Short or long seasons?

I think it depends. For hour-long action / drama / thriller shows with a running narrative, shorter seasons work much better. Maybe not quite as short as the UK shows tend to be, but a lot of my favorite shows (The Wire, The Shield, Breaking Bad, Justified) benefit from shorter seasons that greatly reduce or eliminate "filler" episodes. I can't imagine any of those shows being as great as they were with 20+ episode seasons.

Conversely, if it's more a "case of the week" type of show, I don't think shorter seasons really impact the quality too much.

I agree. I think trying to sustain a story arc over 20 weeks must be hell on a writer.

Well since I am the one that started complaining about it on the other thread, you know how I feel about it, lol. I hate short seasons like that. Maybe because I grew up in the US and am just used to 20+ eps a season.

Yes, there are filler eps sometimes, and they can drag things on way too much. But even the shorter seaasons here will last 13 eps or so. That I can handle. I just don't feel that 6 or 8 can do a show justice. Things feel rushed. They don't have as much time to flush out characters, storylines. One of the reasons I prefer tv shows to movies is that you can do so much more in tv show. Relationships build, charcters grow. But in such a short series, I don't think that is happening.

I don't know. The first series of BH was only 6 eps but they managed to establish the characters and relationships really well.

I agree that it can't be as in depth as something like The Wire or Sopranos but we do ok.

I like long seasons! 8 episodes is not enough!

Anime has convinced me that Western shows last wayyy too long.

Give most shows a half season — 13 episodes. If it's awesome or has a longer story to tell, maybe a full season of 26. Most shouldn't last more than three seasons. Most should focus on telling the best story they can in only one and feel lucky to get a second.

As a viewer I hate short seasons. OTOH I also hate filler shows. The best compromise that I've seen was in either the 60's or 70's where there were three shows that were in a central theme. They alternated showing in the same slot every three weeks. They were all detective shows, with different casts, writers, sets, everything. Once in a while they'd do crossovers. It was MacMillen and Wife, Columbo and McCloud. It reduced the strain on the staff, but kept if fresh for the viewer without having gaps so long that you weren't sure if they were cancelled.

Just think of all the times the world would have ended if Jack Bauer had had only 8 or 13 hours to catch the bad guys!