I wanted to start a new thread (there are several others) about bulk-adding episodes to lists for chronological franchise viewing, while also acknowledging the concerns you’ve raised about list abuse and performance around extensive episode lists. I understand why Trakt avoids one-click actions that could add thousands of episodes without much thought; my goal is not to encourage spammy or low-value list creation.
My use case is building a chronological watch order across related shows, where episode-level sorting actually matters. For example, I want to watch 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star, and 9-1-1: Nashville as part of a shared universe. These are the three scripted shows in the franchise, and I want to interweave their episodes by original air date so I can experience crossovers and timeline continuity in the intended release order. A show-level or season-level list doesn’t solve this, because I need individual episodes from different series combined into a single sequence.
Right now, the only way to do this is to manually add each episode, which becomes very time-consuming, even for a relatively small universe.
I’m not trying to create massive, indiscriminate lists; even something with reasonable guardrails—such as a confirmation step for adding all episodes from a season or show, limits on bulk additions, tools that still require users to manage and sort the list afterward, or even optional cleanup rules for bulk-added items—could make this possible without opening the door to abuse. If it helps address concerns, I’d also be completely fine with this being limited to Trakt VIP members.
I appreciate the thought that goes into protecting Trakt from misuse, and I wanted to offer this as a concrete example of where limited, controlled bulk episode tools could add real value while still respecting those concerns.
So more of like a collection type list? That sounds like a pretty decent idea especially with so many of the franchise shows doing crossovers where the story is interwoven in many instances.
A collection sorted by aired date should achieve this I would think.
Is there a “Collection” feature that’s distinct from lists, or are you using “collection” in a more general sense? I know Trakt used to have Collections, but I’m not sure whether they still exist or how they differ from Lists today.
Overall, I’m looking for a list of individual episodes in proper chronological order, so I can follow a shared universe in its intended sequence without having to jump manually between shows or seasons on Trakt. With something like the 9-1-1 franchise, continuity and crossovers happen at the episode level, not just between seasons, so a show- or season-based grouping doesn’t entirely solve the problem. That’s why the ability to build an episode-by-episode timeline efficiently is what I’m really after.
For example, another Trakt user created a “One Chicago” list that does precisely what I’m trying to achieve. It combines episodes from Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med, along with relevant crossover episodes from Law & Order: SVU, into a single chronological sequence. I understand that lists like this can become large, which is one of the concerns around bulk-adding episodes, but having a supported way to build something like this would be a significant value add for how I use Trakt.
Yes, I was using Collection more in the general sense but also because there was a thread elsewhere on here addressing the request for collections. This would be another reason for them to be implemented.