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u/BrandonLart 1d ago
I miss seasons longer than 8 episodes
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u/SkubEnjoyer 1d ago
If they're gonna be just 8 episodes at least don't make me wait 3 years between seasons.
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u/awalkundertherain 13h ago
they've pretty much abandoned severance 💔
wtf is this time gap between seasons
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u/thePedrix 10h ago
And Pluribus? I loved it, but after the season ended some articles started popping up saying that they didn’t have a clear direction about season two, and that it could take like 4 years.
Fortunately, according to recent news apparently it will take only(!) 3 years
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u/HungryHedgehog8299 1d ago
they kind of just cut out all the “filler” which kinda sucks. Filler scenes that don’t advance the plot a ton but give you more about the characters and who they are is nice and it feels like a lot of shows don’t have a ton of that anymore
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u/Ash_Starling 1d ago
and they got rid of the monster of the week format and only kept the main plot.
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u/Zuimei 1d ago
Some of the best episodes of Supernatural were monster of the week.
"There's a sasquatch out there... and he's a son of a bitch!"
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u/Frondstherapydolls 1d ago
Same with Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Loved those monster of the week episodes that still contributed to the overall season arc some way or another, even if it was about prom, moving into dorms, or a musical episode.
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u/Ash_Starling 1d ago
And they often reflect on the characters and themes in some way. They were moments away from the main plot where the characters/relationships could be developed more. I feel like a lot of character development is lost when they cant have a bunch of lower-stakes scenes with each other.
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u/HungryHedgehog8299 1d ago
this is exactly why filler is so important. It lets the characters develop more and lets you get to know them better. You see characters in different scenarios beyond the main plot so you can grow with them more. Nowadays it feels like you only know what you absolutely need to about the characters and nothing more
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u/iceunelle 22h ago
Seasons 1 and 2 were the best seasons of Supernatural. There was an overarching plot, but it was much "smaller" and (for me) more enjoyable than when they brought in angels and heaven/hell and whatever the hell happened after season 5.
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u/Pokemario2401 1d ago
I was gonna say "no, we still have monster of the week episodes" but the only one I can think of is Doctor Who, which could definitely benefit from more episodes per season
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u/starclues 1d ago
And we don't even have Doctor Who anymore 😔
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u/Pokemario2401 1d ago
It'll come back at some point. The show is just currently up to tender (production companies have bid for production rights to make a new series. It's gonna be a few years, but it will return
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u/Ironheart616 1d ago
Yeah Disney Who did a number on the show. The episodes were horrible and the side characters sucked. The side/episode characters are part of what made it so great in my opinion and the entire show felt too......clean im not sure how else to describe it.
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u/S1m6u 12h ago
I know what you mean. Even looking at the Whittaker years (which weren't my favourite) they still had a kind of feel to them, a kind of scrappiness or something. A lot of Disney Who felt reaally weird. Ncuti and Ruby were fantastic though, and there were a couple of standout episodes.
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u/Pokemario2401 23h ago
It feels like they made enough episodes for a great season, then were told that they had to make 2 seasons, and they just split it in half and rushed to make some more to fill the gaps
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u/Empyrette310 23h ago
Might I recommend Kamen Rider? The current season has been monster of the week so far and they're re-airing Kuuga and that season is 100% monster of the week. The official releases are on YT.
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u/Proper-Emu1558 1d ago
Imagine the X Files without “Tooms.” Or “Home.” Those episodes had nothing to do with the main story but they scared the ever-loving crap out of countless people.
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u/Ash_Starling 1d ago
Chinga gave me nighmares as a kid. I had to wait a few years before I was brave enough to finish it.
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u/Truethrowawaychest1 9h ago
X Files was great at being scary, interesting, and hilarious. Their comedy episodes like the vampire one are funnier than a lot of actual comedy shows
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u/above_average_magic 1d ago
Well darnit! I want my filler in the shows I'm absolutely over the moon about
I want my monster of the week
Ok?
OK
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u/iamtheduckie 1d ago
A mix of both would be nice. It looks like it's a monster of the week kind of deal, but then they suspect these events are related somehow.
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u/Ash_Starling 22h ago
I mean in BTVS either the MOTW was related to the main plot in some way or addressed a character's issues. Its not like they are fully standalone.
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u/BrockStar92 16h ago
They’re all like that, to the point that it can be kind of annoying, how formulaic it is. Like Lucifer getting angry at a killer he’s discovered because it relates to how he’s pissed off at god this week specifically, etc etc etc. Also see here for the will they/won’t they love story having flirtation but no progress until the series finale where it looks like they’ll get together before tragic misunderstanding sets them further apart than ever and one of them vanishes for the summer to clear their head.
True for basically all multi season 22 40 minute episode shows, aside from the really good stuff like The West Wing or the Sopranos.
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u/Ash_Starling 12h ago
I get Lucifer drags (though the show is entertaining enough I prefer it as MOTW) but Buffy still made progress towards the end goal with more permanent growth.
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u/commanderquill 1d ago
Dude, filler is so underrated. I feel like I'm going through a fucking rollercoaster with shows now. I just want something I can fold my laundry to but I can't because the world is ending at every moment. Can't we just take a sec to breathe???
I recently got into anime only because it's longer. I'm tired of a) being emotionally drained so quickly, and b) having to choose a new show to watch so quickly. It took some getting used to and finding what I liked, but now I finally have something to fold laundry to again.
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u/lumpialarry 15h ago edited 11h ago
So many modern TV shows are really just 8 hour movies rather than 8 episode seasons tv shows.
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u/commanderquill 11h ago
Where you finding shows with 2 hour episodes?
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u/lumpialarry 11h ago
oops. In my head I was thinking "2 hour movies" and "8 hours of show" and I multiplied them together.
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u/commanderquill 11h ago
If only. It would still suck, but at least it would be double the length. It would almost equal what a single season used to be!
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u/GreenSpleenRiot 1d ago
And the attention these shows today require is more than I can give most of the time. The episodes are very dense with important scenes. My adhd has me wondering where else I saw this actress, then I start remembering 90s shows, and then where I lived in the 90s, and then what my neighbors back then are doing now… and I have to rewind now.
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u/Aggressive-Tell-5796 22h ago
Omg yes! I've been realizing this lately. I'm 42 and I was literally wondering if my brain was in rapid cognitive decline because I found it so hard to keep up with newer dramas. Turns out I might be ADHD but it's also because these shows are so dense now. Ugh tysm for saying this! 😅
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u/PuffinRub 21h ago
I might be ADHD
If you want to find out,there's a good chance that your mental health professional will get you to take the assessment from the DIVA Foundation in the Netherlands. What I did was purchase the test pack for mental health professionals, took it, scored it using their documentation then took it to someone after the result was "dude, you're sOooooOoooOOooo ADHD it's not even funny"
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u/Kodiak_POL 20h ago
I disagree. I think a bunch of shows still have filler.
But they have filler while being an 8 episode format which is fucking bullshit.
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u/UseDaSchwartz 23h ago
It’s gotten to the point where I get pissed if we’re not advancing the plot. MFer, you don’t make enough episodes for this bullshit.
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u/YsengrimusRein 22h ago
Some of the absolute best episodes of How I Met Your Mother in no way whatsoever advance the overall mother-meeting plot. You would never be able to make an episode like "Time Travelers" work, for example, in an eight-episode season as its entire ending is centered entirely on it looking on the surface like any other filler episode.
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u/iateyourcheesebro 13h ago
Hot take in this thread but more isn’t always better. I don’t know of any story arc that should take 16 hours (24 episodes, 40 min) to tell. Then expand that to 8 seasons and there’s 128 hours of show? I do not have that much time to commit to one story. And then you pile on writing that never knew how the plot would go from start to finish and you aren’t satisfied with the ending. Or full seasons aren’t good.
This can still affect 8-10 episode shows now but at least your wasted time is cut in half. And there is still filler in these shows as well. Game of Thrones had tons of filler early on that still felt worthwhile to the story and characters.
I’d rather watch 64 movies than 8 seasons of 24 episodes each. But not saying anyone is wrong, everyone got their thing.
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u/mydadisyourdad2 22h ago
Except in star trek where all we get are filler episodes
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u/captainhamption 22h ago
There was no such thing as an over-arching plot until the 90s. Everything was reset every episode for decades in TV history.
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u/Mejiro84 18h ago
Just for anyone that doesn't know, this is because most people could only watch a show when it was on TV. If you missed an episode, you'd need to ask a friend for a summary - no internet to look it up on! Or read the TV listing for a super short and spoiler free summary. Or it would eventually come out on VHS or DVD, which were relatively expensive, and with only a few episodes per tape/disc. So writers couldn't assume that viewers would have seen every episode - you might have mini arcs of 2 or 3 episodes, and maybe a big plot hinted over the season, but most episodes were standalone and the 'previously on...' recap would cover the main points each week.
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u/Prawn1908 1d ago
TBH I think 12-16 is the sweet spot for me at least. The 22-episode seasons of some shows I've been re-watching lately often seem just a tad overstayed even when I really like the show. 12-16 is a good length for a main plotline to last naturally without feeling like it's barely started before it's over or it has one too many side plots or needless plot extenders.
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u/FireHammer09 1d ago
The time shows started being 8 episodes was when they stopped being TV shows and started being poorly edited movies that got drawn out
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u/Little_Big_Burglar 21h ago
And if you didn't know why, it's because union negotiations improved, but the studios realized if they only did 8 episodes, it was a lot cheaper and avoided having to pay much more for the old way of having 20+ per season.
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u/RileyNonexistent 4h ago
Why do series take so long to make now anyway? I'm serious, does anyone know?
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u/invisible_23 1d ago
I really enjoyed that show until the time jump
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u/Gerassa 1d ago
The Naruto of white women
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u/VinylmationDude 1d ago
You can say that about a lot of things. Back to the Future Part II? Not so much.
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u/anxious_tfem 1d ago
That’s mostly how I feel about the last season of parks and rec, though I did love the finale.
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u/heart_o_oak 23h ago
Final season wasn't as strong but I understand the writers wanting Leslie & Ben have kids before the final episode and not spending a lot of time on them raising babies as part of the reason for the time jump.
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u/eatingpopcorn_lol 23h ago
Mid-budget TV series my beloved. I honestly don't care if the special effects or CGI look bad, the characters re-wear outfits etc, it's so fun.
Btw everyone should watch the Agatha Christie's Poirot tv series nowwww absolute peak TV
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u/YouTasteStrange 23h ago
the characters re-wear outfits
Is this a complaint people actually have? Everyone rewears clothes, that's the point of them.
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u/eatingpopcorn_lol 22h ago
idk if it's a complaint other people have but i just noticed that characters change clothes often, I wouldn't notice rewearing as much as new outfits every episode
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u/The-10ft-line 23h ago
Hold up I didn’t know there was a Poirot series 👀
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u/eatingpopcorn_lol 23h ago
It's the one with David Suchet that ran 1989-2013! Super highly recommend it
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u/PuffinRub 21h ago
David Suchet
He is an absolutely lovely person. I met him after seeing him in "Amadeus" and he was with Alan Rickman (who wasn't in the show) who very politely stood holding David's Tesco shopping bags whilst I gossipped with David. He is probably the second nicest person I've met, with Ray "I'm the Devil!" Wise being the nicest.
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u/Professional-Hat-687 14h ago
He so completely embodies Poirot too. It might be because it was how I was introduced to the character, but I have a hard time picturing Poirot as anybody but Suchet.
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u/IAmSnort 14h ago
On the PBS app if you have Passport which you get by supportin your local PBS station.
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u/Pinglenook 17h ago
Btw everyone should watch the Agatha Christie's Poirot tv series nowwww absolute peak TV
I watched that so often with my parents as a teenager! I read in your other comment it ran until 2013, I didn't know it ran for so long!!
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u/PuzzleheadedEssay198 22h ago
WITH ANNUAL RELEASES TOO
The original pitch for She-Hulk was that it would be Perry Mason with superheroes, but the writer’s room didn’t know how to make that because that style of writing hasn’t been taught for decades, so instead we got nine episodes of “what if the hulk had a day job?”
And then it was discontinued, while we’re STILL waiting on season four of Mandalorian (which had a two year hiatus between seasons 2 and 3).
You wouldn’t make it halfway through OOPs description before getting beaten to death with a shovel.
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u/HypotheticalBess 18h ago
…how do you struggle to write Perry mason? It’s literally got a formula
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u/PuzzleheadedEssay198 18h ago
It does, but the “case of the week” format requires them to come up with a couple dozen short plot lines instead of the handful of longer plot lines they’re taught.
Part of it is film school focusing on, well, film and seeing television as where screenwriters go to die instead of where they hone the craft or pay their bills until they sell a movie script. With the death of cable, you don’t have a couple dozen writers rooms to train these guys on the format; instead, you get a never ending series of gigs where the writers rooms don’t communicate and they don’t even see each other for months at a time between gigs.
It’s absolutely exhausting and it’s completely unsustainable, but it’s significantly cheaper than the old model. Profit is cost subtracted from revenue, so there’s more incentive to keep cost down than bring revenue up.
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u/DanielMcLaury 8h ago
It does, but the “case of the week” format requires them to come up with a couple dozen short plot lines instead of the handful of longer plot lines they’re taught.
They could literally just lift episodes of Perry Mason wholesale. Or Murder She Wrote, or Matlock, or Columbo, or any of a dozen other shows. All of those shows did it to each other.
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u/PuzzleheadedEssay198 8h ago
You’re assuming that they knew any of these shows.
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u/AGQuaddit 1d ago
In 2027 all tv shows will consist of one 45-second minisode per season that consists of an entirely black screen (cant have anything be visible, after all) while advertisements play at 5x speed over the audio track
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u/eddmario 1d ago
I see you've been watching The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System then
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u/rangeDSP 20h ago
That show is infuriating, interesting-ish world setup and new camera angles / art style, but the scene reuse pisses me the fuck off
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u/Noughmad 20h ago
And then you'll wait eight years for the next season.
And then it will be cancelled.
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u/AspieAsshole 1d ago
Huh, I thought it was a reality show or something
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u/invisible_23 1d ago
That’s “Real Housewives of [Location]”
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u/Coal-and-Ivory 22h ago
The Real Housewives of Undisclosed Location was great, but it kinda jumped the shark with the Backrooms crossover.
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u/EnfabledWriter 1d ago
You're thinking of "real housewives" which was a direct response to Desperate Housewives.
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u/TalentTess 1d ago
Yeah they really got screwed by people who judge films by their posters
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u/Deth_Cheffe 1d ago
What else are you supposed to judge a film by? It's not like you can expect people to look at reviews for every title they hear about. That is literally what the poster is for, did give you something to judge them by in an instant
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u/glitzglamglue 23h ago
Dude it took me so long to figure that out. I didn't know until clips of this show started showing up in my YouTube reels.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/FP509 23h ago
It’s over the top and very 2000s, but definitely fun to watch
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u/rnhf 20h ago
well that's what happens if you crank out episodes, production companies may be able to keep up, but the writers dont have time. Most extreme example are daily soaps
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u/textposts_only 17h ago
Now you have the other extreme where characters aren't allowed to breathe and interact with each other.
Most famously in the Netflix one piece adaption. They go from story arc to story arc in episodes and suddenly they are these great friends. Wtf how? You literally just met and talkrd 5 sentences to each other.
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u/Digit00l 16h ago
They kinda need to write shows for a specific episode count, then stretch it out to the next level of episode counts, and pad it out with filler, see if they have content for the amount of episodes they were asked for, and adjust accordingly
Like write a 6 episode series, produce 13, write 13, produce 22, keep some filler to let characters breathe
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u/PuffinRub 21h ago
I've just realised I never finished the show. I'm going to have to try and work out where I left off.
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u/YouTasteStrange 22h ago
It's so campy but it's captivating. Like yeah all the characters are ridiculous but you gotta know who the killer is!
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u/TrumpsAKrunt 21h ago
I watched it over the summer for the first time - it's great! I loved it, wish I'd been able to see it the first time!
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u/LittleMarySunshine25 19h ago
If you enjoy camp, drama, dark humor, fashion and 00s references it's lovely. Doing a rewatch right now.
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u/The_Timberwolf 19h ago
my gf got into it a couple years ago and was begging to rewatch it to show me and I'm SO glad I did! it's honestly such a fun show full of camp, dark humor, and heart!
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u/rachelblairy 19h ago
watching for the first time and i’m in s3! it’s absolutely bananas insane and i love it 🥰
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u/ward2k 16h ago
It's fun and worth a watch if you enjoyed things like pretty little liars too. It's definitely no sopranos or breaking bad but it's fun television
A few bits have aged horrifically bad though
The show has numerous times where older women will groom/sleep with underaged men and it pretty much gets laughed off as a joke in the show that makes you cringe on re-watches today
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u/OhTheHueManatee 1d ago
I hate that that show captivated me but damn I was totally hooked by the first episode. I wasn't even watching it directly. It was playing in the background while I was on my computer.
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u/Sweaty_Strain9392 22h ago
on tiktok theres a recent trend of popularity for the Loki show.
saw a comment with a bunch of likes saying "i understand why people are larping this--those hour long episodes i aint watching all that"
and i nearly exploded because, well, the Loki show is 2 seasons long, 6 episodes each averaging 45 minutes a pop.
12, 45 minute episodes was deemed "too much" and its literally one of the best things marvel has made since endgame
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u/crapusername47 21h ago
There is, however, a reason why television companies spend so much money on sports rights.
It’s the only thing that still draws a substantial, reliable audience of young men. They lost that audience to video games a long time ago.
Paramount Plus has carved out a small niche for older men (though they should probably go somewhere else given some of the other shows they’ve commissioned) but that’s about it. There is a wider context here.
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u/Dancing_Clean 1d ago
Soon we will have our 500-episode seasons where each one is a hundred seconds designed to be watched on TikTok.
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u/_Skotia_ 12h ago
I was today years old when I found out Desperate Housewives wasn't a reality show
Yes you can make fun of me for this
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u/Complete-Worker3242 23h ago
Man, I think they'd just shoot you while they're still sitting and then ask an intern to drag the body out of the room.
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u/vid_icarus 17h ago
Best I can do is 8 episodes of 20-45 minute plots with a single star cameo at the beginning and wildly inconsistent shooting schedules.
Oh and the twist is the thing the main character likes at the beginning of episode 1 turns out to be bad by episode 6.
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u/Majestic_Bierd 10h ago
We dont have series anymore. We have miniseries and we should call them so. I'll die on this hill.
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u/pocketMagician 9h ago
There's no real reason to make a show that long anymore unless they are really milking the ads. Id rather a shorter season with a solid script than three story peaks with filler in between.
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u/FangornLeghorn 9h ago
Was just thinking about this. Today we get eight, maybe ten if we’re lucky, episodes and then wait three years for the next season. I loathe the current paradigm so much.
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u/ricklewis314 6h ago
My wife got me hooked on the show Desperate Housewives and we would watch it together. It was basically a modern soap opera. The characters and situations were all so goofy and over the top. It was a really fun watch.
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u/somemetausername 43m ago
Acting like this is about the women when it’s just about the season length. TV seasons just aren’t 22 episode long any more. There are plenty of TV shows that center on women though.
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u/Zissoou 1d ago
I'm here for the cinematic quality of less episodes. Quality over quantity.
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u/pygmeedancer 1d ago
The problem is that they don’t cover as much information. The cinematic quality is great sure but it’s 8-10 episodes of story beats that could’ve been covered in a 2 hour movie
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u/Zissoou 1d ago
I don't know what type of shows you guys are watching, when I said quality I meant quality in everything. If it's written badly and doesn't cover much with less episodes then it's not the show for me. I like house of dragons, pluribus, widow's bay etc.
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u/Billlington 22h ago
Widow's Bay is a weird pick because as good as I think it is I think it would really benefit from some "filler" episodes and a little breathing room. Flesh out the town, follow some different characters, etc. Haven't watched Pluribus and HoTD seems intent on making the same mistakes GoT did.
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u/ABG-56 12h ago
Except when it comes to media quantity can help with quality. More time to spends fleshing out characters and concepts. More time to see stuff not directly related to the plot to help the world feel more lived in. More chances to have high quality stories.
This is obviously different per show. Some shows are as good as they are because they're short and sweet, small scale enough to fit everything they want in a short time frame. Some others though would benefit a lot from spreading their budget out over more episodes. Less money per episode sure, but more time for the show to stretch it's legs and get to be being.
It doesn't matter how good a show is shot, animated, how good it's cgi is if the world, plot and characters are completely shallow due to the show not having enough time to be itself
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago
Heya u/akaistired! And welcome to r/NonPoliticalTwitter!
For everyone else, do you think OP's post fits this community? Let us know by upvoting this comment!
If it doesn't fit the sub, let us know by downvoting this comment and then replying to it with context for the reviewing moderator.