this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
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Television

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[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 277 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (8 children)

I don't watch a Netflix series that isn't 100% complete already, because they cancel fucking everything. It's not worth the investment.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 56 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

I learned decades ago to do the same with book series.

[–] Akuchimoya@startrek.website 63 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

I'm glad I never got into A Song of Fire and Ice when my friend recommended it to me about it in university about 20 years ago.

[–] Ioughttamow@fedia.io 28 points 4 weeks ago

Well, first season of AGOT is airing soon, a dance of dragons is also releasing soon, this seems like a great time to dive into the series! - me

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 51 points 4 weeks ago (7 children)

I’m still mad about Santa Clarita Diet

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 25 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

I’m mad about Cowboy Bebop, which was actually pretty good, despite what you may have heard.

Netflix didn’t advertise it to normies and die hard anime fans trashed it. I think if they had advertised it to people like my dad, it would have done well.

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[–] SailorFuzz@lemmy.world 24 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

not just netflix, every streaming service/studio does that now.

I really like the artist/author Brian K Vaughn. Millions of people do. One of the best selling authors of graphic novels that exists.

Just finished reading "Y: The Last Man", oh, there's a TV show?.... canceled after one season....

"Paper Girls"?..... canceled after one season...

If they try to tell me that "Saga" is in the works for a TV adaptation (which... fucking good luck) I would hardly be exited for it. Because why get my hopes up? The books are amazing anyways. The art is beautiful in the way it was illustrated. The only advantage a TV show has ever given is being able to easily share the story with family and watch together.

[–] Fredselfish@sh.itjust.works 23 points 4 weeks ago (11 children)

Apple doing it right. They have Silo and they just finished season 3 and 4 already filmed and will be out next year.

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[–] ChaosSpectre@lemmy.zip 12 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah Kaos was the last blow to me, especially being it sounds like everyone involved in that really enjoyed it, it was the numer 1 show at the time, and the next two parts were already outlined and ready to shoot with an actual ending already in mind.

Netflix proved with Kaos that there is no actual logic behind their content decisions

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[–] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 114 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Did people pay to investigate that? Because, uh, fucking duh

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 39 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Literally all you had to do was go to a Stranger Things subreddit/facebook group literally any time between seasons (2-3, etc.) and you'd have novellas-worth of proof.

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[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 24 points 4 weeks ago

I'm guessing the investigation was to determine how strong the effect is, to see how much money is worth spending to avoid the issue?

[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I saw a study the other day explaining that people that learned how to swim at some point in their life are statistically less likely to drown.

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[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 99 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

They also lose viewership when jacking prices or repeatedly canceling series.
I basically won't start a series that hasn't ended because I got tired of getting invested into something that gets botched or canceled.

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 72 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Pepperidge farm remembers when a 'season' was more than 8 40-min episodes.

[–] rozodru@piefed.world 34 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

more than 8 episodes. started in september ended around may. so like around 25 episodes. just give me 25 episodes every year of something like tv shows used to be. new season every year. it shouldn't be hard we had that for years before netflix.

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 13 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

On the one hand, broadcast TV typically had 20-26 episode seasons every year. On the other hand, this often included a lot of filler and could easily lead to huge compromises to get everything done. There will always be trade offs between quantity and quality, and only one of those is contractually obligated.

That being said, I really hate the way streaming has devolved into shows with 8 episodes or less in a season, with some of those episodes being significantly shorter than others, and all of them paced as though they have all the time in the world despite the season being over. That would be awful even if they did release seasons annually and never cancelled things early.

I feel like we figured out the perfect balance with Daredevil season 1. Thirteen really solid episodes, each being exactly as long as they need to be to tell the story they want, and all of them adding up to complete the arc for the season. I could nitpick and criticize some things, but the pacing was absolutely perfect.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 4 weeks ago

Being able to binge watch an entire season in one 8-hour workday you've decided to slack off on, is a bit too short. It's what used to be called miniseries.

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[–] rmrf@lemmy.ml 54 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] cardboardboxfort@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

The shitty writing is also hurting Netflix viewership. As is cancelling shows that are well written and have a fanbase just because you have to pay the actors and staff more after 3 seasons.

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[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 45 points 4 weeks ago

My favorite genre of data science is "Fucking Duh."

[–] Bronzor@lemmy.ml 37 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (12 children)

Not even just Netflix. My interest in a show like severance has completely dissipated. I could care less if the show ends in writing or ends by cancellation. It has taken way too long for this show to get more episodes, let alone wrap up. I do not want to rewatch the show every time a new season comes out just so I do not miss out on key details on the new season. I do not want to watch a summary at the beginning of each episode to remind me of those key details because I didn't rewatch the whole series before starting the new episodes. Oh and only for them to release 8 episodes per season at that!?!

Then take something like pluribis, really good TV show they were greenlit for two seasons by apple right off the bat. Yet only had one ready when it released? What bullshit is that? I am tired of getting invested in worlds only for me to have to wait years to MAYBE get invested again. What happened to the 25 episode per season days.... Fuck we had it good.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

With Pluribus, the first season aired in November 2025, and as of June 2026 they still haven't finished writing season 2 yet. I have no idea why it's like that.

Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum, Slow Horses season 6 starts this week, and they're already filming season 8 lol.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 34 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Maybe Netflix can commission a study to investigate whether viewers are put off by most of their shows being not very good. They might learn something.

[–] robear@lemmy.zip 16 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I think you underestimate how much the average person loves to consume utter trash media.

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[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 33 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

also the cancelling of the shows before season one finishes.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 33 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

also cancelling seasons after 2 or 3. and haivng only 8-10 episodes which is pathetically small, and is a penny pinching method by streaming companies, they want to avoid paying ACTORS "exorbitant" amount of sums of money.

sandman and Invicible between the 1st-2nd season was abysmally long like 3years. it doesnt take 3 years to make 8 episodes at all.

similarly with orville 6 year and only handful of episodes, one of the leads said it was unaffordable for most people working on the show, to have so long of hiatus. although pallacki said it partially due to mcfarlane writing all of the epsiodes himself.

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 11 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Re The Orville,

As I understand he's now at least written all the episodes for the next season, now it's just a matter of getting everything together (the equally hard part).

I thought he would stick with The Orville on a regular basis, but maybe once you achieve your dream it's easy to start looking at other projects.

Paramount called his bluff on the Ted live action series (he would only do it if they could have movie level budget for CGI Ted, and they did, for two seasons at least). So I think he jumped at that since it seemed like a limited time offer.

Plus now he's diving back into animation with a Stewie spin-off show and a Ted animated show.

I do hope we get Orville season 4 someday, especially with Star Trek coming to an end (for now).

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[–] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 31 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Netflix has no idea or confidence in how to evaluate what a good show is, so they have to wait for user data to tell them.

But of course their shit tier layout makes 80% of their catalogue hard to find, so unless they're really pushing a show a production can easily fall through the cracks.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah I remember always browsing Netflix and seeing the same shit that I had no interest in showing up every time I looked for a show to watch. Shit that I was purposefully ignoring for months and months. But then I learn about an interesting show somewhere else, search for it on Netflix, and find a good show has been somewhere in the shadows the entire time with 4+ seasons and I had never come across it a single time while browsing forever and never finding anything to watch.

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[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 27 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I still haven’t forgiven them for canceling “Kaos”.

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[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

New data confirms CEOs need data and cannot just think for 5 seconds like a normal human being

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[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It also hurts to kill shows that were really good and instead replace them with reality TV trash.

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[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 22 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

"Data suggests" as if it necessitated a deep study and wasn't very apparent already.

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[–] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah no shit, I stop caring after 2 years

[–] tpotatomasher99@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 weeks ago

Care? I've forgotten the series even exists after 1 year.

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 19 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

It's also because a season is only 8 episodes and dumped all at once. You don't have time to digest it. You end up binging the episodes so other people don't spoil it for you, then you easily forget what happened. It's like Netflix purposefully designed their shows to be forgettable.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 15 points 4 weeks ago

Well they're certainly being written so people on their phones can understand them.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 17 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

What is the reason for the long waits anyway? Especially considering that actual runtime of an average season nowadays is 50% or less than what it used to be.

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 12 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Broadcast/cable TV had a schedule to fill. More than anything else, they needed to fill time slots. They planned around a calendar so annual seasons were only natural. That's also why they tended to have longer seasons, because it's easier to keep viewers coming back on schedule when they are already interested in a show. Plus it's cheaper to to make one long show than two short shows. It leads to brutal production schedules and massive creative compromises, but it fills airtime and that's what counts.

In other words, the economics of old school TV were about filling time while maximizing ratings and minimizing costs, which incentivizes making a smaller number of shows with longer seasons and regular releases.

Streaming has very different incentives. They don't care about filling a schedule, they just want you to subscribe. Every new show is a potential draw, and the more titles they have the more likely it is that one of them will appeal to you. They are incentivized to fill their catalog, not their calendar. As such, there's nowhere near as much pressure to churn out seasons like clockwork. If anything, they probably get more bang for their buck by waiting longer between seasons so that the release of each season is more of an event.

Hell, it doesn't even matter that much if it hurts the show in the long run. As long as they keep getting subscribers and have new shows (or popular old shows) to pull people in, they don't really care if an existing show dies.

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 15 points 4 weeks ago

People move on. Old data proved this decades ago but in the digital world, everything is new again.

[–] ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 weeks ago

Amazing how older series were able to produce many more episodes per season, with a more limited budget, and only a few months between them.

The old adage "less is more" comes to mind.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

All the shows I am currently into are technically still around; but they haven't put out an episode for several years now. By the time they do release something, I'll have fucking forgot about it. But they'll also only put out 6 fuckin' episodes which leads me to wonder what the hell was going on that whole time? There's no way it took 3 years to film 6 fucking episodes of a show that is just people talking in the same location every time.

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[–] PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

New data from Domino's suggests that waiting 16 hours for pizza delivery did not please customers. More at 11:00.

[–] Banzai51@midwest.social 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

No shit, Sherlock. Everyone has been complaining about that since Stranger Things season 2.

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