The increased popularity of streaming services over the past 15 years has led to the production of many high-budget television shows. Recent series such as “Severance,” “Euphoria” and “Shōgun” have budgets upward of $20 million per episode and utilize Hollywood directors to create seasons of television that rival the quality of feature films.
However, this production model isn’t necessary for a television show to be prestigious, and it negatively affects other aspects of the show more than it helps them.
A season of a broadcast television show in the early 2000s could last around 24 episodes, airing weekly for a few months. Then, after around four months of absence, a new season would premiere. Series such as “The West Wing,” “House” and “24” all consistently delivered quality episodes within this format during their runs in the 2000s.
Now, this style of release is rarely seen, and fans of shows on streaming services often must wait anywhere from two to four years for a season that lasts eight to twelve episodes.
This new model can be frustrating for television viewers, especially in cases where seasons leave off on unresolved plot threads.
“Pluribus,” created by Vince Gilligan, wrapped up its first season last year with a cliffhanger that left fans eager for another season. However, they will have to wait a while; Season 2 isn’t expected to air until late 2027 at the earliest.
This is irritating because Gilligan has proven his shows can be created efficiently while still maintaining excellent quality. He was the creator of the critically acclaimed “Breaking Bad,” a show that released new seasons every year.
But waiting isn’t the only problem with this new release model. When every show released has complex plotlines and characters, time can become a whole other issue. It can be challenging for viewers to retain the content of shows from one season to the next. By the time a few years pass, important story details may have completely left the viewer’s mind. For example, Netflix encouraged viewers to rewatch earlier seasons of “Stranger Things” during the marketing campaign for its fifth season.
This benefits the streaming services over the viewers. When a new season of a popular show is released after a multi-year break, fans of the show typically feel like they need to rewatch the previous seasons in preparation. This shoots the show back to the top 10 list on its respective platform before the new season drops.
In addition to repeat streams, this prolonged release style generates more buzz when a season is released, which can attract new subscribers for a streaming service.
Popular culture is often reshaped between the releases of popular shows, and social media communities often associate seasons of television with certain pop culture eras. This causes fans of television series to be nostalgic about where they were in life at the time of the previous season’s release. A great example is Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” When Season 5 was released, users on TikTok began posting viral videos highlighting trends popular in the summer of 2019 when Season 3 of the show came out.
While this new, sluggish release schedule seems standard for modern television, there are a couple outliers that prove prestige drama series can still be produced efficiently.
Series such as Hulu’s “The Bear” and HBO’s “The Pitt” are leading examples of critically-acclaimed dramas released yearly. These shows have runtimes that exceed those of shows with lengthy production times. “The Pitt” Season 1, which was released last year, had a runtime of around 12 hours, while the previously mentioned “Pluribus” Season 1 only had a runtime of about seven hours.
“The Pitt” has been incredibly successful for HBO among both critics and fans. Last year, the show won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series as well as the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Drama Series. Season 2 of the show premiered in January after a nine-month absence to 5.4 million viewers, a 200% increase from the last season. Episodes are releasing weekly, and the season’s 15th and final episode is set to air mid-April.
While it is true that good art takes time, good art can also be created efficiently with proper planning and management. The recent success of “The Pitt” shows that a long wait is not a requirement for prestige television.
