Releasing the first two episodes of a TV show — especially a brand new one — is fairly common practice. And it makes perfect sense: What better way to rope new viewers and/or strike up some buzz than give audiences a chance to watch the premiere at their leisure? 

Dropping the finale of a TV season with less than 24 hours is something totally different. A finale is an event. Or it should be — while there was a swell of support to get the episodes out there (expected as us fans are always pining for more Korra), they were being dropped at midnight after two episodes had already aired. As a viewer, that was an overload. It’s not that the move will “affect” anything scheduling or ratings wise (although judging from how many reactions I’ve seen on Tumblr/Twitter/etc a ratings dip on Friday wouldn’t be surprising), my frustration came from people not having the breathing room to enjoy “Night of a Thousand Stars”/“Harmonic Convergence” for the awesome episodes that they were. As we’ve talked about on the podcast in the past, fandom can get swept up in the plot points and speculative questions. That’s what separates an early premiere and an early finale — one pours fuel on the conversation, the other wraps everything up and focuses fandom’s sights on the future (everyone is already wondering what Book 3 will be about). I wanted to luxuriate in the greatness of Friday’s 8pm double-header. Now we’re just done with Book 2.

– Matt