Should TV shows take MORE time off between seasons? Join the debate
In light of a few ambivalent reviews of “The Bear” season three — it still has an 81 on MetaCritic and 93% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes, so hardly a drubbing — Gold Derby user JV expressed a provocative opinion in our forums: “Three seasons in three years is crazy. There should be a break at least for the writers to polish their ideas and audiences cool off. Otherwise you’re asking for people to get tired of your show.” Do you agree with them? Join the debate here, and vote in our poll at the bottom of this post.
The statement is provocative because it goes against what TV did for most of its history. Television ran like clockwork with most premieres scheduled in the fall with finales set for the spring, then shows came back again in the fall, and so on. Even as cable shows started to rise and eschewed that formal TV calendar, we could still expect a new season every year, more or less on time. It was actually quite unusual the first time “The Sopranos” took its first long break: a year and a half between seasons three and four, with the show missing an entire Emmy Awards cycle. There was a similarly long wait between seasons four and five. And then two years between seasons five and six. The audacity!
Just 10 years ago such a long wait was still irregular. Even a show as visually and technically ambitious as “Game of Thrones” cranked out a season every year for its first seven years before the almost two-year wait for its eighth and final season consisting of just six episodes. But “Stranger Things” kept fans waiting for almost three years between seasons three (2019) and four (2022), and it’ll be another three years between seasons four and five (currently expected in 2025). “Atlanta” held off for four years between seasons two (2018) and three (2022). Fans of “Euphoria” are still waiting for season three more than two years after season two (2022). “Severance” has also kept viewers waiting since 2022.
Some of this can’t be helped. No one could have anticipated a pandemic like COVID shutting down productions in 2020, and the WGA and SAG-AFTRA went on strike for months in 2023. But it’s at the point where a prestige show coming back every year almost feels like a breakneck pace. Argues Postdigger, “Shows now take two and three years off air and we reminisce on when shows were airing year on year and how it was so much better.” Adds probablyROB about the past industry standard, “Every show did a season a year, and not 10 25-40 minute episodes. Sometimes 24 hour-long episodes. Every year.” Victor believes that shows airing regularly “should be the norm and not the exception. ‘The Bear’ getting less praise is not because of that.”
Of course, most shows would bend over backwards to get the kinds of critical scores “The Bear” is receiving for season three, whether you go on hiatus for seven months or seven years.
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