TV Debate: The British Series vs The American Season
Living in Britain can be extremely useful for those who observe popular culture and, thus, the sociology behind it. Pop culture, as the name suggests, connotes that which has mass appeal and a multi-national audience / following. Despite an increasingly globalised world, it is still America us mere mortals look to for our pop culture guidance, its key arenas being television, film and music. The UK is a country that is very much Americanised (Americanized?) R&B; Hollywood blockbusters; The Californian up-speak. Hell! Theres even a Krispy Kreme opening here in Edinburgh this week!
Even still, it is fascinating to me the international gulf that still exists in television programming between the two, increasingly, homogenising nations.
However, despite our differences, the purpose of this article is to attempt to extract some sort of socio-cultural understanding as to why the two countries are so vastly different television broadcasters. After all, much of the rest of our pop cultural phenomena have criss-crossed the Atlantic with ease. We get Hollywood, Lady Gaga and President Obama; they get Adele, the Royal Wedding and Harry Potter. In fact, it seems the vines of our music and film industries grow ever more intertwined. Yet, why not our telly? The aim of this article is to provide a small insight into this international culture gulf.
Particularly, I observe the difference between the American season and the British series.
Nowadays, season and series have become more or less synonymous in the Anglo-speaking culture. However, this irks me as there is a VERY big difference between the two. The United States, Canada and, if my memory serves, Australia have television seasons which, generally, consist of between 22 and 30 episodes stretched out from September to May with an innumerable amount of breaks along the way. The system is quite sophisticated, starting with a pilot season, between January March, when new shows are pitched and ordered by a network. The whole machine runs like clock-work, year in, year out (except the year of that Writers strike). Thus, each television series in the States has several seasons, each set over about a year (except 24 obviously).
Over here, however, we stay true to our old habit of doing everything completely back-to-front and have much smaller seasons, simply called a series. A series is much, MUCH shorter than a North American show (between 6 12 episodes a run) and doesnt really bother to distinguish itself from the overall series. Yeah, thats right! We cant even be bothered thinking of a separate word. But, hey, anythings better than using another Americanism, right? Come to think of it, I never really understood how a season could describe, basically, a whole year.
Anyway, the point being, each country organises its television programming so completely differently. The United Kingdom television channels (instead of American networks) do not have a specific television season and seem to be able to order and produce a new show at any point in the year. All we have is a vague recognition that new shows often start in the New Year or, less commonly, in the autumn or the spring. Basically, British TV is abysmal during the summer and the return of their favourite show is just kind of sprung on you a week or two before it airs. Whats worse; because UK shows only run for 3 months (at the VERY most) we, the viewers, literally have to wait an entire year for the next series. Now, if youre anything like myself (who is borderline obsessive) when it comes to television shows, this is absolute TORTURE! Ive heard that American shows need AT LEAST a 100 episodes under their belt to be considered for syndication. Here in Blighty, rarely will a show EVER get 100 episodes.
Take the much-loved Spooks (a sort-of British 24). The spy show ended in 2011 with a grand total of 10 series and only 86 episodes! In standard American television practice, this would only cover four seasons. So, assuming that most successful American shows have between 6 10 seasons, British shows will be lucky to produce half the amount of episodes of a US show, even those which have been on the air for the same length of time. Thats double the time for character development, story-arcs and story resolution.
Personally, I find both ways have their pros and cons. I detest having to wait so long for my favourite home-grown shows to return. Very rarely does a UK show get an order of more than 12 episodes a series. And, its not like the States where only the cable shows have the short runs, ALL our shows have short runs. An exception to this rule is Shameless, which has had between 11 22 episodes in its later series.
Unlike in the US, there is no pilot season, no broadcasting season and also no clear definition of the channels types of shows. At least in America, all shows have some sort of scheduling equilibrium. Even cable networks, which use shorter, British-type, seasons (American Horror Story, Sex and the City, Nip/Tuck) have a standard 10 16 number of episodes. Essentially, in America, you know your show is either going to run for 22 episodes or 13 episodes. Here . . . well, probably for about 8 episodes, but when? Its anybodys guess.
The technical intricacies aside, what I find most intriguing is the socio-cultural aspects behind these programming disparities.
American television, much like its film industry, aims for high gloss. Hollywood is not just built on the successes of blockbuster movies. Its tv series also garner massive oversees sales and audience followings. So, essentially, Hollywood television has a world audience to consider. Obviously, British television shows do not accumulate anywhere near as the same success abroad, especially not its drama series, and we do not have Hollywood equivalent, in business, location or structure. Therefore, British networks are probably much more introspective and more reliant on domestic success. Increasingly, UK shows have gradually decreased the number of episodes per series in order to produce quality drama which can match US standard. Unfortunately, us Brits cannot match US-standard drama for an eight month run, without worldwide syndication. Therefore, this really begs the question of quantity or quality.
Personally, as a viewer, I feel there is little need for a 22+ run at a time, but 8 episodes per series is much too short. Ideally, I would purpose two seasons per year, perhaps in the spring and the autumn, with around 6 8 episodes each. This could allow for the same amount of quality seen on both British and American television, but without the very U.S problem of the filler and flashback episodes and also the very British problem of an agonising 10 12 months gap between each series.