There’s more TV to watch than there’s ever been before, but in the age of streaming’s big budgets and ambitious timelines, getting attached to a series feels counterintuitive. The most popular shows now take years to deliver multiple seasons; getting new episodes every year, once the industry standard, now feels like an unimaginable luxury. On average, audiences are waiting two years to return to their favorite shows, with Apple TV’s Severance and HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon, establishing a frustrating new normal.
Fortunately, the pendulum seems to be swinging back to TV’s old ways. For every House of the Dragon, HBO has something like The Pitt, which is committed to delivering a new season each year. That standard is also trickling over to another Thrones prequel, the second and most promising spinoff of the original series.
