Turning now to the very important stuff, I imagine a big reason why people aren't rushing to start watching many new serialized dramas is that the networks have a tendency to to cancel them after a few episodes. If something's good, and it isn't canceled, people can catch up later with DVDs or by using the internets.
And I imagine those of us with lovely Tivos can do what I did - just set the damn thing to record all the episodes of anything which looks decent. If something manages to survive and still sounds interesting I can just start watching.