Why is there still filler episodes in the era of streaming platforms

Shift from Traditional TV to Streaming

With the new era of streaming, I think we’ve all noticed how TV shows have lesser episodes and take longer to release each season. Stranger Things prominently comes to mind, especially with how all the kids have aged across its four released seasons and now with the fifth one on the way, they’re all adults.

I grew up watching shows that had time limits to accommodate strict time slots while also delivering an exact number of episodes per season and then doing it over again every year like clockwork.

While this wasn’t strictly applied to all studios, it was more or less the pattern that we found in older TV shows. This meant that writers had to find ways to make filler episodes since there could only be so much meat in each season and doing 20 odd episodes meant that some of them had to be there just as superficial entertainment while holding back the plot.

Plot-Driven Prestige: Cable’s Influence

However, studios like HBO gave more freedom to their shows, allowing them to make lesser episodes, focusing only on the plot, giving us incredible shows like The Wire, The Sopranos and for something relatively new, True Detective (yes, I am aware it’s been 11 years). These shows made sure every minute, every second of their episode had importance and always delivered.

Paradox of Filler in the Streaming Age

Nowadays, we see streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, etc. give their writers the freedom to write how ever many episodes without time restrictions, yet there is still so much filler. Creators have been afforded so much freedom, they seem to have taken it for granted. They no longer feel what can be seen as necessary pressure to deliver anymore. No deadlines, just say it’s delayed.

Recent shows like Peacemaker, Stranger things, Euphoria, House of the Dragon are all examples of this. They give us only 8-10 episodes, yet they deliver smaller runtimes and filler episodes. The actual plot can essentially fit in a 2-hour movie.

The purpose of shorter seasons was to create more efficient storytelling, yet a lot of creators seem to have missed that. Of course, there are many shows that like Bojack Horseman, True Detective, The Bear, that have efficient storytelling, utilising their freedom appropriately.

Television has always been granted the gift of a longer runtime to tell their story but the way it is to be used needs to justify their freedom.

#StreamingEra #TVtoStreaming #HBO #StrangerThings #MediaTrends