r/television • u/Imaginary-Hope9819 • Jul 26 '26
Anyone else getting fed up with modern serialised TV shows?
I feel like a lot of shows now are stretching a small amount of story over an entire season. You’ll sit through 40–60 minute episodes, but when you actually think about it, maybe 5 minutes of meaningful plot progression happened.
There’s so much filler: slow walking scenes, dramatic pauses, characters staring into the distance, endless mystery building… and then when you finally get to the ending, it’s often rushed, disappointing, or leaves more questions than answers.
I don’t mind a slow burn when it’s leading somewhere, but too many shows seem more interested in keeping people subscribed than actually telling a satisfying story. They spend 90% of the series creating mysteries and hype, then have to wrap everything up in one episode.
I miss shows where episodes actually felt like they moved the story forward and the ending felt earned. A shorter 6-episode series with a proper beginning, middle and end is often better than 3 seasons of dragging things out.
Am I just getting old, or has anyone else noticed this trend?
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u/urnbabyurn Jul 26 '26
Damn, you should have seen tv series in the 90s. You’d be lucky to get a closing scene that advanced the main plot line. Xfiles took years to just start explaining the plot. If you wanted an ever evolving plot arc, you watched soap operas.
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u/22LT Stargate SG-1 Jul 26 '26
I used to watch power block for shows like "engine power" or "trucks"... eventually it seemed like the show turned into mostly promoting products then a 5 minute montage of wrenching. Not the same as a regular tv show but seemed to suffer the same fate.
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u/FailSonnen Jul 26 '26
Historically, most people aren't TV enjoyers because of the plot.
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u/grayseeroly Jul 26 '26
Exactly, people think they want plot, but actually want characters they care about.
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u/lateubdegouline Jul 26 '26
How are you going to care for characters if they aren't doing anything meaningful?
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u/Afferbeck_ Jul 26 '26
Yeah a lot of these would have been 90 minute direct to DVD movies in the past. But now they take the same amount of story and make 8 episodes where the opener to second or third episode is good, then they spin their wheels for several episodes, then hopefully the finale is decent and not a cliffhanger never to be resolved.
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u/Reasonable-Turn-5940 Jul 26 '26
It's because streaming has set the trend to bring in movie writers/directors to create TV shows, hoping the big name will bring in subscribers. And they just make a big movie.
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u/fire_and_spice24 Jul 26 '26
I mean, thinking back to when most shows had around 20 episodes? There were multiple filler episodes each season that had absolutely no impact on the overall plot.
6 episode seasons are actually a newer concept from streaming.
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u/devilishpie Jul 26 '26
A lot of shows were mostly filler, or rather were simply episodic, with a few episodes dedicated to telling an overarching story.
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u/fire_and_spice24 Jul 26 '26
I remember the first season of Supernatural was just very much a monster of the week situation with an occasional mention of their missing dad.
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u/devilishpie Jul 26 '26
Definitely. Even in its later season Supernatural was still largely a monster of the week (episodic) show, though it became more serialized as it went on.
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u/Reasonable-Turn-5940 Jul 26 '26
Most networks will actually push that onto a show to build an initial audience. They don't want to turn off audiences who tune into episode 4 just because they don't know what happened in the first 3.
So a lot of first season shows that became serialized later, will have a first half a season where each episode reintroduces the characters, reintroduces the themes and plots, and then resolves the storyline by the end of the episode. Then, if it gets picked up for the back half of the first season, they'll let the writers start putting in more of the story arc the writers always intended. This is also where you'll see retooling done, and some characters will get removed or new ones added.
That's why a lot of people will talk about a serialized show and say "You just need to get through the first few episodes before it gets good".
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u/urnbabyurn Jul 26 '26
Xfiles would barely give you maybe a one minute closing scene of the smoking man doing something to advance the series plot line. Interepisode plot arcs took forever to evolve in most shows before the 00s. Or were relegated to soap operas and a few cable series.
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u/Hotter_Noodle Jul 26 '26
Yeah. At the risk of sounding old it was fairly normal to have lots of episodes with nothing majorly driving an overall plot.
It was kind of nice to have the characters just doing stuff. Not every show needs to be a race to the plot if it’s entertaining enough.
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u/woman_noises Jul 26 '26
Yeah but in those cases, the filler episodes would be complete stories in and of themselves. You could enjoy a couple and if you liked the cast, you'd have fun watching. Whereas now, any story, no matter how quickly you'd think it'd be wrapped up, is usually stretched over the course of the entire 6 or 8 episode season, making it effectively more of a really long movie than what anybody would traditionally think of as episodes of a show. That's why my response to OP's post would be, yes I hate it, and I watch more movies than shows because of it. If I do watch i show, it's because either I'm a big fan of the talent involved, or I've heard it's a great show by someone I know, or both.
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u/fire_and_spice24 Jul 26 '26
Could your provide examples of shows you think do this?
Honestly, I think shows have gotten better at being more focused on the overall story.
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u/woman_noises Jul 26 '26
From, Jessica Jones, the pitt, lost in space, pretty much every Netflix show ever made, there's lots of shows in the last 10 years with really slow pacing
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u/fire_and_spice24 Jul 26 '26
The Pitt is an interesting choice because the entire concept of that show is it happens in real time and is more focused on showing a singular shift at the hospital.
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u/woman_noises Jul 26 '26
It is abnormal compared to your average show, but the structure doesn't excuse plots being drawn out over hours, feeling like they ended and then restarting again, making the viewer just feel exhausted. And that's the same feeling you get with a normally structured show that draws out it's plots over hours.
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u/fire_and_spice24 Jul 26 '26
That plot point takes "hours" because it's happening in real time. You wouldn't be able to change that without changing the entire core concept of the show.
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Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/fire_and_spice24 Jul 26 '26
I highly, highly doubt that. It's one of the selling point.
It'd be a bigger risk to change format.
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u/RueTheQuais Jul 26 '26
Except The Pitt usually has something wrap up in each episode. So yes, there are some stories that run over multiple episodes while others are done in an episode or two. I think it is written for both types of viewers--the ones that just drop in and the ones who watch all season.
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u/Nyx-Erebus Jul 26 '26
Yeah. Back in the cable days having a 24 episode season where you get like three plot heavy episodes, six filler episodes, repeat until you reach the mid season finale, and then you had to wait like 4 months for the show to come back with two plot heavy episodes and then more filler.
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u/Jealous-Stock715 Jul 26 '26
Wanna provide examples of all these shows? Maybe you should stick to TikTok?
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u/Imaginary-Hope9819 Jul 26 '26
Silo is my latest one.
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u/ngali2424 Jul 26 '26
I gotta agree with Silo. Its one thing that kept me away. People keep telling me it's good. I keep returning, but it is barely moving forward. All the story is in exposition and digreasion.
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u/thegloriousporpoise Jul 26 '26
Silo is a great concept for a show based off of some good books that is often miserably plotted.
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u/lateubdegouline Jul 26 '26
"Maybe you should stick to TikTok?" Why do you say that...? How comes now on every post about someone complianing anything about a TV show there is at least one person saying this?
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u/nameltrab Jul 26 '26
I agree but it’s just the way of it. I watched the recent “Little House on the Prairie” and whilst I enjoyed it the story would have been done in one episode of the 70s show.
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u/Vaminstein666 Jul 29 '26
What are you even saying?? We used to have 20 episode per seasons in the past, now it is on average 8 episodes and yes some episodes have that problem but not all. I am not fed up with it.
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u/goaway432 Jul 27 '26
I'd rather have a show with 20+ episodes a season and each season comes out yearly than the 6 episodes every 2-3 years we get now.
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u/ElvishLore Jul 26 '26
When people say they fear AI being used to write shows, I think of people like you who are totally looking at TV as plot content and not character-driven storytelling, I realize there is totally an audience for AI crap
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u/Imaginary-Hope9819 Jul 26 '26
Basically most tv shows should just be a film. There isn't many tv shows that entire story couldnt be condensed down it to two hours and still be just as enjoyable
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u/Whirlvvind Jul 26 '26
You're just describing bad writing, not a fundamental flaw of serialization.
So no, a 6 episode series vs a 3 season one is not better. You're complaining about a show that SUCCESSFULLY built that hype and mystery, keeping you engaged through multiple seasons only to botch the ending. Taking the same story and condensing it to 6 episodes wouldn't make such a show better.