I the shows had good writers there wouldn't be any need for "filler" episodes.
But all the good writers have gone to cable, where the seasons are short anyway! Which is why the shorter season = quality phenomenon may be causation, not causality. But either way, there's a correllation.
Anyway, Ive never been overly bothered by "filler," probably because I only bother watching shows I really like, generally speaking, and if I really like a show then I want as much as possible, een if its not earth shattering or obviously important to the overall arc. Sometimes its fun to just see the characters do their stuff.
And, with shorter seasons, you have less "filler" episodes of the sort people routinely complain about around here!
Well with justification. The first season of BSG was tight, well-paced and enthralling. The second season onwards it had double the number of episodes so consequently it went to shit after the first half and never recovered.
BSG's quality issues came down to lack of initial planning. The writers never bothered to give their villains a good reason to attack the colonies, which is a huge problem since that is the basis of everything that happens in the story. They could avoid dealing with that for the first season but as the show progressed, they had to twist the story into pretzels to avoid confronting the gaping illogic at its heart. Shorter seasons would have staved off the day of reckoning longer, but that day would arrive regardless, after X number of episodes.
Saying the show was better because of shorter seasons is like saying a restaurant with bad food is better because they serve smaller portions. With a strong, well thought out premise, they could have had four strong seasons. Many shows manage to have more than four high quality seasons, its not some insurmountable obstacle.
And, with shorter seasons, you have less "filler" episodes of the sort people routinely complain about around here!
Well that's partially true, sometimes a shorter season can feel like they have a lot of padding within the episodes to expand the storyline out. Take Torchwood: Miracle Day, it was a ten episode season, yet I think it could easily have been done in 5 episodes (similiar to Children of Earth) and made for a much tighter story.
The right number of episodes is determined by the premise. Some premises need five episodes and some need five seasons. This is similar to saying, what's the right length for a book? Well what book are you talking about?
With cable shows, budgets are usually lower, which means seasons are shorter, which means every episode needs to advance the story all the time.
That depends on format, not season length. Even cable has some episodic shows, generally the cop show type. Perception is a good example, that's a case of the week format with some light character arcs. Just because it has a shorter cable season doesnt mean its totally or even mainly serialized, so most of what happens each episode does not advance the arc.
Conversely, take a serialized show like Revenge. It has a long broadcast season, but the format demands that each episode advance the arc. A lower cable budget may reduce the season's length, but it doesn't determine the show's format.
