It takes me about seven hours to recap a show from start to finish. Half of that is writing, half of that is screencapping/formatting/editing/etc. It used to take me no less than ten hours when I first started, so, hey, there’s some improvement!
Everyone has their own way of doing things, and I’ve tested out a few ways to figure out what works best for me. I personally like to watch the show on its own first, usually when it first airs, so I can have a feel of the overall episode. It helps to know what I can gloss over or skip when writing it up and what are the main scenes that need most of my attention (as well as start to mentally formulate whatever comments at the end, although those are often subject to change by the time I start writing them just depending on whatever’s left in my brain). This does mean I end up watching an episode at least a couple of times, but I’ve found that’s just easier for me than trying to watch and recap on a first go.
The Obsessive Dilettante 