US vs UK TV discussion

[2099net]

I've been thinking for a while now about the differences between UK and US television. There are cultural differences as expected (compare our UK Soaps – which are insanely popular – to your US soaps and there's a whole difference in style, approach and intent). But that's not really got me thinking.

What got me thinking was season/series runs. It's pretty much given any show in the US is going to have around 22 episodes if it goes the full season, and around 13 if it is a mid-season show, or pulled. I know some shows are pulled before they reach 13 episodes, but the intent obviously is not to be pulled!

But in the UK, most shows have between 6 and 8 episodes. Sometimes 13 (as Doctor Who does, but really this is just for US sales reasons). Sometimes, like with Doctor Who, we give a show a rest for a year or two and then bring it back.

So my question is… do you think that its better to have long runs or short runs?

Personally, although I'm sometimes wanting more, I think I prefer short runs. Mainly because you're left "wanting more" if you like the show, and if you don't like the show, its soon over and something new will be on in its place.

The number of British shows that I liked, and then got fed up with I can count on the fingers of one hand (although there's a few more I have a more complex emotional relationship with).

But there's loads of US shows that I grew tired of for various reasons.

Some like Lost, Invasion, Desperate Housewives just go on too long. Spreading a drama out over 22 episodes (so around 16 hours) really does make the drama suffer if its not done well enough. Would anyone here pay to see a 16 hour movie, or would you expect it to be overlong?

Others (especially comedies) I just get fed-up with, especially if they tend to follow the same-ish formula. I used to love Will and Grace, but soon got fed up with it around the middle of the second season. I even got fed up with Friends. On the other hand, Fawlty Towers for example only had 12 episodes and each one is a masterpiece. I would have loved Life on Mars to continue, but it was always a concept with a definitive beginning and end, and stretching the middle would only have weakened the ending when it did come (and boy, it was a fantastic ending).

The general thought process in the UK is to "go out on top" where as in the US, the general thought process seems to be to continue something if its popular.

But of course there's shows over here I wish had 22 episode runs, and there's shows in the US that I didn't tire of (such as the always excellent Joan of Arcadia).

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I've seriously cut down on my "TV habit" during the past few years, but I have eventually ended up buying quite some favourites on DVD - season by season (or, rather, "series").

It's difficult to compare, and not always quite fair. But two shows that spring to my mind are "Friends" and "Coupling" - they have been compared now and then because they're about the same number of "friends" of about the same age, and have similar settings and themes. "Friends" was very popular and ran full seasons for ten years or so. I thought it was quite all right, but I've never cared to buy it on DVD. "Coupling" had shorter runs over three or four years - and a total number of episodes that amounted to about one "full season" according to American standards. And it was, in my opinion, so much better than "Friends".

Again, it's not entirely fair to compare, but I think that these illustrate quite well what I tend to feel is a difference between emphasis on quantity in American shows and more emphasis on quality, less on quantity, in British shows. I can enjoy a "marathon" of a favourite American show - and the fact that there are lots of episodes to watch is frequently one of the good parts. But I still tend to feel that my British favourites are more "outstanding".

[Wonderlicious]

This is not to say that just because something has a short episode run, the initial concept is bad, but some shows can work better with a shorter run, particularly sketch shows (Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show etc) which rely on certain characters and their mannerisms. Other shows, particularly dramas (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Lost etc), work better as longer series, since much needs to be told. Some things can either work as a 22-26 episode series or a 6-8 episode series since their concept/format is very wide, yet can equally work as a shorter series of 6-13 episodes. If The Simpsons or Futurama had six or seven episodes per series, for example, it would work, and equally, since the medium that they are made in is limitless, they can work as 22 episode series.

One thing that I must say in favour of 6-8 episode series is that they can end up more constant in terms of tone, since it can be easier for one particular writer or director to be attatched to each episode.