I remember a time when TV show seasons were about 24 episodes long.
It was like that with Star Trek, Stargate, Mash…Pretty much any show you can think of was at least 20 episodes for a really long time.
The first show that I can remember that only had 13 episodes was Daredevil. Daredevil on Netflix. I think that show was the show that started this whole short-season thing. And the seasons have only gotten shorter. Now I know they were always short in other countries, but here in the United States we got really long seasons, and I really loved that.
Now we get short seasons, and they're not just short, they're also pointed and direct. What I mean to say is that you never get an episode where people are just doing things that are unrelated to the plot. Every episode has to advance the plot completely, so you end up with a show that could be maybe 10 episodes long.
I know this can be a good thing once in awhile, but I hate the fact that it's pretty much a guarantee now. When a great show comes out, you're not going to get a show with 300 total episodes running over eight seasons. Instead you're going to get a show with something like 20 episodes running over four seasons. So ultimately you get a much shorter show. Not only that, but you get to show where we are waiting at least a year or two in order to watch a handful of episodes.
It might not be a terrible thing for everybody, but I do miss it, especially because I like science fiction and the old science fiction shows always used to have really long seasons.
I wish TV shows would start having longer seasons again.
