There’s no doubt that Netflix has become, in a relatively short amount of time, one of the most highly respected destinations for quality television content. However, even though there are incredible series like “House of Cards” or “Orange is the New Black,” as well as shows like the various Marvel offerings that are…less great, the general criticism among the streaming service’s TV series is their length.
It just feels like so many of Netflix’s series just drag in the middle and go on too long overall. But as an executive explains, that’s not completely their fault.
“In some of the earlier negotiations and deals that we did with third-party studios, we were sort of hamstrung a little bit by the convention of the 13-episode cable series pattern,” Netflix exec Cindy Holland said at the recent TCA event (via IGN). “And if you look at the content that we’ve been making out of Netflix Studios and even with third-party partners now, often the seasons are generally no more than 10 episodes.”
You see, according to that explanation, you can blame conventional TV on the issue. This may sound like an excuse, but it’s not completely off the mark. Back in the day, every TV series used to be 23 or 24 episodes per season. Then, when networks realized that number wasn’t a possibility if you wanted to tell certain stories and attract bigger talent, the number fell to 13. That’s when Netflix came along and they just made deals with that conventional episode count in mind.
But now, even a few years later, TV has drastically changed and you can have series last the exact number of episodes necessary for the story. Now, Holland says that the episode count isn’t dictated by the service or a preconceived notion of what is the minimum.
“I think to a large extent, it’s up to the creator and the pace that they are creating intentionally for their characters,” she continued.
Hopefully, that means we’ll see more series take the “Game of Thrones” or “Stranger Things” model and just cram as much as you can in the smaller episode counts and not clearly attempt to stretch stories over inexcusably long seasons (looking at you, “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” and “Iron Fist”).