We’ve noticed, in recent years, that it’s getting harder and harder to sit down and watch a television series as it happens, with weekly episodes and breaks around Christmas and March (let alone summer…) where nothing new is on TV. I’m sure most of this is due to the fact that we don’t have cable, so we’ve had to shift our viewing habits to some degree. But even on Hulu, which has a “regular stream” of episodes, similar to what you’d have on a television network, we have a queue of 22 episodes right now waiting to be watched, across various different shows. Some of those are “my” shows, some are Brooke’s, and others are for the both of us. Our varied schedules (and toddler…) make it difficult to schedule that time for both of us to sit down and watch something.
As our schedules are difficult to manage, I’ve found that I prefer shorter TV seasons now. There was a time when I balked at the idea of a show only having 6 or 12 episodes in a season, but now I can’t imagine getting through the 22 episodes most traditional networks seem to favor.
Case in point: “The Walking Dead” is a show on AMC that is based on a comic book about the zombie apocalypse (though it’s really more about how the human survivors deal with it, and less about the zombies themselves). The first season was 6 episodes, and the second season is 13 episodes. The first season is on Netflix streaming.
I watched all of it on Saturday.
So, because there was a shorter season, the writers were able to tell a compact, yet full story that lasted throughout their season. They weren’t trying to keep a story line going over 22 episodes, but it also wasn’t a serial a la your typical cop drama. Each episode was connected, made you want to watch the next one, and kept you engaged. There were no breaks for you to lose track of what’s going on (granted, I watched it all in one day, but the show premiered on AMC with a weekly episode over 6 weeks).
I’m having the same issue with video games now, too. I’ve been trying to work my way through “Mass Effect 2,” a sci-fi role-playing game I picked up for $5 awhile back. Games like this take at least 20 hours to complete, while many can immerse you in the world for at least 60 hours. Now, it isn’t unusual to spend 60 hours playing a video game, but I’m finding it difficult to keep going back to that game because the story is complicated, it’s spread over a lengthy period of time, and if I can’t go back to it within a few days, I forget what I did before.
I guess I’m saying that my attention span, or at least, the amount of time I have to devote to things that require such attention, has waned. I just don’t have the time anymore for 60 hour games or 22 episode TV shows spread over a full season. I’d much rather play a shorter game, or one that can be enjoyed in shorter bits of time. I’d much rather watch a 6-12 episode season of a show that Brooke and I can watch within a few weekends. We can get a clearly defined story and won’t forget what happened “last time on…”
Thankfully, this is a purpose Netflix is well-suited for. Shows like “Downton Abbey,” a critical darling recently, has 7 episodes in its first season. “Mad Men” has 13 episode seasons. “Breaking Bad” has 13 episode seasons. “Doctor Who” as between 13 and 15 episodes per season. Each one of these have a general story arc that takes place over that time frame, as well as the individual “bits” that make each episode distinct. You’ll notice a trend that all these shows are either British or from the cable networks, both of which apparently figured out how to achieve excellent storytelling decades ago. It’s no wonder these kinds of shows are the ones that win Emmys.
It just seems like shows along these lines are easier for me to digest now, rather than being bothered with the Law & Orders or CSI:s on network television. It isn’t even because the subject matter is stale: it’s because they’re just too long.