Once upon a time there was a little thing called cable. Cable gave you access to a bunch of different shows, most of which were crappy, but for a ridiculous amount of money, but hey, what else could you do but read a book? Many TV channels were just something to play in the background while you had a cup of tea with your grandma, but at least there was a wide selection and a lot to watch. A season could last up to 24 episodes, so even if a show wasn’t perfect, at least it had time to grow, especially from season to season. Then came Netflix.
The rest is well known. It was a cheaper alternative to cable, had all the shows you liked, and eventually it introduced original content that you could only see there. But one of the problems was that there wasn’t much of it. Seasons were getting shorter and shorter, with most of the subscription sales hits being around 8-10 hours per episode. And it was doing some pretty extensive damage to television, the latest victim being the new Star Wars addition The Acolyte (major spoilers for the first five episodes ahead).
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Set roughly 100 years before the original Star Wars films, The Acolyte is set in the peaceful High Republic era, but something sinister is going on behind the scenes. A Sith-looking man (who will remain anonymous) has manipulated a young woman into killing Jedi. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that the young woman has a twin sister, a former Jedi apprentice who is also Force-sensitive, and they are separated. There are also two supporting characters: Yod, a somewhat incompetent Jedi Knight, and Jeki, a smart and confident Padawan.
Both are enjoyable enough characters, their performances are generally watchable, and there is room for interesting developments if the series allows it. However, both are killed by the show’s villain in episode 5. Both deaths are extremely brutal, and intentional, because they are clearly intended to shock you. It’s certainly surprising, but also annoyingly frustrating.
The problem is, over the course of five episodes, you don’t really get to know them. Neither of them have a deep backstory, and there’s no time for one, so I wasn’t all that sad when they died. I can’t help but wonder if I would have felt differently if there had been a full season. Despite all the review bombing (which most can ignore), there’s some strong writing happening in the show. Isn’t the question of who uses the Force, the different cultural interpretations of the Force, and the twins having to figure out their roles kind of a Star Wars staple?
But what really makes a show great are the episodes that have time to develop supporting characters who, for the most part, aren’t essential but might not get a chance at a major plot beat. The Acolyte only aired eight episodes, and even if Yord and Jecki did return (which is questionable, but their deaths were pretty certain), that means they were there for convenience rather than to tell an interesting story.
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But streaming these days isn’t really interested in long-running shows. They’re expensive, and we all know how streamers feel about paying the people who made them successful. So now we’re left with shows that only last one season, and then we forget about them until someone on Twitter says, “Hey, remember that show that was supposed to last seven seasons? Why didn’t anyone watch it?” And we say, “We did, but what do we do in an era where streamers refuse to share their viewership numbers and can’t be held accountable in any meaningful way?” And nothing changes. Like I said, I get frustrated.
Television can do a lot of things that movies can’t, but it’s clear that streamers don’t want that to happen. Maya Hawke’s recent comment that the final season of Stranger Things is like eight movies is a good example of the current state of TV. It’s fine when you watch it occasionally, but it just feels like the norm now, and honestly, one of the reasons I like anime is because the seasons are usually long, and if I want to watch one 20-minute episode and be done with it, I can.
I know that things are likely to stay this way, but I can’t help but miss the old days of TV. The 2010s were supposed to be the perfect decade for TV, but the last decade has seen it all degenerate into mere content. There’s always something to watch, but nothing to really engage with. I like The Acolyte. It’s pretty good TV. But it could have been so much better.
