I want to skip out on the Disney Plus Skip Intro button

2 years ago

Disney Plus, I hatred your damn Skip Intro feature, and I privation I could halt its annoying, bright, immersion-breaking icon from popping up astatine the commencement of each show. It’s assaulting my eyes each week erstwhile I beryllium down to ticker Andor, and I privation determination was a mode of disabling it. Please, and convey you.

The Skip Intro fastener isn’t new, of course. The diagnostic has been available connected Netflix for years and successful Disney Plus since its motorboat successful 2019. But its quality astatine the commencement of each occurrence of Disney’s latest Star Wars TV amusement is grating connected maine successful a mode that it hasn’t with others.

Part of it has to bash with however prestige-y (sorry) Andor feels. This isn’t She-Hulk: Attorney astatine Law’s comedic riff connected ineligible dramas oregon WandaVision’s emotion missive to the American sitcom. For me, Andor is simply a “curtains closed, lights off, speakers cranked, telephone connected Do Not Disturb” experience. I privation to springiness my afloat attraction to it each week without worrying astir shaving a azygous infinitesimal disconnected its runtime.

It’s good if you skip the intro, but I privation out

And yes, it truly is conscionable a minute. Between the Lucasfilm logo, the Star Wars stinger, and the uncover of the Andor logo, you’re looking astatine astir precisely 60 seconds of instauration earlier you get into the amusement proper. It’s hardly capable to warrant leaning guardant to prime up a TV remote.

That’s if the Skip Intro diagnostic really did what it claims to do, but successful the lawsuit of Andor, it... doesn’t. Hitting the fastener doesn’t really skip each 3 of the show’s intro clips; it lone skips the Lucasfilm and Star Wars rubric cards, and you still person to ticker Andor’s logo steadily slice into view. So nary 1 wins. If you’re similar maine and privation full immersion, you get annoyed by a silly button, and if you privation to skip the intro, past you don’t get to skip the intro.

Arguments astir functionality aside, what I entity to astir astir the mode Disney Plus’ Skip Intro appears successful Andor is its design. While Netflix’s instrumentality connected the fastener appears successful a subtle-ish grey container connected the bottommost close of the screen, Disney Plus’ is eye-searingly achromatic and stands retired successful stark opposition to the blackness of Andor’s opening rubric cards. I don’t person the instrumentality required to measurement the nonstop brightness successful nits of the icon connected my (ahem) Dolby Vision HDR-equipped LG C1 OLED, but to my eye, it looks astir successful the portion of… oooh, I’d say… the burning strength of a 1000 suns?

That wouldn’t needfully beryllium the worst happening successful the world, but each week, the damn icon appears conscionable aft I’ve spent a mates minutes making my level arsenic acheronian arsenic imaginable for my “peak TV” watching experience. But past that fastener pops up. You know, successful the cinema, erstwhile the lights spell down but past determination are a mates of mildly annoying flashes of airy arsenic radical crook disconnected their smartphones*? It’s similar that, but the agleam airy is shining astatine you directly from your HDR TV with each the grace and decorum of a reversing dump truck. I travel to you for immersion Disney, and you connection maine convenience?! Please.

I travel to Star Wars for immersion, not convenience

To beryllium clear, I’m not saying that skip features similar this should vanish wholly oregon that you’re a atrocious idiosyncratic if you usage it. There are plentifulness of TV intros that are worthy skipping. As The Guardian’s Stuart Heritage argued successful 2017, astir TV amusement intros are: a) excessively damn long, b) excessively damn pretentious, and c) excessively damn boring. For each fantastic intro series successful the vein of Game of Thrones or Succession, determination are Westworld or Star Trek: Discovery’s implicit snoozefests. As Heritage argues:

“The intro to Star Trek: Discovery, for instance, is arsenic toweringly self-important arsenic thing since the archetypal bid of The Leftovers. It is simply a monument to codswallop, dripping with references to the Renaissance up to and including Michelangelo’s fresco of The Creation of Adam, acceptable to the benignant of ambient chiming they play successful gangly lifts to halt radical from freaking out.”

So, yes, Skip Intro has a spot successful the modern streaming service. So, too, does the complementary “Skip Recap” button, which I volition happily admit to making gratuitous usage of erstwhile watching astir shows, including Andor. Unless you’re coming backmost to the bid aft a agelong break, I deliberation astir recaps are excessively long, repetitive, and astatine times service arsenic insignificant spoilers by highlighting which erstwhile crippled points are going to beryllium applicable to this episode. Recap skipping is good (though, again, crook down the brightness of the icon, would you, Disney?).

If you privation to skip the preamble astatine the opening of a tv episode, past I won’t halt you. But please, Disney CEO Bob Chapek, if you’re speechmaking this, delight springiness the remainder of america a mode to opt retired of having to spot those agleam small bastard icons. Ideally connected a show-by-show basis, but I won’t accidental nary to being capable to crook them disconnected entirely. Andor slaps, and I privation to ticker it with arsenic fewer distractions arsenic possible.

*Which, to beryllium clear, is simply a precise bully thing. Please proceed to crook disconnected your smartphone successful the movie theatre. Cheers.