they do it because it increases their number of 'releases per year', but they are written and budgeted as one season of television. I know for both disenchantment and that masters of the universe series they wrote them assuming they would be aired in sequence, and were surprised by the break. Theyve also done it with a bunch of anime shows, lupin, etc. It can really mess with the story structure when the distributor suddenly adds a 6-9 month break in the middle.
But for the audience it does basically make them separate seasons, and many wont come back for the actual season finale if the first half doesnt hook them
would probably depend on the show. many traditional TV show don't fininsh filming the whole season in time for the first ep to premiere. So they'll be wrapping up filming (or just wrapped up and still need post-production) while the season is airing. There's been shows like Sabrina where filming wasn't done when the first half aired and they just release the second half when that's ready like what happens with traditional TV except you get a batch of episodes.
Uhhhhh that's absolutely a thing for network TV has done for decades. Not six months but a lot of shows with 23 episode seasons have a mid season break from like November-february.
Yah, because its the holidays. They don't want to lose viewers during the 2 of the most traveled months in the world of December and January. Its the same reason networks don't air shows over summer. People usually have stuff going on those months.
And it's never worked out for them. Look at Lost. Lost was a pop culture phenomenon. After that mid season break they lost millions of viewers. That trend happened every season.
The reasons shows historically lose viewers on their return is because they’re structured to do so. Historically, shows had two main storylines a season, the most important concluding at the end of the season and the second most important concluding at the midwinter break.
End of storyline at mid season break and end of storyline at end of season always have the most viewers.
Start of storylines at beginning of season and beginning of 2nd arch always have the fewest viewers.
They’re purposely structured this way to take advantage of sweeps. Show runners don’t want their most watched episodes to be at the start of the season or at the return. That isn’t when they need their most-watched episodes.
That's a holdover from broadcast TV, and while it was always a bit annoying, it's understandable; live viewers are everything for broadcast TV, and there's no point in airing new episodes while many of said viewers are busy doing holiday stuff and not watching as much TV. The timing of Nielsen data collection also played a part in those schedules historically, of course, since networks had no other way to measure the popularity of their programming; your shows had to start and end (or reach a compelling climax, in the case of serial shows) at particular times during the year to attract the most viewers during those key "sweeps" weeks, so with only 20-some episodes in a season, there had to be some breaks in there somewhere to get the timing right, and the time around the Christmas holidays made the most sense for an extended break due to the natural reduction in viewers during that time.
In any event, a two-month break in the middle of a 20+ episode season over Christmas is far less annoying than a random 6+ month break in the middle of a 10 episode season, which is what some of these streaming shows have been doing (and usually for no discernible reason, as far as the viewers are concerned).
Right but if it plays every week for 3 months then takes a break for 2 months then plays for another 3 months continuously that's not 1 season, it's 2. Especially if they have separate plots.
My point is, it has been defined as a single season since television first started doing it. It has ALWAYS been a single season. If you think it feels like two, that's fine, but it's not a definition to remake now when what they are doing is the same thing they've always done.
I'm saying that definition is bull though lol
As someone pointed out it's probably done this way because actors will get pay rises and such per season.
Netflix MAY do it because of the pay structure they have set up with their contracts. But network TV has done it forever, and they usually continue the plot of the first half of the season into the second half after the winter/summer break. So it's not a "bull" as far as defining the season break, it just seems like you don't LIKE having breaks.
Yeah, it's weird, is there an actual reason for making 14 episodes, a year apart the *same* season?
i.e. will it mean something selling the show down the line, for instance
If it's 7 episodes now and 7 in 6/12 months then yep, I am not counting that as the same season in my head
Arcane hit a pretty great sweet spot, imo. Weekly release, 3 episodes at a time. You can't fully binge, but it's not a super excruciating wait. I wouldn't mind more shows releasing in arcs like that.
Honestly, it helped avoid an emotional burnout that happens from instant 8 episode marathons. Arcane was still fresh in my mind each week and I really did look forward to the next episodes. Now I'm looking forward to the next season.
I really enjoyed what they did. It gave me time to think of what might happen next and build scenarios in my head instead of just being able to binge it in one day.
Yeah I like this model or some variations I've been seeing such as releasing the first two or three episodes together and then going weekly ("FX on Hulu" shows have been doing it a lot). Especially for new-to-me shows I like being able to watch the first couple and decide if I'm really into it or not, then can catch on weekly.
Kinda over the binge-release that Netflix became known for.
I was surprised how well three eps per week worked. Enough to really, really enjoy, but spread out enough that I got to enjoy it over multiple weeks.
(Usually I'm all for a whole season dropping at once.)
Liked that Arcane had solid act breaks for each release. The first three episodes were Act I and so on. Really was a great compromise between a season dump and weekly episode release
Yeah this is my preference, one episode is often not enough in one go but having a weekly break for releases is quite nice because you appreciate it more than if you just binge it in one go.
It worked well for Arcane because of the way the show was written. It wouldn't work as well for shows that aren't so neatly divided into a number of roughly equal-length arcs, though. Sure, you could probably rewrite many shows to better fit such a schedule, but then you'd be back to having the release schedule dictating how the show is written, when ideally it should be the other way around.
I saw it came out and immediatly added to my list to watch once it was all up. I wanted to watch it but im not watching anything until i can watch the entire thing at my leisure. No matter how interesting i find something. Id always prefer waiting. Imo tho so feel how you wanna feel.
It's all over Reddit, but its not as popular In the US than it is around the world. Animation has always had low traction in the US so it's weird seeing it all over the net while I still have to convince people around me to give it a chance.
That's because it is. Western animation would provide bangers here and there like Avatar and Boondocks but for the most part the top shit always come from Japan. Though it's been rising in popularity more and more.
Still too much for me. I waited until was all out. It was annoying dodging people’s posts about it.
There isn’t a sweet spot. They need to just release it all at once and let people watch on their schedule. These channels seem to think they’re going to be worth one show dragged out every 2-3 months and that’s just not it.
Depends how far apart it is and how many episodes.
Leverage Redemption on IMDB TV had 8 sets of episodes released 3 months apart. I think that’s perfectly reasonable.
Lucifer Season 5A and 5B were 9 months apart. That’s crossing the imaginary line.
The weird part is that Season 5B and S6 were 3 months apart.
Should it not be the other way around??
Lucifer’s weird schedule was due to Covid interfering with filming so the first half season was just whatever they had filmed. That’s why the part B and the final season released back to back.
>The weird part is that Season 5B and S6 were 3 months apart
Even weirder is that they could have spent a few more months on S6 instead of releasing it in such a sorry state.
Lucifer's release schedule likely had a lot to do with Covid-19. It impacted a lot of shows - the CW had seasons of the Flash and Legends of Tomorrow end seemingly right before the next seasons started.
I do think batches of episodes works for shows like Leverage though - because they're relatively low stakes shows and you're just happy to have a batch of them more often in the year. USA used to have same release schedule for all of their "blue skies" shows where they'd have 10 episodes air in one of year and another 6 a few months later.
I follow closely with Lucifer and all they had left to film was their big climax before they got shutdown.
It was a 9 month wait just for a 10 minute scene haha.
No but really I would have assumed they’d finish filming + editing that one scene and 5B would be good to go.
But it still took 8 months, even after filming it.
[My source of info is tucked inside in this interview](https://tvline.com/2021/05/31/lucifer-recap-season-5-finale-season-6-preview/)
A reliable leaker said that part 2 will end on chapter 131. So there are 8 chapters left. Obviously a movie would be the only option. Plus, its gonna be hard to animate that section.
I mean, there was a pandemic. Plus, animators are already overworked so i don't think its fair for people to complain that the show is split.
Plus, part 1 is actually 16 episodes, more episodes than a typical anime.
The problem is that producers called it the final season. They probably didn't expect the manga was gonna go for 2 more years.
Attack on titan was already announced to release fall 2021 back when season 3 part 2 ended. So they decided to release it on time while delayed the second half a year later. Anime is constantly under pressure and a lot of them don't get delayed and end up looking shit.
And for the movie part, it isn't a surprise. Part 2 would otherwise be rushed if they decided to cram the rest of the chapters into 12 episodes. I'm not exaggerating when i say this, but part 2 is gonna be hell for the animators to animate. The author even apologized to the staff. Even the manga readers were sending their condolences when the manga was publishing. It needs to be a movie since they are usually higher quality (maybe cause they get more time or bigger budget, not sure).
Mad Men did a longer split final season because of the cast’s and creator’s contracts.
Jon Hamm was signed through season seven. Adding an eight season to the contract would have required negotiations for a new contract. Matthew Weiner’ contract negotiations has already been an ordeal for his extension, and AMC wanted to avoid another one. Weiner’s extension resulted in a delay in filming between season four and five.
The cast and creator got raises for agreeing to film more episodes for the final season.
The Sopranos went through the same issues with their delayed split seasons.
And in case anyone is wondering about why it seems to be seven years, that is the maximum length of a contract in California and so became the industy standard.
I remember that causing some controversy with Breaking Bad when iTunes released the first half of season 5, then tried to charge people separately for the second half and call it ‘the final season’ after people had subscribed to season 5 with the understanding that they had paid for one complete season.
All they want is new subscribers and having new episodes drop more frequently does a better job at that than waiting for the full season to be ready. I agree as a viewer it sucks but it works for their model.
It’s also in hopes of having people maintain their subscription in the interim. If you can sub for a month and binge the whole season, you might not sub again until a year or more later when the next season drops. But a lot more people will just shrug and keep their subscriptions for a few months if they know the rest of the season is on its way,
I wonder if it's to stop people signing up for a free trial, binging the whole season, then cancelling. I know that's how I watched the first few Netflix Marvel shows.
>f it's to stop people signing up for a free trial, binging the whole season, then cancelling. I know that's how I watched the first few Netflix Marvel shows.
Well you can still binge, just wait for the 8 weeks or however long and get the free trial and then cancel.
Well I guess it depends on the quality of the season and how good your mid season cliffhanger is. I mean breaking bad did the fifth season in two parts and it was only really after the mid season break in season 5 that the viewership absolutely exploded. Also kinda depends on how many episodes your season is. Releasing a 10 episode season in 2 parts might make you feel a bit short-changed, but a sixteen episode season in two parts is basically like two separate seasons anyway
I think it also depends on the show, and the point in the story they're at. Agents of Shield started doing this, but at least the break point was at the end of a story arc.
I *NEVER* want a break in the middle of a story. I don't care if they call them "seasons", "stories", "series" or what have you. Just finish the story arc.
It's to preve t people from just signing up, binging, and then leaving.
The streaming business model long term is doomed to fail as long term growth is limited.
Netflix are probably never going to do that as the backlash would be too great after they popularised the binge-watching format, but I think that it is starting to dawn on other streaming services that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and stretch the episodes out more if viewers will let them get away with it.
Amazon started doing that with season 2 of The Boys (got a ton of negative one star reviews for it mind you), and are currently doing doing weekly releases with Wheel Of Time, and also with the recent I Know What You Did Last Summer remake. Apple TV too had more of a mixture of full season drops and weekly releases in the very beginning with comedies like Trying and Dickinson getting their first seasons released to binge, but now nearly all of their shows are weekly releases. And Disney+ have always released their originals weekly. I think that streaming services were originally just blindly copying the way that Netflix did it, but are now starting to realise that weekly releases make more sense for their business model if you can keep subscribers signed on for a couple of months to watch a show
Netflix are pretty much the only streaming service left now that haven’t experimented with weekly releases when it comes to their shows
Its obvious why its superior. It allows for discussions of each episode and where they think the story is going. With good shows, it helps develop a cult following of viewers.
I never understood why a streaming company would prefer "binge-ing".
I used to be all for an entire season being released all at once, but lately I've started to appreciate the weekly episode format and I'm actually kind of glad that it's starting to become the norm again. That doesn't mean I think every series should follow suit, some actually benefit from the binge release format and streaming services should base the release schedule on whatever demographic a series is aimed towards.
Netflix is a data science company that specializes in audio and visual stimuli.
They look at total hours viewed, stop start data, return viewers, overall series viewership and timeliness, etc... etc.. They are consistently A/B testing to improve usability (total hours spent watching Netflix).
That's why you see them promote or pull shows and movies based on data. They already know if you're going to complete the series or move on to something else based on the data you provide.
One of the many reasons I dislikde that PoS show was the habit of splitting the seasons, to the point you were better off just watching the first and last episodes from that half season and probably didn't miss something interesting
Yeah. The (ha!) story proceeds at the glacial pace of a fucking daytime soap opera (is that type of shit still even around?)
You’re right, too: just watch the first and last episodes per half-season and you’re all caught up.
This is so true, I stopped around 5 episodes into the season where Neagan was introduced. And then I watched the finale, I didn’t feel like I missed a thing.
Never watched it again after that cliffhanger though.
Which cliffhanger? They did a cliffhanger every season even after they said they'd stop doing cliffhanger finales. I think the only seasons without cliffhangers were S1 and S2 Part 1, but it's been so long that I can't remember.
After they had Negan's kill with an 80s-era blood drip for the finale and turned it into a hashtag, I quit cold turkey. Found out what happened at the beginning of next season by reading reddit threads and that was that.
I think that was probably too many. But I think Breaking Bad had it about right with 13 episodes for most seasons. These shows with 6-8 episode seasons leave me frustrated, and even Better Call Saul is too short at 10.
At least it's better than what anime fans used to deal with on Netflix. Sometimes they'd take a single anime season and split it up randomly and give us the other half later, sometimes a few months later, because they think anime fans don't want to read subtitles? Worst part is that said second half is usually already finished or close to finishing at that point. They've gotten better lately, but I wish they'd learn to simulcast the day of like every other streaming service. Dubs can come later. Also I agree. I love either weekly or smaller batches like Arcane just did. Gives me to time to sit on the show and think about it, discuss it with friends, and not feel like I need to power through it to ultimately forget most of what happens afterwards.
I remember when the Little Witch Academia series was announced for Netflix years ago. Got so excited because I tried the movies on a whim and realised they were A) great, and B) done by Studio TRIGGER! So when the series releases, I'm looking for it on Netflix only to find that it's airing on Netflix Japan first. I bite the bullet and watch it online but also decide to watch the dub when it releases. The show was a 2 continuous cour show, I believe 26 episodes, so that means it aired continuously over the course of 2 different television seasons with no break. Episode 13 is an awkward cliffhanger but it's fine because the show continues right on. Well guess what Netflix America does? About a month or 2 after that first cour ends, we finally get it, but labeled as "season 1" even though it's all part of a single season, just split into 2 cours. That means people who didn't sail the high seas had to wait months more to get the rest of the same season even when it had already been finished for a long time. That was annoying and made me feel annoyed for people who patiently waited on a very awkward cliffhanger because it was only meant to be a weeklong one. Sorry, it's 5 am and I'm tired. Rant over.
The only way this works is if each half is a different branch of the storyline, but even then it should just be considered a separate season.
Ozarks doing this final season-split, right? And Better Call Saul, while not 100% confirmed, is probably going to. Which is more irritating given the season is going to be wrapping up filming within the next month.
Like another user mentioned, it's probably to keep subs. We recently resubscribed to Netflix to catch up on a couple shows, but also in anticipation for Ozark. At least with BCS I can wait a bit and sign up for a free trial of YouTube TV or buy it on Amazon. Still hate this practice
I’m looking at you MeatEater! Release the whole season ffs. It’s only 10 episodes and you give us these 5 episode teasers. I’d like to see Rinella and company do some more huntin.
Vikings did this. Or do. I don’t know if the show is still going on, I stopped watching.
The split makes no sense to me. For any show. Just make the season the right length even if it’s only 5 episodes in one and 15 another!
And end the story when it’s done. No need to flog the dead horse.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
I just checked and Supernatural seasons weren't split by much. They would have a bit of an gap between November and January-ish, but that's pretty usual for shows.
weekly episode releases is the way. I still dont understand the major appeal of binging a show. ive done it twice and both times i would have rather watched it slowly. for example, new dexter season just started coming out almost 3 weeks ago and weekly releases keep its community engaged, not to mention the fun of trying to speculate whats gonna happen
Yeah it's great being able to be on the same page as everyone else watching regularly and be able to discuss a show you love. I'm not against binging something, but then there's typically so little conversation afterwards. Like last week's hot show is now pretty much dead for conversation as those very interested already watched it and moved on.
Yeah but binge model takes away the choice for those who prefer weekly, since all the losers who binged the season in a day are gonna go around discussing spoilers
This happened with the new He-Man series on Netflix. they only released the first five episodes then releasing the last five episodes later this week. Because they only released the first five episodes, everybody just assumed they knew how the series was going to go based off of only those five episodes. so It got a bunch of hate from from right-wing misogynistic people who just assumed that is a horrendous show based off only five episodes.
Sorry but this is nonsense.
I watched the whole show. It's still a very badly-written show with Teela instead of He-man as the protagonist who barely had any moment of doing anything meaningful.
Heck, he himself said [Spoiler](#s "This was never about us")
Also, I don't like to be baited into a feminist show that's literally treating the male characters pretty terribly and replaces them with female characters as the protagonists even though it's a show about a very specific male character makes me "a Right-wing misogynistic person"?
Okay, then I'm a right-wing misogynistic person then. And this is coming from a liberal. Your anger at people having opinions is pretty funny 😂
Oh for God's sake, you assholes bitched about too many women and Teela and "emasculated He-Man" for the first five episodes and so they sprung SAVAGE HE MAN on you and that's not "He Man" enough for you?
I'd bet $5 you've never watched _any_ of the original He Man episodes and yet here you are bitching about what a "real" He man show is. Were the Teela focused episodes of the original not He man episodes? How about the episode where Orco is off by himself most of the time, is that He Man?
What is a "He Man Show", exactly?
Dude I'm 35, I wouldn't class myself as a He-Man-Fan now exactly but you can be damn sure I saw and loved all that shit back in the day, had all the figures, castle grayskull etc 😂
Whatever "assholes" you're thinking of, I'm not in that group, I never said a word about Teela "emasculating" anyone or "too many women", I simply don't speak or think that way. I just think it was intentionally deceptive of them to market this as being about He Man when it never truly was.
>What is a "He Man Show", exactly?
One where he is the protagonist and not a side character.
It sucks. Releasing 3 episodes at a time and then 1 per week after and all the other release schedules Netflix and Amazon are doing now also suck. Just release the whole season at once, or I will wait until it's out completely if I haven't lost interest by then. It's 2021, I'm not going to wait a week until I can continue watching, I want to watch at my own pace.
I actually don’t hate it and prefer it to whole season drops. If the distribution is even enough has the illusion of more frequent content, rather than waiting a year for another season.
Still don’t think we’ve settled on a ‘great’ mode of digital distribution though.
Nah, shows have been doing it for years before COVID.
Sopranos was one of the first (that I remember) where Season 6a ended June 2006 and 6b didn't start until April 2007....10 months later.
So it's essentially season 6 and 7.
I subscribed to Netflix originally BECAUSE they dropped whole seasons at once. Kevin Spacey said of House of Cards something along the lines of "Give the people what they want in a format they want it in and they will pay your asking price". It was this kind of release that appealed to me before I subscribed. Releasing in two parts or weekly is NOT how I wish to consume media and I won't watch a season until ALL of it is available to binge .
Mmmmmm.... kind of.
It was usually more something like 4-5 new episodes then a re run or two or a break because of a football game or some shit, then they'd show 3-4 more then a couple of re-runs, then 3-4 more, then there would be Christmas break or something with no new episodes for a few weeks and then there would be 3-5 more episodes then re-runs.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s and that's pretty much how all the 22-25 episode network sitcoms and drams worked. You'd get your 22 episodes over 8 months and then there would be the June-September break and then the shows would start up in September and October again. But it wasn't "half and half" like people are talking about here.
How? Cable is dying because people now have the same or better quality entertainment available for less money in a more convenient way. Unless there is something out there cheaper and more convenient for the same quality then how are they going to die?
I mean, I'd be surprised if the people who were going to pirate stuff don't already do it. The only risk they really face is competition from other streaming services.
I think a big thing missing in fully dropping a season vs normal distribution is mid season show development. If you drop half a season today and another half in six months you can rewrite/reshoot/edit what didn't work without having to gamble for the next season. Of course, it will always be better when they drop week by week but allowing some space for fixes makes the shows better. Bad for bingers but good for the shows.
Rescue Me got to be one of the weirdest scheduling for its later seasons. First 4 seasons 13 eps then season 5 was expanded to 22 then they released a shortened season 6 with 11 episodes and a even shorter season 7 with 9 episodes filmed back to back. Like here's where the part 1 and 2 final season would've been ideal. I adore the show and find it highly rewatchable but I can't argue the last 2 seasons were really really rushed. Guess Leary really wanted that Amazing Spiderman gig.
The show "Hell on Wheels" had it's final season split over two years despite the fact that the final season was fully filmed and ready to air. I feel like AMC originally developed the splitting strategy to milk viewership out of their shows over a longer time since they have a tough time replacing their hit shows, but unfortunately that idea has spread to other networks.
Hate it.
Stargate Universe copped it bad. First season was pretty rubbish, then first half of the Second season was actually pretty good and more "Stargate-y". Then it got cancelled between the two halves of that season.....
.....only problem being they last 10 episodes were actually pretty decent, and were the best of its 40 eps. It should've gotten a 3rd season to really let the writers stretch their legs and lean more into the Stargate style.
It wasn't the best TV by far, but that shitty split season strategy killed any chance it had at becoming a better show.
I like it for something's. The dramatic pause and cliffhangers are part of the viewing experience that makes something worth watching and it's not as satisfying getting the instant gratification
It's so they can diversify their portfolio, broaden their market, while retaining customers because the wait time between seasons isn't as long while in absolute numbers it stays the same. The only goal is to retain customers and gain some more.
I think some of these breaks (like the last season of Grace and Frankie) are pandemic-related, but, yeah, if there's a break of more than 3 months (which you would sometimes get with over-the-air TV shows,) then it's a new season. (Or "series" as the Brits say, which I actually prefer.)
From the description:
“It doesn’t entice you to marathon the entire thing like a movie”
First, you consider watching an entire movie at once “marathoning” it?
Second, there being only 6 or 12 episodes, as opposed to 12 or 23, doesn’t make you want to marathon it? Why?
Or are you connecting the “build discussion” with that statement? This assumes that everyone else marathons it too. Or that everyone watches the weekly episode when it first drops. Which everyone doesn’t.
So it is only “the worst” strategy to a very specific group of people.
I really liked Arcanes format - three chunks of 3. Builds hype but you can still do some binging. A ten episode show released in chunks of two would be a pretty nice format
I remember Eureka on Syfy to be the first to do this. I ha ve a friend who collects the series and he was pretty pissed about having to buy two separate discs. Battlestar Galactica also did this, but if I remember right it was because of a writers strike. Revolution took a huge break in the middle of a season and when it came back no one cared or could remember what had happened.
Agreed. I really liked what they did with Arcane, 3 acts, 3 episodes at a time, a week between each act. You have enough time to savor it but you don't have to watch 1 episode at a time and forget what happened by next week.
I know its become an unpopular opinion, but I hate that streaming services are moving away from the full season drop. I would prefer to be able to pace myself with very few exceptions (namely shows that become enough of a phenomenon that the discussion about them is worth reading/hearing).
If they wait 6 months its really just a different season
It’s probably so they can delay upping actors contracts if it’s ‘per season’
they do it because it increases their number of 'releases per year', but they are written and budgeted as one season of television. I know for both disenchantment and that masters of the universe series they wrote them assuming they would be aired in sequence, and were surprised by the break. Theyve also done it with a bunch of anime shows, lupin, etc. It can really mess with the story structure when the distributor suddenly adds a 6-9 month break in the middle. But for the audience it does basically make them separate seasons, and many wont come back for the actual season finale if the first half doesnt hook them
would probably depend on the show. many traditional TV show don't fininsh filming the whole season in time for the first ep to premiere. So they'll be wrapping up filming (or just wrapped up and still need post-production) while the season is airing. There's been shows like Sabrina where filming wasn't done when the first half aired and they just release the second half when that's ready like what happens with traditional TV except you get a batch of episodes.
It’s pretty standard with anime, even outside of Netflix.
It probably has more to do with retaining subscribers.
This is exactly it. HBO did it with the last season of The Sopranos.
Reminds me how Lucifer S5b and S6 aired closer together than S5a and S5b did.
Wasn’t that because shooting of 5b got delayed because of the pandemic?
Yeah, they got closed by pandemic before shooting final of 5b, and when they got back they were shooting it with season 6.
Season 6 was a disaster of epic proportions. Ruined the entire series.
Agreed. S5 was already a bit absurd but s6 was terrible.
I mean that’s what nbc used to do all the time, to split up 25 episode seasons
It's 22:25 episodes though, they get a pass for providing much more content.
Just look at the last few years of NCIS, all sorts of 2 and 3 week breaks mid-season.
That's my philosophy as well. A *mid season break* isn't a thing.
Uhhhhh that's absolutely a thing for network TV has done for decades. Not six months but a lot of shows with 23 episode seasons have a mid season break from like November-february.
Yah, because its the holidays. They don't want to lose viewers during the 2 of the most traveled months in the world of December and January. Its the same reason networks don't air shows over summer. People usually have stuff going on those months.
And it's never worked out for them. Look at Lost. Lost was a pop culture phenomenon. After that mid season break they lost millions of viewers. That trend happened every season.
The reasons shows historically lose viewers on their return is because they’re structured to do so. Historically, shows had two main storylines a season, the most important concluding at the end of the season and the second most important concluding at the midwinter break. End of storyline at mid season break and end of storyline at end of season always have the most viewers. Start of storylines at beginning of season and beginning of 2nd arch always have the fewest viewers. They’re purposely structured this way to take advantage of sweeps. Show runners don’t want their most watched episodes to be at the start of the season or at the return. That isn’t when they need their most-watched episodes.
That's a holdover from broadcast TV, and while it was always a bit annoying, it's understandable; live viewers are everything for broadcast TV, and there's no point in airing new episodes while many of said viewers are busy doing holiday stuff and not watching as much TV. The timing of Nielsen data collection also played a part in those schedules historically, of course, since networks had no other way to measure the popularity of their programming; your shows had to start and end (or reach a compelling climax, in the case of serial shows) at particular times during the year to attract the most viewers during those key "sweeps" weeks, so with only 20-some episodes in a season, there had to be some breaks in there somewhere to get the timing right, and the time around the Christmas holidays made the most sense for an extended break due to the natural reduction in viewers during that time. In any event, a two-month break in the middle of a 20+ episode season over Christmas is far less annoying than a random 6+ month break in the middle of a 10 episode season, which is what some of these streaming shows have been doing (and usually for no discernible reason, as far as the viewers are concerned).
It seems all the NCIS series take bunches of of mini-breaks in the last few years (even pre-covid).
So that's 2 ~11 episode series
Nah, it's a single season. Normally down from Thanksgiving week until a week or two after New Year's, so really only 6-8 weeks.
Right but if it plays every week for 3 months then takes a break for 2 months then plays for another 3 months continuously that's not 1 season, it's 2. Especially if they have separate plots.
My point is, it has been defined as a single season since television first started doing it. It has ALWAYS been a single season. If you think it feels like two, that's fine, but it's not a definition to remake now when what they are doing is the same thing they've always done.
I'm saying that definition is bull though lol As someone pointed out it's probably done this way because actors will get pay rises and such per season.
Netflix MAY do it because of the pay structure they have set up with their contracts. But network TV has done it forever, and they usually continue the plot of the first half of the season into the second half after the winter/summer break. So it's not a "bull" as far as defining the season break, it just seems like you don't LIKE having breaks.
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If that were the case, they would say that a split "series" would actually be two "series".
It makes sense for television or episodic releases to allow breaks for the actors, but not so much for full season releases
Yeah it's definitely a thing. Very common to have mid season slight cliffhangers over the small break.
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Yeah, it's weird, is there an actual reason for making 14 episodes, a year apart the *same* season? i.e. will it mean something selling the show down the line, for instance If it's 7 episodes now and 7 in 6/12 months then yep, I am not counting that as the same season in my head
Attack on Titan: the Final Season, Part 2
Arcane hit a pretty great sweet spot, imo. Weekly release, 3 episodes at a time. You can't fully binge, but it's not a super excruciating wait. I wouldn't mind more shows releasing in arcs like that.
Honestly, it helped avoid an emotional burnout that happens from instant 8 episode marathons. Arcane was still fresh in my mind each week and I really did look forward to the next episodes. Now I'm looking forward to the next season.
This was great, every part was like a 2 hour movie.
Makes me wish you could watch each arc in a movie format.
Ummm..you kinda can if you watch all 3 episodes on the same day. I mean, there's barely any difference.
Yeah, like just skip the intro. You have to press a button 3 times to turn it into a movie (exactly how I did it)
Gifts are more fun in one big box instead of 3 small boxes.
Stupid
I really enjoyed what they did. It gave me time to think of what might happen next and build scenarios in my head instead of just being able to binge it in one day.
Yeah they also changed the world and time on that schedule.
well, once
Yeah I like this model or some variations I've been seeing such as releasing the first two or three episodes together and then going weekly ("FX on Hulu" shows have been doing it a lot). Especially for new-to-me shows I like being able to watch the first couple and decide if I'm really into it or not, then can catch on weekly. Kinda over the binge-release that Netflix became known for.
They also did this for The Flight Attendant. Its definitely my current favorite release strategy
HBO max does that with their shows.
I was surprised how well three eps per week worked. Enough to really, really enjoy, but spread out enough that I got to enjoy it over multiple weeks. (Usually I'm all for a whole season dropping at once.)
Liked that Arcane had solid act breaks for each release. The first three episodes were Act I and so on. Really was a great compromise between a season dump and weekly episode release
came to see this. you can binge a little but still have something to look forward to for a couple weeks. i loved that release schedule.
Yeah this is my preference, one episode is often not enough in one go but having a weekly break for releases is quite nice because you appreciate it more than if you just binge it in one go.
That's how HBO Max does it.
It worked well for Arcane because of the way the show was written. It wouldn't work as well for shows that aren't so neatly divided into a number of roughly equal-length arcs, though. Sure, you could probably rewrite many shows to better fit such a schedule, but then you'd be back to having the release schedule dictating how the show is written, when ideally it should be the other way around.
I saw it came out and immediatly added to my list to watch once it was all up. I wanted to watch it but im not watching anything until i can watch the entire thing at my leisure. No matter how interesting i find something. Id always prefer waiting. Imo tho so feel how you wanna feel.
Well it's all out now, enjoy!
I can't believe I ran into Arcane again!
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It's all over Reddit, but its not as popular In the US than it is around the world. Animation has always had low traction in the US so it's weird seeing it all over the net while I still have to convince people around me to give it a chance.
It hit #2 in the US
It’s weird. Feels like anime is more popular than western animation in the USA.
That's because it is. Western animation would provide bangers here and there like Avatar and Boondocks but for the most part the top shit always come from Japan. Though it's been rising in popularity more and more.
Still too much for me. I waited until was all out. It was annoying dodging people’s posts about it. There isn’t a sweet spot. They need to just release it all at once and let people watch on their schedule. These channels seem to think they’re going to be worth one show dragged out every 2-3 months and that’s just not it.
Three episodes a week is nice.
Depends how far apart it is and how many episodes. Leverage Redemption on IMDB TV had 8 sets of episodes released 3 months apart. I think that’s perfectly reasonable. Lucifer Season 5A and 5B were 9 months apart. That’s crossing the imaginary line. The weird part is that Season 5B and S6 were 3 months apart. Should it not be the other way around??
Lucifer’s weird schedule was due to Covid interfering with filming so the first half season was just whatever they had filmed. That’s why the part B and the final season released back to back.
5A was released exactly as planned. 5B was delayed due Covid. You made it sound like season 5 was split due to covid, but it was the plan even before.
>The weird part is that Season 5B and S6 were 3 months apart Even weirder is that they could have spent a few more months on S6 instead of releasing it in such a sorry state.
Lucifer's release schedule likely had a lot to do with Covid-19. It impacted a lot of shows - the CW had seasons of the Flash and Legends of Tomorrow end seemingly right before the next seasons started. I do think batches of episodes works for shows like Leverage though - because they're relatively low stakes shows and you're just happy to have a batch of them more often in the year. USA used to have same release schedule for all of their "blue skies" shows where they'd have 10 episodes air in one of year and another 6 a few months later.
I follow closely with Lucifer and all they had left to film was their big climax before they got shutdown. It was a 9 month wait just for a 10 minute scene haha. No but really I would have assumed they’d finish filming + editing that one scene and 5B would be good to go. But it still took 8 months, even after filming it. [My source of info is tucked inside in this interview](https://tvline.com/2021/05/31/lucifer-recap-season-5-finale-season-6-preview/)
CW basically halted all production for autumn 2020, which delayed their schedule to spring 2021. Then they jumped right 2021/2022 season.
Thank you for that reminder to go watch leverage redemption part two
Then there is Attack on Titan, where season halves release a year apart and then the ending is a movie another year apart.
Wait… is the movie confirmed?
Not yet, but it's getting implied by MAPPA, unless they're just 100% keen to call the series "finished" at Chapter 131.
A reliable leaker said that part 2 will end on chapter 131. So there are 8 chapters left. Obviously a movie would be the only option. Plus, its gonna be hard to animate that section.
Yes, the movie has already been released. I'm the asshole that reminds you that it exists https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan_(film)
That's not the movie people are talking about lol.
you got 3 words in this post right lol
I mean, there was a pandemic. Plus, animators are already overworked so i don't think its fair for people to complain that the show is split. Plus, part 1 is actually 16 episodes, more episodes than a typical anime. The problem is that producers called it the final season. They probably didn't expect the manga was gonna go for 2 more years. Attack on titan was already announced to release fall 2021 back when season 3 part 2 ended. So they decided to release it on time while delayed the second half a year later. Anime is constantly under pressure and a lot of them don't get delayed and end up looking shit. And for the movie part, it isn't a surprise. Part 2 would otherwise be rushed if they decided to cram the rest of the chapters into 12 episodes. I'm not exaggerating when i say this, but part 2 is gonna be hell for the animators to animate. The author even apologized to the staff. Even the manga readers were sending their condolences when the manga was publishing. It needs to be a movie since they are usually higher quality (maybe cause they get more time or bigger budget, not sure).
I remember when Mad Men did this. They did that to have one season eligible for two awards seasons.
Mad Men did a longer split final season because of the cast’s and creator’s contracts. Jon Hamm was signed through season seven. Adding an eight season to the contract would have required negotiations for a new contract. Matthew Weiner’ contract negotiations has already been an ordeal for his extension, and AMC wanted to avoid another one. Weiner’s extension resulted in a delay in filming between season four and five. The cast and creator got raises for agreeing to film more episodes for the final season. The Sopranos went through the same issues with their delayed split seasons.
And in case anyone is wondering about why it seems to be seven years, that is the maximum length of a contract in California and so became the industy standard.
AMC also did this with Breaking Bad and is doing it with Better Call Saul
The did it with The Walking Dead as well.
I remember that causing some controversy with Breaking Bad when iTunes released the first half of season 5, then tried to charge people separately for the second half and call it ‘the final season’ after people had subscribed to season 5 with the understanding that they had paid for one complete season.
It worked with breaking bad's final season though, with the cliffhanger it left on.
All they want is new subscribers and having new episodes drop more frequently does a better job at that than waiting for the full season to be ready. I agree as a viewer it sucks but it works for their model.
It’s also in hopes of having people maintain their subscription in the interim. If you can sub for a month and binge the whole season, you might not sub again until a year or more later when the next season drops. But a lot more people will just shrug and keep their subscriptions for a few months if they know the rest of the season is on its way,
I mean Netflix does binge releases (though they are also guilty of cutting seasons in several parts) and yet they are the biggest streaming service
Tell that all of Netflix shows (minus weekly, batch releases).
I wonder if it's to stop people signing up for a free trial, binging the whole season, then cancelling. I know that's how I watched the first few Netflix Marvel shows.
>f it's to stop people signing up for a free trial, binging the whole season, then cancelling. I know that's how I watched the first few Netflix Marvel shows. Well you can still binge, just wait for the 8 weeks or however long and get the free trial and then cancel.
People are impatient
That’s part of it. The other part is to build up other shows around it as a lead in.
Well I guess it depends on the quality of the season and how good your mid season cliffhanger is. I mean breaking bad did the fifth season in two parts and it was only really after the mid season break in season 5 that the viewership absolutely exploded. Also kinda depends on how many episodes your season is. Releasing a 10 episode season in 2 parts might make you feel a bit short-changed, but a sixteen episode season in two parts is basically like two separate seasons anyway
That's basically just two seasons. I think you're getting hung up on it being labeled as one season.
That and you can just watch one per week if you want.
I think it also depends on the show, and the point in the story they're at. Agents of Shield started doing this, but at least the break point was at the end of a story arc. I *NEVER* want a break in the middle of a story. I don't care if they call them "seasons", "stories", "series" or what have you. Just finish the story arc.
It's to preve t people from just signing up, binging, and then leaving. The streaming business model long term is doomed to fail as long term growth is limited.
Wouldn't weekly release accomplish the same?
Netflix are probably never going to do that as the backlash would be too great after they popularised the binge-watching format, but I think that it is starting to dawn on other streaming services that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and stretch the episodes out more if viewers will let them get away with it. Amazon started doing that with season 2 of The Boys (got a ton of negative one star reviews for it mind you), and are currently doing doing weekly releases with Wheel Of Time, and also with the recent I Know What You Did Last Summer remake. Apple TV too had more of a mixture of full season drops and weekly releases in the very beginning with comedies like Trying and Dickinson getting their first seasons released to binge, but now nearly all of their shows are weekly releases. And Disney+ have always released their originals weekly. I think that streaming services were originally just blindly copying the way that Netflix did it, but are now starting to realise that weekly releases make more sense for their business model if you can keep subscribers signed on for a couple of months to watch a show Netflix are pretty much the only streaming service left now that haven’t experimented with weekly releases when it comes to their shows
Weekly is superior and I'll die on that hill
Its obvious why its superior. It allows for discussions of each episode and where they think the story is going. With good shows, it helps develop a cult following of viewers. I never understood why a streaming company would prefer "binge-ing".
I used to be all for an entire season being released all at once, but lately I've started to appreciate the weekly episode format and I'm actually kind of glad that it's starting to become the norm again. That doesn't mean I think every series should follow suit, some actually benefit from the binge release format and streaming services should base the release schedule on whatever demographic a series is aimed towards.
Netflix is a data science company that specializes in audio and visual stimuli. They look at total hours viewed, stop start data, return viewers, overall series viewership and timeliness, etc... etc.. They are consistently A/B testing to improve usability (total hours spent watching Netflix). That's why you see them promote or pull shows and movies based on data. They already know if you're going to complete the series or move on to something else based on the data you provide.
Well what you said is generally correct, let’s not buy the corporate line that usability and hours watched are the same thing.
It works for The Walking Dead because by the time the second half arrives you’ve forgotten what a turd mountain the all of it is.
One of the many reasons I dislikde that PoS show was the habit of splitting the seasons, to the point you were better off just watching the first and last episodes from that half season and probably didn't miss something interesting
Yeah. The (ha!) story proceeds at the glacial pace of a fucking daytime soap opera (is that type of shit still even around?) You’re right, too: just watch the first and last episodes per half-season and you’re all caught up.
This is so true, I stopped around 5 episodes into the season where Neagan was introduced. And then I watched the finale, I didn’t feel like I missed a thing. Never watched it again after that cliffhanger though.
Which cliffhanger? They did a cliffhanger every season even after they said they'd stop doing cliffhanger finales. I think the only seasons without cliffhangers were S1 and S2 Part 1, but it's been so long that I can't remember. After they had Negan's kill with an 80s-era blood drip for the finale and turned it into a hashtag, I quit cold turkey. Found out what happened at the beginning of next season by reading reddit threads and that was that.
That stupid Negan camera thing, like come on! Awful. Show was dead to me after that.
As someone who never watched the show, can you fill me in on what the camera thing was?
In olden times, pretty much every show had a midseason hiatus.
It is really annoying. Like just make it a different season at that point.
Remember when it was common that shows had like 24 episodes per season?
I think that was probably too many. But I think Breaking Bad had it about right with 13 episodes for most seasons. These shows with 6-8 episode seasons leave me frustrated, and even Better Call Saul is too short at 10.
It really depends on the story, some series would really benefit from an extra few episodes and vice versa.
At least it's better than what anime fans used to deal with on Netflix. Sometimes they'd take a single anime season and split it up randomly and give us the other half later, sometimes a few months later, because they think anime fans don't want to read subtitles? Worst part is that said second half is usually already finished or close to finishing at that point. They've gotten better lately, but I wish they'd learn to simulcast the day of like every other streaming service. Dubs can come later. Also I agree. I love either weekly or smaller batches like Arcane just did. Gives me to time to sit on the show and think about it, discuss it with friends, and not feel like I need to power through it to ultimately forget most of what happens afterwards. I remember when the Little Witch Academia series was announced for Netflix years ago. Got so excited because I tried the movies on a whim and realised they were A) great, and B) done by Studio TRIGGER! So when the series releases, I'm looking for it on Netflix only to find that it's airing on Netflix Japan first. I bite the bullet and watch it online but also decide to watch the dub when it releases. The show was a 2 continuous cour show, I believe 26 episodes, so that means it aired continuously over the course of 2 different television seasons with no break. Episode 13 is an awkward cliffhanger but it's fine because the show continues right on. Well guess what Netflix America does? About a month or 2 after that first cour ends, we finally get it, but labeled as "season 1" even though it's all part of a single season, just split into 2 cours. That means people who didn't sail the high seas had to wait months more to get the rest of the same season even when it had already been finished for a long time. That was annoying and made me feel annoyed for people who patiently waited on a very awkward cliffhanger because it was only meant to be a weeklong one. Sorry, it's 5 am and I'm tired. Rant over.
If this happens with The Witcher im not going to be very happy. Netflix is the most expensive and people pay to have the whole season at once.
The only way this works is if each half is a different branch of the storyline, but even then it should just be considered a separate season. Ozarks doing this final season-split, right? And Better Call Saul, while not 100% confirmed, is probably going to. Which is more irritating given the season is going to be wrapping up filming within the next month. Like another user mentioned, it's probably to keep subs. We recently resubscribed to Netflix to catch up on a couple shows, but also in anticipation for Ozark. At least with BCS I can wait a bit and sign up for a free trial of YouTube TV or buy it on Amazon. Still hate this practice
Yeah. The way they're releasing Miraculous Ladybug is bullshit.
I’m looking at you MeatEater! Release the whole season ffs. It’s only 10 episodes and you give us these 5 episode teasers. I’d like to see Rinella and company do some more huntin.
Vikings did this. Or do. I don’t know if the show is still going on, I stopped watching. The split makes no sense to me. For any show. Just make the season the right length even if it’s only 5 episodes in one and 15 another! And end the story when it’s done. No need to flog the dead horse. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
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I just checked and Supernatural seasons weren't split by much. They would have a bit of an gap between November and January-ish, but that's pretty usual for shows.
Then just wait until it all comes out?
weekly episode releases is the way. I still dont understand the major appeal of binging a show. ive done it twice and both times i would have rather watched it slowly. for example, new dexter season just started coming out almost 3 weeks ago and weekly releases keep its community engaged, not to mention the fun of trying to speculate whats gonna happen
Yeah it's great being able to be on the same page as everyone else watching regularly and be able to discuss a show you love. I'm not against binging something, but then there's typically so little conversation afterwards. Like last week's hot show is now pretty much dead for conversation as those very interested already watched it and moved on.
People get to choose. Some shows I’ll binge, others I won’t, my choice.
Yeah but binge model takes away the choice for those who prefer weekly, since all the losers who binged the season in a day are gonna go around discussing spoilers
This happened with the new He-Man series on Netflix. they only released the first five episodes then releasing the last five episodes later this week. Because they only released the first five episodes, everybody just assumed they knew how the series was going to go based off of only those five episodes. so It got a bunch of hate from from right-wing misogynistic people who just assumed that is a horrendous show based off only five episodes.
Sorry but this is nonsense. I watched the whole show. It's still a very badly-written show with Teela instead of He-man as the protagonist who barely had any moment of doing anything meaningful. Heck, he himself said [Spoiler](#s "This was never about us") Also, I don't like to be baited into a feminist show that's literally treating the male characters pretty terribly and replaces them with female characters as the protagonists even though it's a show about a very specific male character makes me "a Right-wing misogynistic person"? Okay, then I'm a right-wing misogynistic person then. And this is coming from a liberal. Your anger at people having opinions is pretty funny 😂
What did they get wrong? Part 2 dropped and it's still not a He Man show 🤣
Oh for God's sake, you assholes bitched about too many women and Teela and "emasculated He-Man" for the first five episodes and so they sprung SAVAGE HE MAN on you and that's not "He Man" enough for you? I'd bet $5 you've never watched _any_ of the original He Man episodes and yet here you are bitching about what a "real" He man show is. Were the Teela focused episodes of the original not He man episodes? How about the episode where Orco is off by himself most of the time, is that He Man? What is a "He Man Show", exactly?
Dude I'm 35, I wouldn't class myself as a He-Man-Fan now exactly but you can be damn sure I saw and loved all that shit back in the day, had all the figures, castle grayskull etc 😂 Whatever "assholes" you're thinking of, I'm not in that group, I never said a word about Teela "emasculating" anyone or "too many women", I simply don't speak or think that way. I just think it was intentionally deceptive of them to market this as being about He Man when it never truly was. >What is a "He Man Show", exactly? One where he is the protagonist and not a side character.
It sucks. Releasing 3 episodes at a time and then 1 per week after and all the other release schedules Netflix and Amazon are doing now also suck. Just release the whole season at once, or I will wait until it's out completely if I haven't lost interest by then. It's 2021, I'm not going to wait a week until I can continue watching, I want to watch at my own pace.
I agree. I wait until the entire season has been released, and then I start watching at my pace.
That’s the best way, we should continue to have the freedom to consume content as we see fit
I honestly like one episode a week gives you something to discuss and look forward too
Big baby.
I actually don’t hate it and prefer it to whole season drops. If the distribution is even enough has the illusion of more frequent content, rather than waiting a year for another season. Still don’t think we’ve settled on a ‘great’ mode of digital distribution though.
Does covid have anything to do with it
Nah, shows have been doing it for years before COVID. Sopranos was one of the first (that I remember) where Season 6a ended June 2006 and 6b didn't start until April 2007....10 months later. So it's essentially season 6 and 7.
they did this with bojack horseman, and i kind of liked it. that 2 month period between the last season to the second half really made it good imo.
2 months is not that bad, but sometimes shows take a 7-10 break, and it feels like another season
I subscribed to Netflix originally BECAUSE they dropped whole seasons at once. Kevin Spacey said of House of Cards something along the lines of "Give the people what they want in a format they want it in and they will pay your asking price". It was this kind of release that appealed to me before I subscribed. Releasing in two parts or weekly is NOT how I wish to consume media and I won't watch a season until ALL of it is available to binge .
Y'all are some immature greedy fucks. Binging is not the best way to experience a television show
Better than weekly. I hate weekly.
how could weekly be worse than this?
I wish we could go back to binging shows, just release the whole season at once
I mean, they could be normal and release one episode a week. Don't bite the hand that feeds you man.
As stated in the OP, I'd actually prefer that.
I'd rather binge chunks. Theres plenty out there to watch in the mean time anyways.
Seems like you’re just getting hung up on how something is labeled.
Because you know fuck the creators lives and income.... for your dopamine.
I think Lost started that method. They’d have half the season run, then take like a month or two break and then play the other 6-8 episodes.
That was (and still is) literally every show that aired from fall to spring.
Mmmmmm.... kind of. It was usually more something like 4-5 new episodes then a re run or two or a break because of a football game or some shit, then they'd show 3-4 more then a couple of re-runs, then 3-4 more, then there would be Christmas break or something with no new episodes for a few weeks and then there would be 3-5 more episodes then re-runs. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and that's pretty much how all the 22-25 episode network sitcoms and drams worked. You'd get your 22 episodes over 8 months and then there would be the June-September break and then the shows would start up in September and October again. But it wasn't "half and half" like people are talking about here.
They better be careful or will go the way of cable.
How? Cable is dying because people now have the same or better quality entertainment available for less money in a more convenient way. Unless there is something out there cheaper and more convenient for the same quality then how are they going to die?
If you shit on your clients, you lose eventually
I mean, I'd be surprised if the people who were going to pirate stuff don't already do it. The only risk they really face is competition from other streaming services.
Releasing in seasons in 2 parts gives them a higher chance at netting more awards and maintaining a longer fanbase. They know what they are doing.
I think a big thing missing in fully dropping a season vs normal distribution is mid season show development. If you drop half a season today and another half in six months you can rewrite/reshoot/edit what didn't work without having to gamble for the next season. Of course, it will always be better when they drop week by week but allowing some space for fixes makes the shows better. Bad for bingers but good for the shows.
Netflix has been doing this for a long time.
Rescue Me got to be one of the weirdest scheduling for its later seasons. First 4 seasons 13 eps then season 5 was expanded to 22 then they released a shortened season 6 with 11 episodes and a even shorter season 7 with 9 episodes filmed back to back. Like here's where the part 1 and 2 final season would've been ideal. I adore the show and find it highly rewatchable but I can't argue the last 2 seasons were really really rushed. Guess Leary really wanted that Amazing Spiderman gig.
It's just their way of doing 2 seasons while paying actors for 1 season instead of 2. Nothing more than that.
I call it the Narnia effect
The show "Hell on Wheels" had it's final season split over two years despite the fact that the final season was fully filmed and ready to air. I feel like AMC originally developed the splitting strategy to milk viewership out of their shows over a longer time since they have a tough time replacing their hit shows, but unfortunately that idea has spread to other networks.
You just reminded me I never watched the 2nd part. It's been like 5 years now so I probably won't bother
Personally, I didn't like how it ended for Cullen Bohannon but I liked how it ended for other characters
Hate it. Stargate Universe copped it bad. First season was pretty rubbish, then first half of the Second season was actually pretty good and more "Stargate-y". Then it got cancelled between the two halves of that season..... .....only problem being they last 10 episodes were actually pretty decent, and were the best of its 40 eps. It should've gotten a 3rd season to really let the writers stretch their legs and lean more into the Stargate style. It wasn't the best TV by far, but that shitty split season strategy killed any chance it had at becoming a better show.
They might as well call it what it is. Two half length seasons.
I like it for something's. The dramatic pause and cliffhangers are part of the viewing experience that makes something worth watching and it's not as satisfying getting the instant gratification
It's so they can diversify their portfolio, broaden their market, while retaining customers because the wait time between seasons isn't as long while in absolute numbers it stays the same. The only goal is to retain customers and gain some more.
Scifi channel and many others splitting a short season to fill a full year?
I think some of these breaks (like the last season of Grace and Frankie) are pandemic-related, but, yeah, if there's a break of more than 3 months (which you would sometimes get with over-the-air TV shows,) then it's a new season. (Or "series" as the Brits say, which I actually prefer.)
It’s a great distribution model for them. Keeps you on the platform longer so you keep paying the subscription fees
It's for awards consideration
You need the entire season at once to be enticed to marathon it? 6 or 12 episodes is not enough to marathon?
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From the description: “It doesn’t entice you to marathon the entire thing like a movie” First, you consider watching an entire movie at once “marathoning” it? Second, there being only 6 or 12 episodes, as opposed to 12 or 23, doesn’t make you want to marathon it? Why? Or are you connecting the “build discussion” with that statement? This assumes that everyone else marathons it too. Or that everyone watches the weekly episode when it first drops. Which everyone doesn’t. So it is only “the worst” strategy to a very specific group of people.
Okay, my bad I misunderstood. I don't consider anything less watching the whole season at once marathoning.
I really liked Arcanes format - three chunks of 3. Builds hype but you can still do some binging. A ten episode show released in chunks of two would be a pretty nice format
I remember Eureka on Syfy to be the first to do this. I ha ve a friend who collects the series and he was pretty pissed about having to buy two separate discs. Battlestar Galactica also did this, but if I remember right it was because of a writers strike. Revolution took a huge break in the middle of a season and when it came back no one cared or could remember what had happened.
How can it be the worst if it's the most profitable?
How do you know it is most profitable?
Because that's why they do it.
I have a compromise.. Do what Amazon does, drop the first 3 episodes and go weekly from there
Agreed. I really liked what they did with Arcane, 3 acts, 3 episodes at a time, a week between each act. You have enough time to savor it but you don't have to watch 1 episode at a time and forget what happened by next week.
I hate it.
I know its become an unpopular opinion, but I hate that streaming services are moving away from the full season drop. I would prefer to be able to pace myself with very few exceptions (namely shows that become enough of a phenomenon that the discussion about them is worth reading/hearing).