The Short Season Solution (aka The British Solution)

[JirinPanthosa]

We've had threads about whether shows should have shorter runs, but what shows with long seasons should have instead have shorter seasons of six episodes per season?

The advantages are clear, the only ideas you have to use are your best ideas. Sherlock benefits from this, only having three double-length episodes per season. No need to come up with simple throwaway crimes to solve to pad out to 22 episodes, every single episode tests the boundaries of the character and brings something unique to the show. Yes, Minister, one of my favorite UK shows also benefited from its six episode seasons this way.

There are also disadvantages. You can't have a very big cast because you'll never have the time to flesh them all out. Every episode pretty much has to directly address the main story so you can't just have fun with standalone side stories like DS9 benefited greatly fun.

What American shows would benefit from these shorter seasons? I think CSI would benefit hugely. Columbo had rather short seasons too, like seven or eight episodes per season, and it made every episode stand out uniquely. CSI ends up having a lot of weird throwaway cases that blend together, when if all it had was the few really good episodes it had per season it'd be a much better show. And House seems specifically built for short seasons since it has a small rotating cast, the most interesting parts are the ones that directly address House's personal problems, and because the seasons were long most of them ended up as long repetitive drags.

Fargo also could have benefitted from an even shorter season. With six episodes instead of ten they could have told the same bsic story without stretching believability so much.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

On the other side of it, a show like Orphan Black is so fast paced & action packed, at 10 episodes it's over before you know it. It could use a 13-15 episode season.

I guess it's all down to writing. So many American shows were 24-26 episodes per season in the 70's & 80's and some of those shows went on for many years and were great.

Columbo seems to be the exception to American TV series' and was a great show too.

 

[Masiral]

What American shows would benefit from these shorter seasons? I think CSI would benefit hugely. Columbo had rather short seasons too, like seven or eight episodes per season, and it made every episode stand out uniquely. CSI ends up having a lot of weird throwaway cases that blend together, when if all it had was the few really good episodes it had per season it'd be a much better show.

That's kinda missing the point of CSI - it's not meant to be a serialized show, it's a procedural, same thing every week, dependable. Cutting down the number of episodes would be absolutely unnecessary.

The shorter season really only fits serialized shows. For shows of a more episodic format (ie, most procedurals and sitcoms), a shorter season is just unnecessary, and I don't think they would benefit from it at all.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think a lot of episodic procedurals would have hugely benefitted from shorter seasons without becoming more serialized. If only because it would have made episodes less disposable like Columbo and force them to only use their best ideas for cases without repeating themselves.

I watched CSI for the first 6 or so seasons. But IMO it's had a few great episodes per year and a lot of mediocre episodes. Imagine if it only had the great ones.

 

[Masiral]

I think a lot of episodic procedurals would have hugely benefitted from shorter seasons without becoming more serialized. If only because it would have made episodes less disposable like Columbo and force them to only use their best ideas for cases without repeating themselves.

I watched CSI for the first 6 or so seasons. But IMO it's had a few great episodes per year and a lot of mediocre episodes. Imagine if it only had the great ones.

But CSI isn't trying to be the great American crime drama. It just churns out a lot of episodes that can be rerun in syndication ad infinitum.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yes, and that's why a grand majority of the episodes are tedious and mediocre. We seem to be in agreement here, it is running long seasons due to concerns other than quality.

 

[Gaith]

Smallville could definitely have benefited from both fewer and shorter seasons, as the constant carnage of death got positively creepy by the third season. Alternatively, I'd have been fine with entire episodes without freaks or even villains at all, just pure small-town teen drama stuff, as I liked the characters enough to want to spend time with them even when not fighting evil and all that. I'm pretty sure that in the entire first two seasons we only saw the inside of a classroom once, which is absurd.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Smallville could definitely have benefited from both fewer and shorter seasons, as the constant carnage of death got positively creepy by the third season. Alternatively, I'd have been fine with entire episodes without freaks or even villains at all, just pure small-town teen drama stuff, as I liked the characters enough to want to spend time with them even when not fighting evil and all that. I'm pretty sure that in the entire first two seasons we only saw the inside of a classroom once, which is absurd.

Though that was a pretty great scene -- Clark ejaculating (sorry, a more apt word doesn't exist) heat vision at the movie screen. One of my favorite moments from the first half of the series.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ That was the first thing that popped into my head when he mentioned the classroom.

As for short seasons, Sherlock and Hustle seemed to benefit because more care was put into each episode but a run like that does feel too short.