Over the past decade, streaming services have undoubtedly shaken up the entertainment industry, allowing showrunners to ignore the 20-plus episode-per-season structure and to try out new ideas.
The way we consume media has changed significantly as well. “Binge culture,” the practice of consuming large amounts of content, whether it be movies, shows, books or social media, in a short amount of time, is the new approach.
Streaming services were designed to facilitate this specific experience, and it shows. Not just in our wallets every month, but in various aspects of a show’s writing.
When the current meta includes dropping a six, eight or ten-episode-long season all at once, it can harm a series’ overall narrative structure.
To abide by these guidelines, a show can feel either stretched thin, having to fill time over several forty-five or even fifty-minute-long episodes, or bloated, where the writers and showrunners are forced to cram various story beats into the limited timeframe.
While it ultimately comes down to what kind of story you want to tell, this structure still poses ever-present challenges for writers.
A recent example of this that immediately comes to my mind is Netflix’s “Arcane.”
Both seasons of the animated series follow a three-act structure, with each containing nine episodes. While I think this format works for the first season, as the story was more grounded and character-driven, the cracks begin to show once season two begins.
Pacing was the Achilles’ heel for the show, as it had to balance almost too many subplots and fit them into only nine episodes. This led to some of the show’s characters not feeling fully realized and some storylines ending up underdeveloped, cited by fans and critics online as a disappointing end to the series, and through the seasons’ declining ratings.
Another example of how streaming fatigue affects creative projects comes with the various mini-series that Disney+ has to offer, mainly in its Marvel and Star Wars shows.
The company has seemed to turn away from releasing another feature-length Star Wars movie after the critical failure that was 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” and has put more focus on creating mini-series to fill in the gaps of the series’ timeline.
It’s a similar case for Disney’s recent Marvel projects, with a mixed bag of one-season-long shows added to their streaming service every year since 2021.
What’s confusing to me is: why so few episodes?
While some of these narratives, “Wandavision” and “Andor,” for example, are phenomenal in their nuanced storytelling, most of these mini-series end up becoming clunky messes that we look back on and laugh at.
Shows such as “Kenobi” or “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which only have six-episode-long runs, would’ve benefited from either having a longer season to let their respective villains and supporting cast be more fleshed out or shortened to be a feature-length movie, as there are episodes in these shows that rely heavily on filler.
It’s upsetting, really. These shows I’ve listed as examples had the potential to be truly great, but were bogged down by their pacing and underdeveloped narratives.
This isn’t to say that every series suffers from streaming’s inherent restrictions. Series like “Fallout” and “Yellowjackets” that also feature seasons with shorter episode counts tell the stories they want to cohesively and creatively.
It’s not a small feat, since when it comes to tighter, more involved series like these, so much more emphasis is placed on their respective character and story arcs. The risk of a whole season being written off as “bad” after any misstep increases the shorter it is.
Social media doesn’t exactly help the overall issues of modern binge culture.
While it serves as a powerful tool for gathering a wide range of opinions on a show or movie, the content it recommends can reveal the more problematic undertones of that side of the internet.
I frequently come across videos on my feed that seem less concerned with thoughtful analysis and more focused on being the first to publish reactions.
On one hand, I can understand the reasoning behind why this happens; on the other hand, I find it deeply frustrating.
The initial buzz that surrounds the release of a new series often becomes a powerful motivator for content creation. Audiences are curious about a show’s quality. They don’t want to waste their time, so they go looking for reviews.
Yet, it frequently appears that many creators feel compelled to consume entire seasons in a single sitting, driven by the pressure to be the first to offer their commentary.
With each new release, my TikTok page seems to streamline these types of videos, turning media coverage into an arbitrary race to the bottom, where speed is prioritized over substance.
I’m thankful others share my sentiment when it comes to this niche complaint I have. I’m glad that fans and critics alike aren’t afraid to voice their strong opinions when it comes to the pitfalls of this new way we consume media.
It’s always my goal to see others become more media-literate, to not just take the shows and movies we watch at face value.
After all, visual storytelling through shows and movies is a form of expression, and shouldn’t creativity have room to flourish?