Things I've noticed: Sometimes Less is More

Last Sunday my wife and I watched the second and third episodes of The Walking Dead, and in the preview of the next episode our narrator began by stating “With only three more episodes left...” which means season one will be six episodes in total.

Although I’ve always been a fan of having lots of things I like (Star Trek, Coffee, Novelty Mugs - or all three, pictured right), I have to admit that I like the idea of the season only being six episodes.

As I’m working my way through the backlog of TV Seasons on DVD I own, I have to admit that the Showtime/HBO/FX series, which all tend to have 8 – 12 episode seasons, are far simply to watch and tend to be higher quality per episode than the 26 episode seasons of mainstream network television. I’m still happy to watch a good 26 episode season (I’m still working towards Millennium season 3), but the concise, tightly packed seasons of say True Blood or Dexter tend to have a bigger wow-factor for me.

As a quick note – I am LOVING The Walking Dead at the moment, it is both really good drama and really, really freaky. Just thinking about poor Merle Dixon up on that roof gives me the heebie jeebies (and for the series to make me feel anything for such a horrible character – played amazingly by Michael Rooker – just goes to show how well they are doing at telling me a captivating story.)

In the end, although I love big, sprawling epics, there is definitely something to be said for a tightly packed, well-paced series that keeps it to a dozen episodes or less per season.