“The Jazz Singer” premiered in 1927 and in doing so changed the film industry forever. As the first “talkie” — a movie with synchronized sound and video — it ushered in a brand new era of cinema. The average viewer could watch an actor do something and hear them talk at the same time!
Combining the visual art of movies with the convenience of radio, this new technology allowed for a fresh method of long-form storytelling – the humble TV show. Serialized stories have always existed, of course, but unlike a book series or story cycle, television offers an episode. Each episode has its own self-contained story, while also falling within the larger narrative of a season. With a collection of (generally) 13-24 episodes, all around 22-30 minutes long, this format allowed for a more character-driven experience.
It also evolved several new genres of fiction (the sitcom, the monster of the week and the procedural to name a few). This status quo would stay consistent for most of the 20th century. TV shifted and evolved, don’t get me wrong, all art forms will, but in this case the style and format stayed pretty same-y for 50 or so years.
Netflix, a service that needs no introduction, was created in 1997. It changed the game. Streaming was even more convenient than cable television, with more control and no commercial breaks. For a simple monthly fee, you could have every episode of a network show at your fingertips with another two original series to boot! Streaming became the next big thing and eventually, every entertainment network wanted a piece of the action.
While people would pay good money for complete access to an entire catalogue of television (which would absolutely cost a fortune on DVD or VHS) by itself, one of the biggest draws was their original series. Shows like “Breaking Bad,” “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards” all created huge fanbases and were met to outstanding critical acclaim. Because of the 2007 writer’s strike, these early original series were all alike in how their season length averaged around 13 episodes with episodes around 45 minutes. Each series also had around six seasons, which would come out around every year.
This was the beginning of the end.
Since 2018, the length of streaming seasons has periodically gotten shorter. Also, the model has shifted to streaming services dropping an entire season at once instead of releasing episodes weekly. While that method might be great for binge-watchers, it’s not for everyone else.
In 2016, the first season of “Stranger Things” aired. It was a cultural phenomenon, everyone loved it and so even though it was originally intended to be an anthology series, the Duffer brothers were given another season following the same beloved cast of characters.
There are 34 episodes of “Stranger Things” total, roughly the same amount we would have if three came out every year. To put that into perspective, “Breaking Bad” ran for five years with 64 episodes. That’s almost double the number in half the time.
The first season of “Stranger Things” was genuinely iconic. The fourth was discussed for a summer in 2023 and then largely abandoned from the mainstream outside of memes and jokes. “Breaking Bad” remains one of the highest regarded series in the history of television.
In 2025, while there are series that release weekly episodes, they’re usually from established names. This September, a sequel series to “The Office” aired all 10 of its episodes on Peacock. While there are some people online with opinions on it, “The Paper” occupies barely a fraction of the cultural space “The Office” does to this day.
There’s no room in 2025, when new content to consume is coming out every hour of every day, for a show to stick longer in the mainstreams’ consciousness than how long it airs for. There’s still some shows which have those 20 episode seasons, but they’re the minority and exclusively on cable.
It’s really no surprise that shows like “Severance” are able to maintain a stable fanbase when there’s a week for everyone watching to discuss and absorb the content presented. There’s more room for fan theories, and for fans to talk about the newest episode together without the expectation of sitting down and binging eight whole hours of television in a single day. That’s especially crucial with the post-2020 multiple long gaps between season releases.
Pandora’s box is open, and binge-watch culture can’t go back in. 20 episode seasons probably aren’t coming back. Streaming is evolving the same problems cable had, and eventually something else will take its place.
Don’t be too worried, though. Television — the medium — will never really die.
