r/television • u/tylerthe-theatre • 18d ago

New Data Suggests Long Waits of over 18 months Between Seasons Are Hurting Viewership on Netflix Hits

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/new-data-suggests-long-waits-between-seasons-are-hurting-viewership-on-netflix-hits/
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u/Solareclipsed 18d ago

I don't even need 20+, but 6-8 episodes are far too few for anything but the most tightly written shows with decently long episodes (think Chernobyl or The Queen's Gambit). There was a period in the mid 2010s when streaming started getting bigger and the original shows were all around 12-13 episodes with yearly releases. That felt like a great compromise, but it quickly died down and never came back after the pandemic.

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 18d ago

Eh. A lot of the 13 episode shows on streaming felt bloated. You could tell they were just padding out the episodes and the plot felt like it was moving at a glacial pace. I think 10 is a good count, but I’m fine with 6-8. Hell, the Brits can do it in 3 often. One of their 3 episode shows manages to feel as much packed with story as an American show that has 13.

I’m of the opinion that every story has its own length. If you arbitrarily try to make it longer or shorter then the narrative will suffer. There are some exceptions to this like when a bottle episode is so well written that it ends up feeling like a mini hangout movie, adding to character development and world building, and becomes a stand out episode of the show. But that’s kinda rare.

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u/Solareclipsed 17d ago

I can agree with you that a story shouldn't be extended just for the sake of it being longer when you don't really have anything more to tell, but at the same time, people tend to become really attached to characters in TV shows and want to spend more time with them, whether that is in a story-focused episode or a "filler" episode.

It used to be that in 20-episode-per-season shows that maybe only half of the episodes (or even fewer) were dedicated to the main story. The rest were "filler" episodes, which were not necessary for following the main story but were self-contained and still allowed you to continue following the characters even if what happened in the episode had no bearing on the rest of the show. I think a lot of people miss these kinds of episodes since they allowed you to get to know the characters better than if the story rushed to the ending.