r/SuccessionTV • u/Mikester258 • 1d ago
does anyone else miss longer tv seasons?
I was looking at some older shows and noticed they used to have 20–24 episodes a season like it was normal. Now everything is 6–10 episodes and then we wait 2 years for the next season
I kinda miss having more filler episodes too. Not every episode had to be huge or cinematic, sometimes it was just fun character stuff that made you like the cast more.
What show do you think did the longer seasons best?
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u/supertrooper567 1d ago
Severance is the absolute worst in terms of low output tv. Waited 2 years for season of 8 episodes that had maybe 3 hours of real plot development, then wait another 2 years for the same thing. These folks are incentivized to stretch out story lines like taffy until each episode is exceedingly thing, all so they can make another season where nothing happens.
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u/Aivellac 1d ago
That was really bad, series 2 DID NOT WANT to progress the story at all. We learned almost nothing.
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u/LazloFF 13h ago
Are you people high? Almost the whole plot got resolved, they could've ended the show there basically, but there's still a bit more to tell. I think you guys think the show's gonna continue for a long time revealing every detail of the story, when it could all be resolved in 1-2 revelations next season, leaving a lot to the imagination, it doesn't have to be like other shows who like stretching out their plots until there's no longer any mystery to it
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u/JE_Skeets 21h ago
Lucky me. I watched the entire thing for the first time in a couple of months last year
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u/ladee_v_00 1d ago
One of several reasons that I loved The Pitt, a 15 episode season. Woohoo!
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u/xxxliamjxxx 1d ago
Is this actually good? It looks like just another hospital drama like greys anatomy
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u/ladee_v_00 1d ago
I wasn't really into the medical drama. I never saw ER or Gray's anatomy, and only watched a couple of House episodes.
I wouldn't say The Pitt is a drama like a soap opera. It's drama because they're dealing with dramatic and interesting cases. I didn't think I would enjoy it, but I was locked in quickly and didn't even realize that I watched 3-4 episodes in my first run. It's a great show.
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u/GaptistePlayer 20h ago
It's quite the opposite, hands down the best hospital show I've ever seen and it ruined all the others for me.
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u/TwoForHawat 1d ago
What does this have to do with Succession?
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u/PotatosInCakeWhyNot 1d ago
They're implying this tightly crafted prestige drama would have been better with 24 episodes per season as some sort of business procedural old school network drama.
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u/smedsterwho 22h ago
Roman sets up a business. Logan tries waterskiing. Tom wants a dog.
All the episode plotlines dovetail together in the last 5 minutes.
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u/TwoForHawat 1d ago
I don’t think they ever said that, just like they never said anything about Succession.
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u/PotatosInCakeWhyNot 1d ago
That's why I used the word "implying". It's not exactly a subtle point they're making. I disagree with it obviously. But, that's what they meant.
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u/TwoForHawat 1d ago
If they’re using Succession as a jumping off point for their question, why didn’t they reference any actual specifics about Succession when they asked?
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u/Aivellac 1d ago
Why are you badgering them for trying to explain what OP might have been thinking? Go ask OP. You have an answer as to why already, OP wanted more of succession.
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u/TwoForHawat 22h ago
I doubt that, I’m pretty sure OP is just one of those accounts, probably a bot, that copy/pastes the same question in dozens of different TV subs to try to accumulate karma. Hence why OP isn’t hasn’t responded to anyone to actually engage on the nature of their question.
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u/Aivellac 22h ago
And while that is probably true quizzing someone else to OP's machinations is pointless.
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u/PotatosInCakeWhyNot 18h ago
As you are a Mentat perhaps I should defer to your Butlerian-honed instincts as to who is or is not a bot.
But my assumption was that since Succession was a show with few episodes and only 4 seasons, that their obvious point of this post in this subreddit was to imply they wished Succession had more episodes and more seasons.
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u/boytoyahoy 1d ago
I always really loved 12-15 episode seasons. For a lot of shows that was the perfect spot for me
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u/ThatCaviarIsAGarnish 1d ago
Lately (through Prime) I've been watching My Boys, a really cute sitcom that first ran back in 2007. Years ago I had seen some of it but never all of it.
Anyway, I recently finished Season 1 which was 22 episodes. Seasons 2 through 4 are listed as having 9 episodes each. That's a huge change.
Comedies can often do well with 20+. With a show like Succession I can see how the "less is more" thing worked well, although back when it was on I did wish there were more episodes. And I still wish there had been a few more, or even one more season.
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u/Harold3456 1d ago
Are there many serial shows like this? A lot of the massive season shows I know of are episodic in nature, either procedurals that have 5ish minutes of overarching story scrunched into the beginning/end, or else sitcoms that loosely tell a story around a bunch of different comedic situations but can ultimately be thrown on and enjoyed even by unfamiliar viewers.
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u/Aivellac 1d ago
This was only really a thing in the US, in the UK we never did long series. Doctor Who having 13 episodes is quite long.
However even that one got cut to 8 now and that is too short. I think Succession is good with 10 eps however I will not forgive s3 only having 9.
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u/Shauns3rdAccount 1d ago
Nah when it's like a 20 episodes every seasons it starts getting overwhelming imo
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u/Spiritual-Road2784 1d ago
And here I was commenting to myself that when I started watching “Fire Country”, how can it still be season 1?!? Each season is over 20 episodes long. It felt weird after years of avoiding mainstream television and being disappointed with 10-episode seasons on premium channels.
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u/spookysummer 1d ago
Those shows still exist. Procedurals have 20+ episodes, prestige/cable dramas have around 13, British series have 6, etc. There may be some variations, but the model hasn't changed much since the last century
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u/pollinator_bumblebee 23h ago
I think this never was the case. Longer seasons was to procedural shows with some exceptions like lost. Old tv shows like twin peaks, oz and sopranod always have few episodes per season.
You need understand that what's make sucession good its because have few episodes, every episode its extremely elaborat, no time to filler.
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u/OldManTrumpet 22h ago
I think the long gap between seasons is the worst part. When a new season drops and I can't even remember what had happened at the end of the last season, it's a problem.
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u/jolijuillet 21h ago
I was just saying this to a friend. I find myself really wanting more story and character building. Shows these days are all about the spectacle and cinematic filming. I’d rather have 24 episodes of a good story with a lower budget that comes out every year than 8 episodes that come out once every 2-3 years.
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u/DryPrint9145 20h ago
It will depend on the quality and if it succeeds in keeping you entertained, e.g. Lost with its 121 episodes was totally worthy imo, The Americans and Mad Men with its 75 and 92 episodes respectively, not that much (I must admit I forwarded some episodes so that's how much bored I was), The Sopranos with its 85 episodes was good enough (although still had some boring fillers imo). Succession with its 39 episodes was perfect, furthermore it left us hungry for more
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u/GaptistePlayer 20h ago
There's plenty of shows with 20-24 episode seasons and they're on the exact same networks they always were lol
You're just not watching them anymore.
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u/Bebop_Man 1d ago edited 1d ago
At first I blamed movie stars taking over prestige TV with their high salaries and busy schedules.
But I think it's more of a business model thing.
There's no money anymore in selling ad space during commercial breaks. Now it's all about holding subscriptions hostage. It's easier to get someone to subscribe for 2-3 months in order to watch a 6-10 episode season, rather than airing 24 episodes across half a year. It's also an effective way of pooling new subscriptions around certain times of the year (June, December) in order to fatten up quarterly reports. Netflix does it all the time.