With on-demand services and competing streaming sites viewers are at liberty to twist rather than stick with TV shows. But are they missing out and what does it do to television?

It feels as if we are in a period of boom and bust in TV. It’s definitely boom time in terms of the amount of new shows being produced – more than 520 in 2018 – but the bust comes from how quickly those shows go from critically lauded to seemingly laboured.

In the golden age of TV, big shows have tended to have a slow burn. Breaking Bad flew below the radar and survived cancellations and capricious network execs in order to make it to five staggering seasons. The Wire took a similarly glacial path to critical adoration and cult status, as did Mad Men.

But now, as TV produces more shows than ever, something has changed. Viewers’ thirst for new shows has grown and – with the rise of on-demand services and competing streaming sites – they have a larger choice than ever before. It is not just the latest crop of productions that is vying for their attention, but also things they might have previously missed in their TV education. It has never been as tempting to quit a show and move on to the next offering.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Orange Is the New Black … destined to remain in a sort of TV purgatory. Photograph: Cara Howe / Netflix

Earlier this year we asked Gavin Haynes to pin down the perfect length for a TV show: he came up with 4.36 seasons. The Ringer, meanwhile, has undertaken a painstaking trudge through the annals of IMDb to determine when most TV shows peak. “Comedies and dramedies tend to peak 45% of the way through their runs, while dramas peak 25% of the way through their runs,” it explains.

When the options seem endless for the viewer, a show’s potency can easily become diluted

“In general, dramas are the most resistant to steep declines, maybe because the sheer need to know what happens next keeps audiences placated even if the plotting and writing aren’t quite as adept as they once were.”

That last idea, that audiences will stick with a show because of its previous achievements, seems to be wearing thin. Announcing that you are quitting a show is in. Producing an extensive list with your reasons for stopping watching it is even better. Some critics have gone as far as to explain how long you should give certain types of shows (comedies, procedurals, dramedies etc) before jacking them in. When the options seem endless in an era of plenty for the viewer, a show’s potency can easily become diluted with each passing season.

There could be another factor at work: whether or not a show is deemed “necessary”. In a piece for the New York Times, Lauren Oyler discussed how the idea of necessary art is changing the way people consume culture.

“What has become truly necessary is stating the obvious: no work of art, no matter how incisive, beautiful, uncomfortable or representative, needs to exist. Yet the internet — the same force that has increased awareness of social-justice movements — has hyperbolised all entreaties to our fragmented attention spans … the concerned citizen’s natural response is to prioritise.”

When we prioritise, we shelve those shows we no longer need.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The fall of Empire Photograph: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett C

Last year shows that arrived with huge fanfare and critical adoration ended with a whimper. Girls, The Americans, Halt and Catch Fire and even – arguably – Twin Peaks, no longer had the critical support or tenacious audiences that their earlier efforts had garnered. Just like Phillip Jeffries, the steam runs out of shows. Others seem simply too big to die.

When good TV goes bad: how Empire lost its crown – and found it again Read more

Orange is the New Black seems destined to remain in a sort of TV purgatory. It has more than enough fans to sustain itself on Netflix and the streaming site is keen to back it considering it’s still one of its most-loved originals. But does it feel as vital as it did when it was first released? Remember when Empire was breaking viewing figures and making history? Now it’s a cautionary tale of hubris and the fickle nature of modern viewers.

The Handmaid’s Tale looks destined to go a similar route. When it arrived you couldn’t move for critics and commentators falling over themselves to talk about how “timely” it was, but before we were halfway through season two things had shifted. Now its unremittingly bleak brand of TV has become too much for the same people who cheered it on 12 months ago, and the prospect of another eight seasons seems like Gileadean torture rather than something worth enduring.

Speaking to The Ringer, Parks and Recreation showrunner Mike Schur made the case for sticking with shows beyond middling first seasons.

“You have to bail on things that don’t work, even if you’ve sunk a ton of time into them,” he said, referring to why shows can take time to find their feet. “The reason that most shows’ best seasons are number two and three is because you’ve had enough time to learn about the characters and the audience has had enough time to get to know them.”

Who’s up for Handmaid’s season three?