Short Season Series

[Mcfly311]

question: what is Banshee and were can I see it ? if it something i have to download thats ok.. I saw lost girl before it even aired in the states and rewatch the esp to make sure they got rating but the last season I havent seen or maybe the last two seasons i miss four i dont have many are there anymore.

 

[Lyri]

Does anyone know why the UK are suddenly splitting seasons in half? Perception, Motive, Major Crimes and others have always been aired half a season at a time. They show the first 12 or so eps, take a break for four or five months and then the latter half is shown. It's annoying.

I had thought that it was something to with this, just shorter seasons like most British-made shows have, but then I watched the 'season premier' of Perception this week and noticed it was actually S2 ep 12. The show hasn't aired since before Christmas.

I noticed a few months ago that Major Crimes had been aired like this for S2, but I thought it was a one off. Clearly not.

 

[white avenger]

question: what is Banshee and were can I see it ? if it something i have to download thats ok.. I saw lost girl before it even aired in the states and rewatch the esp to make sure they got rating but the last season I havent seen or maybe the last two seasons i miss four i dont have many are there anymore.

Banshee is an action series, with elements of a soap opera, about an ex-con who assumes the identity of a small town's new sheriff in order to be close to his ex-girlfriend (while still pursuing a life of crime in his off duty hours). It is full of violence, profanity, nudity and sex, intended for mature audiences only. The sheriff, whose actual name has never been revealed, fights like Chuck Norris after someone shot his dog, seems to find an excuse to kick the heck out of at least one bad guy every episode, and gets more women than a roomful of James Bonds. It's run for 2 seasons so far and has been renewed for a third season, to start, I believe, on Cinemax next January. In the meantime, Seasons 1 & 2 are available online on most of the movie/TV sites.

 

[Mcfly311]

Righting it down! I love Sex, Violence, Profanity and chuck Norris fighting .. lol I hope its on Netflix if not I will look elsewhere.

---------- Post added at 10:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:58 PM ----------

Going back on topic more, I find that they are doing shorter seasons because it cost less now when it comes to network tv the shows are always 20-22 esp. now, cable shows in the states are always 13-15 esp. i dont know why its like that but i also understand when it comes to cable shows they have a bigger line up of shows if you see and major networks dont. thats why they have so many breaks in the states now when it comes to overseas no clue

 

[Airam]

The short seasons are a premium cable channel thing.... all network cable channels astill do the full 22 or so episode run.... my favorite of the short season shows are:

Dexter!
The L-Word
Dead Like Me
Weeds
Californication
Party Down
True Blood

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I'm really digging Halt and Catch Fire. It's one of the 12 episodes in a season shows.

I like longer-run seasons too. It all depends if they have a lot of great ideas to work with. X-files was another of those longer-run shows that I think would have suffered if they were shorter. Without longer runs, the X-files, Buffy, Angel etc. wouldn't have had much time for monster of the week and one-shot episodes, which would have made those shows suffer. Other shows without that potential feature can afford to run smaller seasons I guess (shows without that possibility).

Other than that, thinking about the question, I'm not sure I have a strong preference in the abstract.

 

[Wesley Pryce]

I love both kinds of shows,just depends on what the show does. IF it has deep character exploration and narrative focus then 22 eps is great. But,if its just basic character studies and a solid narrative (think sopranos,Madmen) then 12-15 episodes will do.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

@Wesley Pryce that might be what it comes down to.

And back to another point, some of the greatest and most memorable X-files/Buffy/Angel eps (which were some of the greatest episodes in all of television history) were one-shots/monsters of the week episodes. An abbreviated season would have to cut a lot of those out, which wouldn't be worth it in the case of these shows.