Recap episodes are like review sessions in classes you never missed. It give the people who skip class all the time a chance to catch up.

While I understand why, it's really frustrating for those of us who actually pay attention to have to sit through the hand-holding of those who only show up after we've tested the waters first. So many people don't watch a show until it's popular to do so, and then they expect to be caught up on everything when they don't understand what's happening.

I do have to give a lot of credit to Alias' recap episode from last season. Not only was it reasonable for previous events to be explained within in the context of the episode, but there was also a new plot and the formulation of things to come. Considering the circumstances, I thought it was very well done.

das

i don't mean to hate for elitest reasons really... i just hate when i get ready to watch the "new" episode of a show i follow and its a recap...

Its kind of like going to class the day they go over the test you made a 100 on.

You must have seen that crappy Survivor recap the day before Thanksgiving. What a waste of time that was.

The recap episode of South Park was genius!

Family Ties was the only series in the history of television to entirely consist of clip shows.

How about last nights re-cap of Monica and Chandler's relationship. Blah. It seemed like a lack of anything else to do. They had a good plot with the Chandler affair with a really hot chick(unlike monica). It just felt like they didn't even try to write something for the other characters.

On the other hand I do like it for some shows. I gave up on new shows a couple of years ago. Too many that I would watch would end up getting cancelled. So I said screw it, I'll wait unti the second season. So when I know a show is going to continue, the summer before the second season is a great time to catch all the reruns of the first. Although that backfired on me this year for 24, since they didn't re-run it.

"Sorry for the clip show. Don't you fear, we've got stories for years."

very true... "now thats what i call a sticky situation"

I keep waiting for the 24 recap/clip show.

At 3:01PM Jack returns to CTU and says, "Hey everybody, remember when that bomb went off at 9:00 this morning?..."

[cut to flashback]

"Wow, that was scary, but at least we had a good laugh about it when it was over."