Funny, I think video games, on the whole, are approaching a real golden age. Sure (like you said) if you stick to the $70 titles produced by big studios you're going to have an increasingly bad time. But the quality of ""Indie"" (but not even really since Indie studios are legit full companies now) games is rising damn-near exponentially. I personally haven't felt a need to choose an ""AAA"" title over an indie title in years and not only am I saving money but I'm enjoying my time with video games more than I ever have (including childhood!) in my life.
I know what you meant but unless you're gaming there's nothing you can do with a Pixel 8 that can't be done with the 4a (though I usually reccomend the P5 because for a few dollars more you can get wireless charging and significantly better battery life).
The Pixel 5 is not much more expensive and is still a great phone with good battery life and good camera, and the last Pixel small enough to used one-handed. It also has wireless charging which is missing on the 4a.
If your friend isn't gaming or doing anything CPU-intensive the P5 is what I would reccommend today. Everything afterwords has been an incremental upgrade for significantly more money.
This is messy with 20 episodes dropping all at once, but option #1 is probably the best course of action.
Another idea: All 20 discussion threads, but posted two per day for ten days. Then after two-ish weeks, posting a season-long discussion thread.
Regardless, I like the idea of a new "So what did y'all think?" discussion thread posted a couple of weeks later for those of us who don't prefer to binge.
Funny, I think video games, on the whole, are approaching a real golden age. Sure (like you said) if you stick to the $70 titles produced by big studios you're going to have an increasingly bad time. But the quality of ""Indie"" (but not even really since Indie studios are legit full companies now) games is rising damn-near exponentially. I personally haven't felt a need to choose an ""AAA"" title over an indie title in years and not only am I saving money but I'm enjoying my time with video games more than I ever have (including childhood!) in my life.