Wednesday co-creator and writer Alfred Gough explained why eight-episode seasons are ideal for a television series. Gough’s insight comes at a time when there is significant discourse about how many episodes should be in a standard season of television, as streaming has seen the number rapidly decreasing. Netflix’s highly-anticipated Wednesday season 2 will feature eight episodes, which is the same number of episodes that season 1 had, along with what many other Netflix original series have now.
When asked by Collider how Wednesday season 2 came to have eight episodes or if Netflix ever asked for more, Gough emphasized that the new season was always going to be eight episodes. He explained how his television writing experience, ranging from Smallville to Wednesday, has led him to believe that eight-episode seasons work better now than seasons with 10, 13, or 22 episodes. Gough especially focused on how the current number allows the storytelling to flow better. Check out his comments below:
It’s interesting, eight has kind of become the number. Believe me, look, we worked in 22 episodes, we’ve done 10 episodes, we’ve done all iterations of this. Basic cable took us from 22 episodes to, like, 13 episodes, right? Then you thought, “Okay, you can tell the story,” and you had a few what I call “wheel-spinners.” I think in a 13-episode season, there were three wheel-spinners. Then they went to a 10-episode season, and we’ve done that too. I remember thinking, “Oh, there’s always two episodes that feel like they can’t move the story along as much as you want.”
Weirdly, we found with Into the Badlands that eight was the perfect amount. You could tell the story, you had enough runway, it didn’t feel rushed, and you could come to a satisfying ending in eight. It felt like you weren’t asking the audience to stick around for a couple of wheel-spinners. Again, television’s different now. These things, as you know, are chapters of a book. Each season’s a book, whereas on network TV, when we were doing Smallville , Smallville was short stories in the world. Then you had a couple each season that gave you a mythology. It gave it an arc, but it was a different beast.
What This Means For Wednesday & Other TV Series
Episode Counts Will Not Be Increasing Soon
Wednesday season 1 is the most-watched season of any English-language Netflix original series. If even Wednesday cannot feature more than eight episodes per season, then it is highly unlikely that any Netflix seasons in the near future will exceed this episode count. From Daredevil to Grace & Frankie, Netflix’s earlier original series consistently had 13 episodes, which provided enough time to tell a complete story while not having as much narrative breathing room as the previously standard 22 episodes in a season of network or cable television.
From the 12 episodes in a season of Disney+’s Star Wars: Andor to 10 episodes in seasons 2 and 3 of Hulu’s The Bear, some of the other streamers do feature more episodes, but these examples are still a far cry from when 22 episodes were the expectation. With studio executives looking for ways to cut growing costs, the number of episodes will not be substantially increasing any time soon on any of the streaming services. Some scripted streaming series now have even fewer than eight episodes.
Our Take On Alfred Gough’s Comments
There’s A Good Reason Why Shows With Longer Seasons Are Still Beloved
While eight episodes successfully fit Wednesday season 1’s story and seemingly fit the creative vision for season 2 as well, this is not the case for all shows. Many series need more episodes per season to better flesh out various characters and storylines. Lost, The Office, Supernatural, and other titles remain popular long after they end because there are so many episodes to rewatch, discuss, and enjoy, with many of the so-called “filler” episodes in the season becoming a significant part of the show’s legacy. Eight episodes may work for Wednesday, but it does not work for all shows.
