These days with so much competing media and acclaimed series' that people tell me "I just hafta watch", my threshold is pretty low. I'd say for TV shows it's about 3-4 episodes, maybe more if the episodes are short. With books it kind of depends, but usually if I'm not hooked within the first 100 pages I'll ditch it. In rare instances the book becomes my "in betweener" book, just something I read when I'm between books. It kind of sounds like The Stand is your version of that, which is commendable. For me it was The Godfather by Mario Puzo, by god was that thing a chore to get through.
Generally though story reigns supreme, so if I'm not enjoying the story, then you'd better have some well defined characters, good dialogue, cool cinematography, or something else that makes up for your story deficiency. Even that's not a guarantee that I'll stay invested enough to watch.
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