How long the first episode runs

What we timed, and what we did not

Episode 1 is the only length in our notes. Other episodes were not timed, so you will find no total runtime for any series on this site, and no estimate either. Multiplying an opener's length by the number of episodes would produce a tidy figure with no evidence behind it, and we would rather leave the column blank than fill it with a guess.

That limit is less of a handicap than it sounds. Episode 1 is free in every case, so its length is what you commit to when you try a series. For that one decision, it is the only number you need.

All eight, from shortest to longest

• My Wife's Dance Instructor: 48 seconds
• Under the Chief: 60 seconds
• Dragon Queen's Dark Desire: 61 seconds
• My Neighbor Stopped Closing The Blinds: 62 seconds
• My Girlfriend's Mom: 73 seconds
• Isabella's Revelation: 81 seconds
• Kiss My Enemy: 83 seconds
• Trapped Desires: Island Swap: 91 seconds

The gap between the briefest and the longest is 43 seconds. Across the whole list, a little under ten minutes would cover all eight openers, should you be the methodical type and want to work through them in one sitting.

Two shelves

The list splits neatly in two, with nothing between 62 and 73 seconds. The first four live on the one minute shelf, where the appeal is speed: you find out what a series is about almost at once. The other four live with the longer openers, where a premise has a little more time to arrange its furniture.

Neither shelf is better than the other. A shorter opener costs you less attention, and a longer one gives you more to judge by, and both cost the same at this stage, which is nothing. The second episode is free in all eight, so your real sample is larger than these times suggest, though we cannot say by how much. When you are ready to consider paying, the finishing totals take over from the stopwatch.