Not Loving the "Half-Season" Trend

Is it just me or is anyone else fed up with this "half-season" trend that has become the standard for science fiction on TV. This past half season of Eureka just F-L-E-W by and was much too short. As with Warehouse 13, Haven, and Doctor Who -- ESPECIALLY Doctor Who.

I accepted and understood that Syfy was being ridiculous about pretty much everything these days and that it was just going to be that way. But I was so dismayed to see that BBCA followed suit with Doctor Who, Being Human, and many other shows in their line-up. A show like Doctor Who is packed with so much information and timey-whimey, bendy-wendy, story line surprises that by half season, it feels like you are just starting to get into the story arch for the season. Then it stops.

I know the theory is to give a big cliff hanger and that will draw people into the next half of the season. The problem is, with most science fiction (and dramas as well), there is an over-arching story line that plays out throughout the entire length of 1 season (and usually a much more involved story arch that plays out throughout the course of the entire show). While the story arch for the entire show can be strung along from season to season with months-long breaks in between and still be followed, sometimes season-long story archs get hard to follow or remember with large gaps in between. Rather than leaving you on a semi-resolved cliff hanger, waiting for the last little bit of information or setting you up for the next big story line, it leaves you hanging off the edge of the mountain with no sense of resolution of anything and irritatingly, impatiently waiting for the rest of the story, NOT being set up for the next big anything.

Irritating.

Ok TV gods, it's time you took a listen. This is not acceptable. Listen to your viewers and start producing TV that they want to see, packaged the way they want to see it, and aired in a timely manner that allows flow and eb. This is not reality TV crap, it actually HAS a story to follow. Think about that the next time you decide that 7 episodes of a show are all that are necessary to be aired in any type of sequential order.