Seasons of television have been getting shorter and shorter in recent years. Is that good or bad for TV? Let’s discuss.
Okay, let’s be clear here from the top: I don’t truly believe that shorter seasons of television are in fact ruining TV, and plenty of great shows and seasons have come about because studios opted for shorter seasons that wouldn’t have gotten made otherwise. This kind of broad question can rarely be answered with a simple yes, no, or maybe.
However, I’ve noticed that more and more studios are trying their hand at shorter television seasons, often spending more money on each specific episode. I think it’s a cause for concern, and worth talking about.
In 2017, Bend Lindbergh wrote a great article forThe Ringerdetailing how the lengths of TV seasons had decreased over the decades, with shows often having seasons with 20+ episodes going way back to the 50s, before many dropped to 10 or 13 in the late 2010s. This happened during our current golden age of television, especially in the science fiction and fantasy space. There have literally never been more high quality, big budget genre shows on the air. It’s an amazing time to be a nerd.
However, studios haven’t stopped at 10 episodes. Nowadays it’s becoming more common to see shows with six or eight episodes per season. As with the previous downward trend, there are plusses and minuses, namely higher production values per episode at the cost of time spent with the characters. Even with longer episode lengths, it can still oftenfeellike those seasons are shorter.
It begs the question: are we reaching a floor? How short is too short for a season of television? And is pushing episode counts down into the single digits hampering storytelling?
As with any broad question, the answer varies. The right answer for “how many episodes should a season of television have” is almost certainly “however many is the right amount to tell the story well.” But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some things we can dissect.
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
The most infamous example…and a precursor of what was to come
The seventh and eighth seasons ofGame of Throneshad seven and six episodes respectively. Even though previous seasons had 10 episodes each (and HBO was pushing for a similar count for the final two seasons), showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wantedfewer episodes that were long enough to encompass events like the Battle of Winterfell, which is the longest battle scene ever filmed.
The backlash was real. There have been no shortage of discussions about how to “fix”Game of Thronesseason 8,and I think the shorter episode length are part of the issue. On paper, the of seasons 7 and 8 were fine. The issue wasn’t necessarily what happened, but that the show didn’t spend the time to make those moments, like Bran becoming king or Dany’s heel turn, feel earned.
To me, the only thingGame of Thronesseason 8 really needed was more time for quiet moments with the characters so we could better understand what they were going through at this darkest hour in the story, instead of pushing everyone along and assuming our previous investment would carry us through.
Game of Thronesitself is a unique case in basically every way. It was a turning point in this discussion, because while TV seasons had already been growing shorter before the series wrapped up in 2019, the television landscape has changed at a rapid rate since. BeforeThrones, TV seasons dipping below 10 episodes only happened in very specific circ*mstances, like the first seasons ofThe Walking DeadandBreaking Bad, which ran for only six episodes due to a writer’s strike. Those kinds of real-world reasons can still be found today, of course.Outlanderseason 6, for example, has only eight episodes due to production difficulties caused by the pandemic.
AfterThrones, however, shows seem to have taken the cue that audiences want spectacle and are willing to have fewer episodes if they can get it.The Witcheron Netflix has eight-episode seasons.The Wheel of Timeon Amazon is the same, despite its showrunnerasking the studio for a full 10 episode arc.The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Poweralso has eight, and this with a budgetso big it could do whatever it wants.
“I think eight is the new 10 now is what I’m hearing for streaming,”Raised by Wolvesshowrunner Aaron Guzikowski toldCollider; reflecting on the fact that his show dropped from 10 episodes to eight in its second season.
In the age of streaming, keeping people hooked by one show for a long period of time is less relevant than it was when shows were airing for months at a time on linear TV. Now it’s about having enough content to keep people subscribed to your platform. It behooves streamers to havemoreshows (with more seasons overall) than longer shows.
In many ways, this trend is continuing the conversation fromThrones. Does fewer episodes mean that each individual episode is going to be bigger? It could. Does it mean it’s going to be better? Not necessarily. My biggest fear here is that studios are taking these cues fromGame of Throneswithout stopping to reflect on some of the reasons why that final season received the backlash it did.
Courtesy of Amazon Studios
What’s the problem with shorter seasons anyway?
So what’s the big deal? We do have a golden era of television on right now. Isn’t this shorter season thing working?
In some cases, shorter seasons may be a good fit, but there are enough time it hasn’t to be concerned. Perhaps no show can illustrate this better thanThe Expanse, which started out with 10-13 episodes per seasons on the Syfy Channel in 2015, then settled back down to 10 episode seasons when it moved to Amazon in 2019, and then went downagainto a six-episode final season this past winter.The Expanseis one of those rare shows that actually managed to pull off having a shorter run for its last outing, but not everyone was happy about it.
One of the issues is that no amount of good writing can make up for not spending enough time with the characters. Even if the actual runtime of a season is as long as it would be if there were more episodes, the natural pauses between episodes give the illusion of a longer journey. And if the episodes are crafted so that each has its own beginning, middle, and end, then we’re getting fewer small arcs per season. It can make it harder to pay off character and story arcs because everything feels so much more condensed.
There’s just no way around this problem. Sure, if the writing and production are excellent you can quickly make audiences feel invested in characters, but this is not the same as spending more time with them. Ideally, we should have both.
Shorter TV seasons are in an uncomfortable space between a longer season and an even shorter movie. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since watchingMoon Knight, which has some issues that might be forgivable in a film, but become really distracting in a show. And since it’s ashorterTV show, I don’t know if it will have a chance to address these issues before it ends.
This isn’t an across the board thing, of course; the limited series format can work really well, like it did for HBO’sWatchmen. But again, that was 10 episodes.
(L-R): Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector/Steven Grant and May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly in Marvel Studios’ MOON KNIGHT. Photo by Csaba Aknay. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Marvel and Star Warsshows on Disney+ are the perfect control for this experiment
TheMarvel and Star Warsshows on Disney+ are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to shorter TV seasons. The first Marvel series,WandaVision, had nine episodes, and the first two seasons ofThe Mandalorianhave eight apiece. Most subsequent Marvel shows have gone down to six episodes. BothThe Book of Boba Fettand the upcomingObi-Wan Kenobiserieshave low episode counts as well.
This isn’t to say that those other series were inherently worse thanWandaVisionorThe Mandalorian(even though those are still arguably the streamer’s most talked-about series to date);Lokiin particular was excellent. And some of these shows had problems beyond the low episode counts, like The Book of Boba Fettfocusing on anybody other than its lead for half its run.
A plotline from the fourth episode ofMoon Knightgot me thinking. In the episode, Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy) discovers a secret about her father’s death that is meant to shake up the status quo. But instead it falls kind of flat. The reason, aside from some issues with the delivery, comes back around to our debate about shorter television seasons.
You see, Layla’s father is mentioned a grand total of one time inin the episodes preceding this reveal.Moon Knightis a limited series which will run for a grand total of six episodes. One of its other mysteries, whether main character Marc Spector has a third personality hiding beneath the surface, is something the show hinted at very lightly before Episode 4, with precious little time left to develop this plotline. There’s no guarantee Moon Knightwill get a second season, since star Oscar Isaac only signed on for the show as a limited series. SoMoon Knightis going to have to resolve this question in a satisfactory way sometime in the next two episodes.
It’s exceedingly difficult to imagineMoon Knightdoing that in a way that will feel full and satisfying, because no matter how you slice it, it will only feature in two episodes at most.
Image: The Last Kingdom/Ian Johnson
Time is the secret ingredient to reclaiming your lands
We’ve talked an awful lot about the dangers that can come with doing a shorter season, but let’s take a moment to reflect on a show that did the opposite, to great success. Season 5 ofThe Last Kingdomdropped on Netflix last month, and it’s gotten an incredibly good response from critics and fans alike, so much so that it’s sparked an online debate about whether it was better thanGame of Thrones.
The first two seasons ofThe Last Kingdomwere only eight episodes while the final three seasons upped the ante to 10 each. For my money, a large part of whyThe Last Kingdomseason 5 was so successful was because it took the time to make us really feel the ramifications of everything that was occurring, and what nearing the end of this journey meant to the characters. Yes, Uhtred gets to set his sights one last time on his childhood home of Bebbanburg, but as that finish line looms, he stops to question whether he’s really ready to take that leap, or if the gods are playing some kind of cruel trick on him by giving him the opportunity to reclaim his lands.
In short,The Last Kingdomtook its time to tell its story as effectively as it could. There were a few odd moments where it felt like things were moving from point A to point B too quickly, but mostly they avoided that kind of pitfall.
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
What’s it all mean?
At the end of the day, there are a million and one factors that go into deciding how many episodes a season of television will get: budget, scheduling for actors and crew, the demands and expectations of specific platforms or networks…the list goes on. For as many examples of shows where a shorter episode count muddied the waters, there are other examples where it worked out. Would more episodes ofThe Witcherhave improved its second season? Honestly, I don’t think so. It felt like the right amount for what the production was trying to achieve.
But in general, as a trend, I think episode counts are something that producers need to take a much harder look at. Shorter seasons should be a tool used for a specific reason, rather than the default for the sake of the bottom line.
Next:Have any of these 15 shows become “the next Game of Thrones”?
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As a seasoned television industry enthusiast with a deep understanding of the evolving landscape, I bring my expertise to dissect the complex dynamics of modern television seasons. Having closely followed the trends and shifts in the industry, I've observed the changing patterns in season lengths and the impact on storytelling.
The article delves into the ongoing debate about the decreasing length of television seasons and its implications for the quality of storytelling. The author acknowledges that shorter seasons have birthed noteworthy shows that might not have been produced otherwise, emphasizing the nuanced nature of this issue. To support this claim, the author references a 2017 article by Bend Lindbergh on The Ringer, providing historical context by highlighting the gradual reduction in the number of episodes per season from the 50s to the late 2010s.
The focal point is the concern arising from the recent trend of studios opting for even shorter seasons, often containing six or eight episodes. The author explores the potential trade-offs, such as higher production values per episode versus less time spent with characters, posing the question of whether there's a minimum threshold for an effective television season.
To illustrate the potential pitfalls of extremely short seasons, the article cites the controversial example of "Game of Thrones" seasons seven and eight, each having seven and six episodes, respectively. The backlash against these seasons is attributed, in part, to the perception that crucial character developments were rushed, making the moments feel unearned. The article acknowledges that "Game of Thrones" itself is a unique case but suggests it triggered a shift in the industry toward shorter seasons.
The author goes on to highlight how streaming platforms, in the age of binge-watching, prioritize having more shows with shorter seasons to keep viewers subscribed. Examples like "The Witcher," "The Wheel of Time," and "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" are cited to support the notion that eight episodes has become a new norm for streaming series.
The article posits a critical question: Does the reduction in episode count lead to more significant individual episodes, and does it necessarily translate to better storytelling? It raises concerns about whether studios are learning the right lessons from "Game of Thrones" without addressing the reasons for its final season's backlash.
The potential drawbacks of shorter seasons are further explored, emphasizing the importance of spending enough time with characters for a satisfying narrative. The author uses "The Expanse" as an example, illustrating how a six-episode final season, while well-executed, left some viewers dissatisfied due to the reduced time for character development.
The article broadens its analysis by examining Marvel and Star Wars shows on Disney+ as indicators of the impact of shorter seasons. The decreasing episode counts in subsequent Marvel series are noted, with a specific reference to "Moon Knight" and its challenges in developing key plotlines within a limited episode count.
A counterpoint is introduced by discussing the success of "The Last Kingdom" Season 5, which opted for longer seasons (10 episodes each) and received acclaim for taking the time to explore character emotions and story ramifications thoroughly.
In conclusion, the article suggests that the decision on the number of episodes in a season involves numerous factors, including budget constraints, scheduling, and platform expectations. While acknowledging instances where shorter seasons work, the author advocates for a more thoughtful approach, emphasizing that shorter seasons should serve a specific purpose rather than being a default choice for economic reasons.
