http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/revenge-mike-kelley-creator-leaving-show-abc/ I think he has a point. Serialized dramas don't lend themselves to 22 episode seasons and tend to suffer with the added material used to pad out the seasons. I wonder why ABC allowed LOST to have shorter seasons, but not Revenge.
Bigger hit means the Network can charge more per second of advertising. Methinks that the lost people had better contracts. Or maybe they don't have any padding to full up the lost space even if they were inclined to give into the demands of this... Why do I think everything is Dickensian?
LOST was a very expensive show. Lots of location shooting in remote areas combined with having to fly guest stars out to the islands. And the compensation for the regulars had to include a stipend for accommodations since they couldn't just go home at the end of a day's shooting. The only way to stretch the budget is fewer episodes. Plus ABC saw a decline in ratings and fewer episode helped tighten the story.
Game of Thrones also has way more location shooting and effects work and serialization in storytelling than those shots that shot 38-39 episodes per year. They can't just buy a bunch of scripts from freelancers, shove the actors in a soundstage, shoot, and be done with it like in the old days.
The Game of Thrones showrunners have said it is impossible for them to do more than 10 episodes a season. The "Blackwater" episode was barely done on time before it was aired on HBO.
Advertising revenue is not generated retrospectively. Buyer beware. What are we going to do to reverse our choices and make amends? Write an abusive letter to Ford: "Even though I didn't buy a car off you 4 years ago when I saw an ad for your new model, I wish I hadn't see the ad, and now I am certain that I will never buy a Ford because of the dehumanizing and patronizing experience.
revenge was a clusterfuck. It wanted to be an entertaining soap opera but failed to achieve that becoming a convoluted reset laden mess with a whole load of lame ass characters weighed down by yet another shadowy conspiracy. Yawn. Kelley can blame length of seasons all he wants but at the end of the day he just wasn't a good writer. as for shorter sesons it means very little. True blood, Rubicon, burn notice, the killing, damages, Dallas 2.0, the following have or had short seasons and they sucked. Bates motel has been wobbly with a ten episode season on the otherhand you had season one of heroes with twenty three episode season pulling off a near flawless season. Or tng with 26 ep seasons and managed in its middle years to be continuously good and x files seasons 1-5.
I enjoyed the first half of the first season of Revenge. It had an interesting cast, premise, writing, etc. Just an entertaining show. It all seemed to go downhill with the introduction of Amanda, who was one of the most irritating and irrelevant characters on the show. And then we had this season's Padma and Ryan brothers stories, which only succeeded in adding more useless and annoying characters to the show. Actually, this article sums it all up pretty nicely: Where Season 2 of Revenge Went So Very Wrong Did anyone notice that the last new episode (which aired three weeks ago I believe, after another short hiatus), felt different from the previous episodes? It felt like it was written, shot, and acted differently. Anyway, do I feel that there could yet be hope for this show? If they cut down on some of the cast and re-focus on Emily's vengeance in her father's name I think we could be okay. But, as the article pointed out, having so much focus on Daniel and "The Initiative" has made the show feel messy and it makes a whole lot less sense. They also have kind of ruined the character of Nolan, who was once my favorite. He still is, but stripping him of his company was a stupid move, as it takes away missed opportunities for interesting plot lines and made him less effective as...well, anything.
Disney seemed to do it just fine with his "Zorro" TV show back in the 50's, and there was quite a bit of location shooting. (Of course Disney managed to have 3 story arcs running in Season 1 with 13 episodes each, with Season 2 tending to have a number of 2 or 3 episode arcs.)
It's not like audience tastes haven't changed since the 1950s, or that there are more channels or more things taking people's attention. The world is exactly the same as it was.... So, it MUST be that the writers just aren't working as hard....
My apologies. The quoting was messed up in Enterprise is Great's post and I messed up when trying to fix it.