Television
8-Episode TV Shows Have Become the New Normal and It Sucks!
Long gone are the days of 20+ episode seasons and enjoyable filler content
Last month, I had a chance to catch up on some shows that I’ve been meaning to watch, like The Witcher, Hawkeye, The Sandman, and The Umbrella Academy, among others. Yeah, yeah, I know. Some of these series have been out for a few years. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who’ll put a show off for a very long time until I finally feel like exploring it. That said, I’ve started to become increasingly disappointed with this 8-episodes-per-season trend that shows are now starting to follow.
I’m not an old man, so it wasn’t that long ago that TV shows were clocking in around 20 episodes per season. Lost, The Sopranos, The Office, Arrow, and Smallville are just a few shows I remember from the 2000s and early 2010s that had longer broadcasting schedules. However, even though they had longer seasons, they were still entertaining and well-written. In fact, if you ask anybody about TV from back in the day, I guarantee that some of the shows I listed would be in most people’s top 10s.
As time has gone on, though, newer shows have evolved to accommodate the ever-changing standards of the entertainment industry. But, why is that? And have these changes created problems in the way that TV media is presented to us today?
Viewing Habits & Engagement
In the era of Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video, binge-watching has become the primary method in which most people engage with TV content. Unlike two decades ago, where we had to watch shows on a weekly schedule, streaming platforms have popularized the concept of releasing entire seasons at once. As a result, it’s easier for people to commit to a series because they know where the endpoint is. Sadly, I feel that it’s that same instant gratification that fuels the reduction in content we see in shows today.
Modern life has become very fast-paced, and we’re surrounded by various forms of stimulus at nearly all times. Consequently, fixing our attention on things for dedicated periods of time has almost become something of a challenge now. I’d even go as far as to say that viewer habits post-2015 don’t align well with weekly series anymore. With that in mind, it would only make sense that the 8-episode format works better for binge-watching than 20+ episodes.
At the same time, viewer habits and the response to those habits by production companies have created a bleed effect with disheartening implications.
Storytelling Effectiveness
Does anybody remember that 2005 series produced by WarnerBros. called “Supernatural?” It was a horror/drama series that followed two brothers by the names of Sam and Dean Winchester. These two would travel all over the country saving people from demons, ghosts, and other paranormal creatures. It ended up having a total of 15 seasons, with the last episode airing in 2020. That said, any show that manages to survive that long must have some good storytelling behind it. Right?
In the case of Supernatural? Absolutely.
With the exception of season 3, every other season of Supernatural produced an average of 22 episodes. A series that long probably wouldn’t survive in today’s streaming world, but its length is exactly what kept people engaged back then. Supernatural wasn’t just a series about Sam and Dean hunting monsters, it was also about their relationship as brothers and how they connected with everyone who came into their world. When the show wasn’t focused on a central seasonal plot, it was essentially a glorified road trip.
At the end of it all, we got to know Sam and Dean outside of their regular adventures. People found themselves relating deeply with those characters and the world at large, which is why Supernatural is still praised to this day.
All that said, one of the obvious symptoms of reducing shows into shorter formats is the effect it’s had on worldbuilding. Sure, having 8 episodes in a series allows for a more streamlined experience. However, if a season’s entire narrative is condensed into just a few hours of content, then when do you get an opportunity to immerse yourself in the fillers?
Even outside of shows like Supernatural, supporting characters and their subplots away from the main story tend to yield some of the most memorable moments. The current format, though, leaves you with nothing to come back to because it’s just a straight path from point A to point B. While I’m sure most people enjoy linear plot progression, since that’s all you can reasonably accomplish with 8 episodes, sometimes filler can tell a deeper story.
Production Shifts
As shows have become more expensive to produce, many studios don’t want to take the risk of investing in a project that’s uncertain to succeed. It’s far easier to produce a simple limited series on streaming platforms than a full season. Unfortunately, this creates situations where new shows are produced more often with hit-or-miss levels of quality. On one hand, an 8-episode series could be a top-viewed moneymaker. On the other hand, it could have a significant drop-off in viewership, in which case, losses can be cut without having wasted too much capital. But, it almost seems to incentivize writing half-baked projects just to see what sticks.
Other elements of show production, which strangely haven’t been improved by the new 8-episode format, are release schedules. You’d expect that with more than a 50% cut in content, shows would also release a lot earlier as a result. However, what we’ve seen with most recent series are release schedules of up to a year after the previous season. In some cases, that can even extend beyond a year — yes, I’m looking at you, Squid Game. Personally, smaller shows with the same production times as full-length ones just don’t sit right with me.
Among the changes we’ve seen in TV media over the last decade, the production process is perhaps the one aspect of entertainment that stands out in the worst way.
Conclusion
As sad as it is to say, I highly doubt that this condensed format of TV is going away any time soon. Even though it has noticeable flaws, it does appear to have success more often than not. Not only that, but streaming platforms are the first choices for many people. As such, there’s no reason to think that the major streaming companies would risk jeopardizing a model that works so well for them.
Wrapping up, how do you all feel about the downsizing of TV shows? Do you think that shows produced today are of lesser quality than shows produced 10 years ago? Are there any series from the 2000s or 2010s that you think would perform poorly if they were produced today? Do you believe that the 8-episode format will change sometime in the future?
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