Ask Lemmy

I feel like short seasons leads to insufficient time to know the characters, and causes writers to pack in so much plot and melodrama that it's exhausting to watch. Every second is packed too tightly , always trying to be EPIC. Miss 3 seconds in the episode? Sorry, that plot point was critical and either you go back and find it, or give up on the show. And heavy serialization also requires more of this obsessive watching and a requirement to not forget minor details between seasons. The higher production values result in 2-3 years between seasons, deepening all of the problems above: it MUST be considered epic, it MUST be tightly serialized to every minor detail, and when people don't live to watch the TV, well, they might as well cancel it.

Writers also seem like movie writers have come to TV - think up a premise, write a story arc, and then have no idea where it goes after that. The drop off after S1 is usually pretty stark, and then S2 is when it gets cancelled.

TV having 20+ episodes (almost half of the year with weekly releases) means the characters were around long enough that they can actually build meaningful on-screen relationships. Every episode didn't have to be a high stakes drama, plot, or writing. Lower budgets per episode means that writing quality, dialog, and character building takes precedence over flash, action, location, and epic camera shots.

Give me more Star Trek Deep Space 9 and less Marvel-like Star Trek Discovery.

It also deepens genre-ization. With only 10 episodes, a comedy is a COMEDY. A drama is a DRAMA. We don't have time to be experimental or weave something more complex.