I feel like the season just started (same thing for Orphan Black), and suddenly next week is the last episode of the season? Really? WHY??? What were there, a total of six episodes? I thought seasons were more like 13.
EMOTICONS ARE BACK! YAY!
Ripper Street has 8 episodes in each season. Probably because it started on the BBC, and UK drama series are often shorter than American ones - typically less than ten episodes. Luther was even fewer, 6 in the first season, then 4 in S2 and s3. I don't know if it's a budget thing or just a convention of British tv viewing habits, but long series are the exception rather than the norm.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
My wife and I here in the US watch a lot of British shows and love their fewer episode seasons, they tend to be well written with a lot of substance instead of filler like so much American TV. Plus many of the actors look so real life and can act well. It's as if they are hiring them for their talent first instead of looks.
shareThat's a rather cynical view. Not all of them are bad looking you know. 😜
After all is said and done, a lot more will have been said than done.
lantzn didn't say "bad" looking only that we don't see as many poor performers who've been hired only because they're Tom Cruise or Leonardo DiCaprio look-a-likes (just to name 2 examples).
shareThat smilie was intended to imply that I was being tongue in cheek. Effing smilies not doing their job right! *shakes fist*
After all is said and done, a lot more will have been said than done.
Fewer but longer. Probably as much screen time as a ten episode series
shareThat might be because UK ad breaks are fewer and shorter than American ones - when I first went to the States and was watching TV, I got so frustrated with all the interruptions every few minutes.
In the UK, ads are less intrusive. The BBC obviously has no ad breaks, so in an hour you're likely to get a maximum 58 minutes of programming. On commercial channels, the regulator OFCOM only allows an average of 7 minutes of ads per hour, and a maximum of 12 (depending on the time of day - prime time is allowed max 8 minutes).
In the States, an average hour has only 42 minutes for the actual programme, and 16 - 18 minutes of adverts. In addition, they often edit films and tv shows specifically to fit the ad breaks, so they might cut running time from a 2 hour film to fit the same time slot, but allow for the ad breaks.
This is why a UK TV series usually has longer episodes than a US one :)
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
I always record for later viewing just to bypass all those commercials......I think Ripper Street recorded like an hour and twenty minutes.....Its been quite a while since I posted this, but I think my reference was to them only having something like five episodes.
There's several BBC shows I like, but many of the best don't seem to go very long. Take Luther.....In the states that would be an on going 10 episode series.....The BBC has had three and the last was just a couple hours or so (Recorede, but not watched yet). I don't know if these short lived series are the result of less commercialism, but it's too bad if it is
There's several BBC shows I like, but many of the best don't seem to go very long. Take Luther.....In the states that would be an on going 10 episode series.....The BBC has had three and the last was just a couple hours or so
Precisely, we say series in the UK because a show has a series of episodes each year, Sherlock has one lot of 3, Top Gear had two lots of between 8 and 10 which would be counted as two series' per year and Casualty has one long series of 46. It just depends on the show and writers, US programming though is full of blocks that networks covet for ratings so they specifically ask for 22 or 24 of something so they can tie up that slot for (hopefully) successful ratings for half the year.
British networks are less competitive and with the exception of the major friday and saturday primetime slots they generally don't put big shows up against each other and co-operate so people aren't forced to miss or record stuff. They are also managed more day-to-day rather than committing to 22 week runs of stuff for most slots, the huge downside to this is shows disappearing under the radar and you only finding out about them half way through the series :/
Marketing and inept are two words routinely found together when discussing British TV.
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov
British networks are less competitive and with the exception of the major friday and saturday primetime slots they generally don't put big shows up against each other and co-operate so people aren't forced to miss or record stuff.
As you stated though the BBC has guaranteed revenue (and it's not state funded, it's paid for by us through a mandatory license), the BBC has the revenue to put something like Sherlock on at any time slot if it wanted to drown out the competition, this goes against the regulators unfair competition rules. Competition is good, but if the likes of ITV and Channel 4 lose every big slot then they lose revenue and thus they lose the ability to make great shows which in turn would mean BBC no longer had to try so hard. Every channel would become poorer and the loser would be the viewer.
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov
As you stated though the BBC has guaranteed revenue (and it's not state funded, it's paid for by us through a mandatory license)
Yeah, my argument was more about the naming rather than what the revenue is, the term 'state funding' is often used along side words like 'propaganda' and 'state media'. RT and CCTV are state funded by the Russian and Chinese governments, ergo I prefer not to have the BBC associated with the term. There are enough twats on YouTube that know zero about the BBC and refer to it as propaganda despite in my 36 years of watching it I've only ever seen completely unbiased news that shows the Palestinian side of a conflict as well the Israeli and will show any and all news releated to any and all political parties. Yet somehow it's manipulating us with it's full transparent coverage of everything everywhere, that must be why folks like Assange and Snowden leak stuff to it.
/minor rant
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov