Bella Steiner
Published June 5, 2026 5:09pm
Updated June 5, 2026 5:09pm
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Two of my favourites are HBOs Euphoria and Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty (Picture: HBO)
There’s something strange I’ve noticed over the past few years – I cn barely remember any TV shows I have watched.
It’s not because of my memory or that I’m so easily distracted.
I think it’s because of the way we now consume TV – especially US shows – often in one full-on binge or a hurried-through six to eight episodes at a time, followed by massive gaps in between.
With my thumb constantly on the buttons of my remote, streaming platforms often force me to browse for something to instantly consume until I’m on the verge of finger numbness. And by the end of it all, I have forgotten the show and characters easily.
Two of my favourites are HBOs Euphoria and Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty – and although both have relatively few episodes (and the former had gaps between seasons), they offer something quite ‘old school’ -a weekly release model.
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In my view, one of the best way to watch TV.
With my thumb constantly on the buttons of my remote, streaming platforms have forced me to browse for something to binge (Picture: Getty Images)
When watching Euphoria, I loved the anticipation in wanting to know whether Nate Jacobs would be rescued from the underground coffin where he was buried or whether protagonist Isabel Conklin, in The Summer I Turned Pretty, would finally call off her wedding.
This waiting period in between each episode consumed me – I would pace from room to room, wondering if I could possibly make smarter decisions than these fictional characters on the screen.
And sometimes the waiting was painful, but it made the storyline stick to my memory, and that made it worth watching – it made it memorable enough to have an impact.
I remember exactly how Nate Jacobs met his end and who Isabel Conklin chose.
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Plot alone does not give the badge of honour to a series – it is the decisions and the moral tensions in a character’s life that make me care about what Hollywood has to say.
That’s why lately, my relationship to the characters and their development feels fleeting. For a long time, I have been asking to have long and deliberately curated TV shows and their portrayal of real-life struggles.
TV shows used to receive the full fleshed treatment – they would have between eight and 12 writers, show-runners, upper-level writers, mid-level writers and junior writers all immersed in what they were creating.
I remember exactly how Nate Jacobs met his end and who Isabel Conklin chose (Picture: HBO Max / Backgrid)
This has now been reduced to ‘mini rooms,’ with only three to five writers involved. It feels like the love has been taken out of the process.
Additionally, audiences now have to wait longer periods for significantly less content.
In 2010, Gossip Girl watchers waited around four months to have a 22-episode-long season. In stark contrast, between 2022 and 2024, Bridgerton watchers waited approximately two years and two months for an eight-episode season, each available to download and binge in one hit.
Comment now Do you think longer TV seasons make for better storytelling? Share your thoughts below!Comment NowThis leaves little room for audiences to build a memorable relationship with the storyline or the characters. The very thing which makes audiences care for characters stuck in conflicts was missing – a slow-burning struggle that made the resolution worth it. Not short bursts after long waiting times that make us forget why we cared in the first place.
I understand that at times, these long seasons with 22 episodes on average can tend to get accused of having too much ‘filler’.
But, slow-paced, sometimes boring, episodes are necessary for characters to be met with life-changing realisations, or get a chance for them to get more relatable – we begin to live our everyday boring life with them.
Bridgerton watchers waited approximately two years and two months for an eight-episode season (Picture: Liam Daniel/Netflix)
Breaking Bad is a perfect example of this. In its starting stages, the show was met with modest reviews due to its slower pace compared to the non-stop action of later seasons, which define the show. Now, it is considered an all-time classic.
Whether US television will return to the traditional delivery of carefully curated long seasons feels unlikely in this new fast-paced world of production and streaming.
But there is hope – Apple has championed the weekly episode release with the likes of Severance, Slow Horses and, more recently, Friends and Neighbours, while the new HBO medical drama ‘The Pitt’, starring Noah Wyle and Mika Abdalla, not only releases the episodes every Friday, but their seasons contain 15 episodes each, with around seven writers working on the storyline.
I hope we see more shows like The Pitt and Euphoria (Picture: HBO)
With positive reviews, The Pitt’s success demonstrates that seasons longer than eight episodes, and with a decently sized writers’ room, can still be done.
They need to give us viewers time to watch characters develop, or worsen, make mistakes and do something that reminds us of our own life. Let the writers overcook their cake while writing and then find the perfect baking temperature.
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I hope we see more shows like The Pitt and Euphoria, that gives us time to fall in love with the show.
TV needs to make us care again.
They will have to think longer, deliver storylines more deliberately, and care more for the characters that they are creating.
Otherwise, there’s a bigger chance of menever remembering why I like any of the shows I am watching.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Share your views in the comments below.
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