Comment by walterbell
3 months ago
Competitive markets provide natural death of weak content, without premature euthanasia of strong content. With on-demand streaming, viewers can stop watching if/when a show deteriorates in quality. Some shows have maintained relatively high quality over multiple seasons.
The Americans (6 seasons, 75 episodes)
Battlestar Galactica (4 seasons, 88 episodes)
Borgen (3 seasons, 30 episodes)
Burn Notice (7 seasons, 111 episodes)
The Shield (7 seasons, 88 episodes)
Slow Horses (5 seasons, 30 episodes)
WestWorld (4 seasons, 36 episodes)
The Wire (5 seasons, 60 episodes)
Star Trek: Voyager(7 seasons, 172 episodes) And they still rushed it at the end.
Yes but some badly ended, serialized, long running shows have made consumers fairly wary.
After Game of Thrones, I think the average consumer is less likely to dive in feet first without knowing the show runners have a clear plan.
I was taught that lesson during Lost. If I see a show start doing unnecessary romantic/drug/backstory scenes, I’m out.
I wish more content makers advertised that they have the whole story planned before the show starts (like Breaking Bad/Vince Gilligan). Show Horses is a good example of a modern story without much fluff.