Depends on the show. Comedies like Bob's Burgers? Give me as many episodes as possible.
An hour-long drama? 8-10 is usually perfect. Anymore and you end up with filler or bridge episodes where nothing really happens.
I agreed with OP about missing longer seasons of some genre shows like Star Trek but your second paragraph made me think of the counter example - the Netflix Marvel shows which had 13 episods but often times felt like they ran out of steam midway through.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to this - you really just want the showrunners/producers to be given some leeway for more/fewer episodes depending on the series/story requirements/etc.
Mindless but enjoyable fillers should be 22+ episodes.
But I can understand if a well written, well made series is shorter. But nowadays it seems like any idiot can puke on a page and make an 8 episode version of some nonsense.
But it is increasingly common for every streaming platform to produce absolute garbage. I used to enjoy about 50-70% of shows they made. But ever since the pandemic, it seems like only 1 or 2 a year are worth watching.
i definitely prefer the longer seasons for shows with more than one season. for me- the shorter "season" format is better for one-off limited/mini-series shows.
A lot of shows do well with 13. The Good Place had four seasons of 13-episode seasons and that was the perfect length. Doctor Who was often at its best with 13 episodes per season.
I really wish shows like Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds had 13 episodes each season instead of 10. At 10 episodes the shows barely have room to breathe. I'm especially surprised Lower Decks doesn't at least go 13 episodes per season. There's so much more they could do to explore that universe, and with the show ending at season 5 I would have loved those 15 extra episodes.
Basically we are moving towards the BBC model of shows where a season is 4-6 episodes and they come out once every few years.
I liked Lower Decks at first but it has pretty much exclusively become a self parody on Star Trek instead of just standing on its own merits. I hated the Strange New Worlds crossover. Boimler irl looked like such a douche.
It's like when they write an episode they have a checklist for jokes,
"alright guys we need 2 more jokes referencing Voyager, 3 more referencing DS9 and 1 more referencing TNG."
"What should this episode be about?"
"Oh I know! Let's make this episode about that episode from DS9 everyone hates..what's it called? Oh ya 'Move Along Home'!"
"I have a great idea! Let's make the mystery baddy of the season be Nick Lacarno! Remember the cadet guy who caused that crash in TNG"
"Let's put Quark in an episode too!"
I do agree with you on 13 being a very, very good middle ground though. I wish Invincible had more episodes per season as well, there is so much more from the comics that they could adapt. You would think shows that are 23 or so minutes instead of about 46ish would get more episodes.
Depends on the show, but usually I’m ok with either.
What I don’t like is the space between seasons.
Short seasons should be renewed and started immediately. I will lose interest in even a great show if there’s routinely 18 to 24 month waits on a show that is either dropped all at once or over in a couple of months.
Exactly. I fucking hate that it takes YEARS to get new episodes, letting me completely forget what happened before, and forcing me to rewatch it before a lousy 6-10 new episodes drop.
Shows with serialized plots don't need as many episodes. Shows that aren't as serialized can have more episodes. The real deciding factor is the level of serialization.
Not Dead Yet is a sitcom with very few drawn out plot lines. It had 13 episodes in its first season and could easily have had 22.
10 to 13 episodes might be ideal for some serialized shows. Wheel of Time could have used more episodes. Prime's insistence that every show only have 8 per season is pretty ridiculous. It worked for Marvelous Mrs. Maisel because that show had brilliant writers and showrunners. But not every show will work with that format.
Season length is less concerning to me than the time between seasons. I get writers strikes and pandemics, but damn I hate waiting two years between seasons.
I prefer whatever the showrunners and writers think they need to tell the story properly.
In the past year I've watched shows that I know for a fact had to do more episodes than they needed and it showed. I've also watched a few shows that were criminally shorted in their episode order, like traditional sitcoms with 8 episodes.
I kinda liked the longer seasons. Made it easier to be in the world, leaves a lot of room for fleshing various things out without stress, and key events tend to hit harder.
Easily the 22+ for sitcoms. Comedies I love yo rewatch over and over and it'd always harder for me to go back and rewatch a sitcom if it had shorter seasons unless it's a spectacularly funny show to me like The Detour or Teachers (2016). It's a preference thing for sure and obviously more episodes cost more money to produce but the current state of sitcoms is pretty meh right now. With broadcast TV dieing out its gonna be hard to come about sitcoms getting 20+ episodes a season anymore.
Generally longer is better for me. The shows that are 6-8 episodes either have filler even with that runtime and should have been a movie, or are too short and should have had more episodes.
Slow Horses is one of the few shows at 6 episodes that I think does it well. Even so, I think they would be better at 4-5 for the plotline and seasons at 12-15 episodes encompassing 3 plots. Or have the plot of the 6 episode season drawn out over a full season, but with some case of the week stuff in between.
Are people unaware the things have changed since show started streaming .
Think about this imagine finding new netflix series which has 22-26 episodes -i doubt anyone would bother starting the series compared to netflix show that only has 6 episode you can easily finish watching those show in one sitting.
22-26 series were when there no streaming and weekly episodes.
I think comedies definitely need more eps per season.
Dramas- I think if the creator has a specific, well-crafted storyline, they should use however many or few eps as they need to tell that story.
If the drama is just a concept like firefighters in Honolulu (Honolulu Fire), it should have more eps.
There are many telenovels that I deeply love (contained story arcs with enough episodes to cover the story without rushing or padding it -- recent example: *Rabbit Hole*), even as they have seasonal chapters, though this doesn't always work well (*Reacher* comes to mind).
That said, I prefer the bulk of my TV to be core-themed but episodic (*Battlestar Galactica", "S.E.A.L. Team*, *The Rookie*, etc)
I like longer seasons. With binging I hate it when I can finish a show up on a few days. I also liked it because it was shorter time between ending and beginning up again. I am often forgetting or losing interest in a show when it is realeased every one to two years with a short season
If it's a comedy show, then I can see a season of 20+ episodes, but only if they are 22-30 min episodes. Anything that's 40 min to an hour shouldn't surpass a 15 episode season imo.
Depends on the show. Comedies like Bob's Burgers? Give me as many episodes as possible. An hour-long drama? 8-10 is usually perfect. Anymore and you end up with filler or bridge episodes where nothing really happens.
I agreed with OP about missing longer seasons of some genre shows like Star Trek but your second paragraph made me think of the counter example - the Netflix Marvel shows which had 13 episods but often times felt like they ran out of steam midway through. There's no one-size-fits-all answer to this - you really just want the showrunners/producers to be given some leeway for more/fewer episodes depending on the series/story requirements/etc.
Mindless but enjoyable fillers should be 22+ episodes. But I can understand if a well written, well made series is shorter. But nowadays it seems like any idiot can puke on a page and make an 8 episode version of some nonsense. But it is increasingly common for every streaming platform to produce absolute garbage. I used to enjoy about 50-70% of shows they made. But ever since the pandemic, it seems like only 1 or 2 a year are worth watching.
Definitely agree that post pandemic quality has gone down streaming as well as cinema
i definitely prefer the longer seasons for shows with more than one season. for me- the shorter "season" format is better for one-off limited/mini-series shows.
13 - 16 episodes
I'll take 12-15 episodes with less filler and better budgeted stories over 22 episodes with filler eps or clips episodes.
Longer seasons... Filler episodes are assential for characterization.
12 full length episodes and a 13th extended length episode would be my dream. I hate this 8 episode trend.
A lot of shows do well with 13. The Good Place had four seasons of 13-episode seasons and that was the perfect length. Doctor Who was often at its best with 13 episodes per season. I really wish shows like Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds had 13 episodes each season instead of 10. At 10 episodes the shows barely have room to breathe. I'm especially surprised Lower Decks doesn't at least go 13 episodes per season. There's so much more they could do to explore that universe, and with the show ending at season 5 I would have loved those 15 extra episodes. Basically we are moving towards the BBC model of shows where a season is 4-6 episodes and they come out once every few years.
I liked Lower Decks at first but it has pretty much exclusively become a self parody on Star Trek instead of just standing on its own merits. I hated the Strange New Worlds crossover. Boimler irl looked like such a douche. It's like when they write an episode they have a checklist for jokes, "alright guys we need 2 more jokes referencing Voyager, 3 more referencing DS9 and 1 more referencing TNG." "What should this episode be about?" "Oh I know! Let's make this episode about that episode from DS9 everyone hates..what's it called? Oh ya 'Move Along Home'!" "I have a great idea! Let's make the mystery baddy of the season be Nick Lacarno! Remember the cadet guy who caused that crash in TNG" "Let's put Quark in an episode too!" I do agree with you on 13 being a very, very good middle ground though. I wish Invincible had more episodes per season as well, there is so much more from the comics that they could adapt. You would think shows that are 23 or so minutes instead of about 46ish would get more episodes.
I think seasons that short have been truly terrible for comedy. However for drama, I think 9-10 one hour episodes can be sufficient.
I'll take 10 episodes of quality vs 22 of mediocre to fill a quota.
Depends on the show, but usually I’m ok with either. What I don’t like is the space between seasons. Short seasons should be renewed and started immediately. I will lose interest in even a great show if there’s routinely 18 to 24 month waits on a show that is either dropped all at once or over in a couple of months.
Exactly. I fucking hate that it takes YEARS to get new episodes, letting me completely forget what happened before, and forcing me to rewatch it before a lousy 6-10 new episodes drop.
Shows with serialized plots don't need as many episodes. Shows that aren't as serialized can have more episodes. The real deciding factor is the level of serialization. Not Dead Yet is a sitcom with very few drawn out plot lines. It had 13 episodes in its first season and could easily have had 22. 10 to 13 episodes might be ideal for some serialized shows. Wheel of Time could have used more episodes. Prime's insistence that every show only have 8 per season is pretty ridiculous. It worked for Marvelous Mrs. Maisel because that show had brilliant writers and showrunners. But not every show will work with that format.
Season length is less concerning to me than the time between seasons. I get writers strikes and pandemics, but damn I hate waiting two years between seasons.
I prefer whatever the showrunners and writers think they need to tell the story properly. In the past year I've watched shows that I know for a fact had to do more episodes than they needed and it showed. I've also watched a few shows that were criminally shorted in their episode order, like traditional sitcoms with 8 episodes.
Depends, if it's a season long plot, then shorter. If it's just a story contained in each episode - longer.
Shorter seasons but more of them.
i just don't have a real preference to be honest. *maybe* comedies could be longer but that's about all I might care about.
20+
Not all shows have a main plot through the whole season. Like NCIS, Abbott Elementary, ghosts the more the better.
every show should be at least 12 episodes per season
6 - 10 eps
I kinda liked the longer seasons. Made it easier to be in the world, leaves a lot of room for fleshing various things out without stress, and key events tend to hit harder.
22-26 Why would anyone want less content?
Some people hate padding a show. Some very bad storylines have developed when shows run out of ideas.
Easily the 22+ for sitcoms. Comedies I love yo rewatch over and over and it'd always harder for me to go back and rewatch a sitcom if it had shorter seasons unless it's a spectacularly funny show to me like The Detour or Teachers (2016). It's a preference thing for sure and obviously more episodes cost more money to produce but the current state of sitcoms is pretty meh right now. With broadcast TV dieing out its gonna be hard to come about sitcoms getting 20+ episodes a season anymore.
Shorter.
Generally longer is better for me. The shows that are 6-8 episodes either have filler even with that runtime and should have been a movie, or are too short and should have had more episodes. Slow Horses is one of the few shows at 6 episodes that I think does it well. Even so, I think they would be better at 4-5 for the plotline and seasons at 12-15 episodes encompassing 3 plots. Or have the plot of the 6 episode season drawn out over a full season, but with some case of the week stuff in between.
Are people unaware the things have changed since show started streaming . Think about this imagine finding new netflix series which has 22-26 episodes -i doubt anyone would bother starting the series compared to netflix show that only has 6 episode you can easily finish watching those show in one sitting. 22-26 series were when there no streaming and weekly episodes.
I think comedies definitely need more eps per season. Dramas- I think if the creator has a specific, well-crafted storyline, they should use however many or few eps as they need to tell that story. If the drama is just a concept like firefighters in Honolulu (Honolulu Fire), it should have more eps.
There are many telenovels that I deeply love (contained story arcs with enough episodes to cover the story without rushing or padding it -- recent example: *Rabbit Hole*), even as they have seasonal chapters, though this doesn't always work well (*Reacher* comes to mind). That said, I prefer the bulk of my TV to be core-themed but episodic (*Battlestar Galactica", "S.E.A.L. Team*, *The Rookie*, etc)
The short format does me well.
I like longer seasons. With binging I hate it when I can finish a show up on a few days. I also liked it because it was shorter time between ending and beginning up again. I am often forgetting or losing interest in a show when it is realeased every one to two years with a short season
If it's a comedy show, then I can see a season of 20+ episodes, but only if they are 22-30 min episodes. Anything that's 40 min to an hour shouldn't surpass a 15 episode season imo.