numerical sequence, put the password and/or e-mail and the username and digitally accept and sign (once we have had to print sheets) agreements of non-dissemination of content and spoiler, open specific authorization apps that generate numerical sequences or ask to click on a button, re-employ the app. Screener and finally we are ready to enjoy the show. Here too, so to speak.

The problem of subtitles

There are aspects that have not changed from the time of links to that of the apps. The first, and literally more evident, is our name and/or our email that stand on the screen, with or without other data as an IP address, day and time and holder of rights. Sometimes they are few small writings, perhaps in a corner of the screen, sometimes even happens that occasionally disappear. Much more often, however, they occupy the central part of the screen all the time, we also write our home address and have such a light transparency that by placing their hand on the screen they can be read in relief.

Another feature of the Screeners that makes the vision not really simple concerns the language in which they are available. And subtitles. Because of course, with the Italian series it is simple, if you do not have small children or the paranoia that the neighbors feel the dialogues and go around revealing that they have known spoilers from us. But with the foreign series, if you are not perfectly polyglot, the matter is complicated.

First of all because there are not always available subtitles, or not for all episodes. And there are trouble if we do not juggle fluently among British accents, American accents and accents of other nationalities that speak in English. Then if we get away with Spanish, French, German, Turkish or Korean all the better.

Without subtitles, even if we know the foreign language enough not to surrender and not have to say to the chief editor that we move on to the “series for breakfast” plan, we must necessarily listen and listen to complicated scenes, at increasingly high volumes, intimating silence around us as if we were on a set, and sometimes hoping to have understood well, or resign us not to understand a joke that will surely be the architrave of the whole season.

But even with subtitles it is not a health walk. Here too, because it is not said that they are available in Italian: sometimes it happens, and we would not like to be optimistic in saying that perhaps it is happening more and more, but in general they are in English, fortunately regardless of whether the series in question is Spanish or German.

In the case of an issuer, the preview series are usually available with subtitles in languages ​​such as Slovenian, Portuguese of Portugal and Brazilian, Danish and other unlikely languages ​​(but perfectly explainable for the reference markets of the series) and not in Italian. However, even in the Screeners with subtitles it happens that perhaps the latest episodes – that in addition to the usual notice of not disseminating and pirating what you are about to see often contain notices on the fact that the episodes are still not completely definitive – they have without them. And in that case, conflicting sensations are proven.

Because on the one hand we would like to continue, to see how only the sub -tra (scene or that scene interrupted on the most beautiful ends. On the other hand, it must be considered that many times the complete preview seasons are not sent to us, and we have to do the reviews the same, so maybe it is wiser to stop and start writing, hoping that the ending that we have not seen does not make us drastically change the judgment. And wait precisely to see the subsequent episodes when they come out publicly. A surrender that is usually taken well by the spouses or cohabitants with whom some of us every now and then share evening vision on the sofa, after having made them signs with the blood of confidentiality.

The conditions to which our family members force us

Then every now and then we happen to make us escape an accidental spoiler with the children of school age and we have to explain that if they reveal that secret mom or dad will end up in prison, but it is a very frequent thing.

More often, not to say always, if we have small children or in any case people with whom we share a TV and who have their own desires, it ends that we have to see pieces, or even whole episodes, from minor screens. Smaller TV if we are lucky, but usually computers, tablets and even cell phones. Once someone was exiled to the bathroom to see a horror on Wednesday afternoon, it tells a legend.

Moreover, we cannot complain that much if sometimes our families hunt us from the big TV of the living room in front of the TV. If you have dealt at the beginning, you will have calculated that seeing an average of also “only” (many colleagues see much more) three seasons a week means that every seven days we watch around twenty hours of TV series (80 per year, 900 per year if we take a few weeks of holidays). We look to write about it, therefore by force of things with the utmost attention possible, not so much to spend time and obviously woe to fall asleep on the sofa.

Hours that we must find among other professional, family and personal commitments that we certainly cannot leave behind. And yes, we know that we are still very lucky, at least until we are replaced by artificial intelligence capable of expressing personal judgments and not to be demoralized by those who comment on the reviews and votes expressed in tenths, fifths, stars, dots, ciak, tomatoes etc. In the way that Antonella Clerici recently experienced on her own skin.

Please don’t give us the “homework”

We are lucky and we do a job we love and that for us is the most beautiful in the world. But it is still a demanding job, if certainly not from a physical point of view and according to someone not even from the mental one, unquestionably it is a job that engages a lot of time. And that, inevitably, can make us feel “saturated”.

We are happy and infinitely proud of being able to help someone decide whether or not to see a series, to discover curiosities, to understand an escaped detail, to play an ending, to know when the new season will come out.

We are also happy when asking us for advice for a series to see is a relative, a friend, a colleague who deals with anything else, or anyone who has just discovered that work we do and react by taking note of the titles that we say based on the subscriptions available, or asking us for explanations, clarifications or various news.

Only one thing puts us in crisis, in those moments. And it is when you feel compelled to reciprocate the favor.

Generally start with: “And you saw it …”. And before the question point, make the name of an epic TV series of the past, one of the few who for some reason, not necessarily registry, we have not seen at the time and we did not recover later. Or, alternatively, say the title of a current series that we have simply not seen because it is followed by some other colleague, or even just because we cannot see everything that comes out, as Borges had already understood at the time of his Babel Library, if we remember the lesson on Borges in the high school.

In any case, apart from literary quotes, the point is that we have no doubts that the series that you have seen and we are not beautiful, fantastic, unmissable. But don’t be offended if we do not remedy our lack quickly enough to be able to talk to you the next time we see you. And not even the next one, maybe.