I find it strange because when you look at the highest rated TV series of all time, almost all of them are about 10-13 episodes long a season. Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Mr. Robot, Dark. The long-form 22-24 episode a season TV series are not as highly critically acclaimed, on average, in comparison.
I don’t mean to appeal to popularity here, but the most ‘prestigious’ of content has mostly been serialised.
I think the trope developed over the course of the TV renaissance period post-early 2000s. At the time The Sopranos S1 was released, it didn’t exist. The most interesting season of The Sopranos is S6, because it subverts expectation of a series runtime to experiment as a kind of celebration of the established universe and characters and their interactions. It is more than a pastiche of itself though, as it goes in genuinely new directions. 21 was the number of episodes which naturally suited the creative direction of the season and series, within reason of course. Not an even number or multiple of 5, not a number designed to perfectly fill a network timeslot.
GoT (earlier seasons) & Better Call Saul are great examples of shows that effectively harness the 10-episode constraint and deliver great story arcs in spite of them, as I recall. The Wire is another. I think Mr Robot S3 is harmed by the same constraint, where focus was diverted away from storytelling and toward marketability, both to studios and audiences. A different runtime could have improved the show, but by that point in the industry & culture that isn’t something that would reasonably be on the table. The more modern version of what Sopranos S6 was is Ozark S4 - forced. Format is now restricted to a ‘full length’ 10-episode season or fewer, or it is purposefully different as a contrivance of industry. And I highly doubt that was a boon for those highly rated & popular full length series, good as they are.
I find it strange because when you look at the highest rated TV series of all time, almost all of them are about 10-13 episodes long a season. Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Mr. Robot, Dark. The long-form 22-24 episode a season TV series are not as highly critically acclaimed, on average, in comparison.
I don’t mean to appeal to popularity here, but the most ‘prestigious’ of content has mostly been serialised.
I think the trope developed over the course of the TV renaissance period post-early 2000s. At the time The Sopranos S1 was released, it didn’t exist. The most interesting season of The Sopranos is S6, because it subverts expectation of a series runtime to experiment as a kind of celebration of the established universe and characters and their interactions. It is more than a pastiche of itself though, as it goes in genuinely new directions. 21 was the number of episodes which naturally suited the creative direction of the season and series, within reason of course. Not an even number or multiple of 5, not a number designed to perfectly fill a network timeslot.
GoT (earlier seasons) & Better Call Saul are great examples of shows that effectively harness the 10-episode constraint and deliver great story arcs in spite of them, as I recall. The Wire is another. I think Mr Robot S3 is harmed by the same constraint, where focus was diverted away from storytelling and toward marketability, both to studios and audiences. A different runtime could have improved the show, but by that point in the industry & culture that isn’t something that would reasonably be on the table. The more modern version of what Sopranos S6 was is Ozark S4 - forced. Format is now restricted to a ‘full length’ 10-episode season or fewer, or it is purposefully different as a contrivance of industry. And I highly doubt that was a boon for those highly rated & popular full length series, good as they are.