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When watching any TV series, On Deck will always display the actual next video (as determined by airdate, etc.), whether that next video is part of a regular season or a special. However, when using the autoplay feature, the next episode queued goes strictly in “season” order, with specials being treated as Season 0. This means that specials will never autoplay play interwoven with other seasons, and playing one special will autoplay the next special after it instead of whatever episode aired next.
Given that On Deck clearly already knows what should logically be playing next, it’s frustrating that autoplay is operating on a totally different (and much less sophisticated) algorithm. Especially for longer shows with multiple specials that are integral to the story (Doctor Who is a frequently cited example), it’s incredibly obnoxious that your only options for watching the series properly are to (1) manually back out of autoplay and select the On Deck option after every single episode just in case there’s a special that should come next; (2) manually create a playlist that interweaves the main seasons and the specials and then try to remember where you are in the playlist every time you watch more of it; or (3) memorize or otherwise keep an external note of where the various specials weave into the other seasons, and then manually switch between the main seasons and the specials as they bounce back and forth.
People have been talking about this for years, but I haven’t seen a single official response on the subject. It would be great to find out whether this is even on the radar as a bug, or if autoplay performing overly literally instead of using the same algorithm as On Deck is considered a “feature.”
