A lot of people now are frustrated with contemporary series being much shorter than they used to be. Down from 20-24 episodes a season in the 90s and 00s to about 10-12 in the 10s and 6-10 now (varies somewhat by streaming service and country). People are also frustrated with the big gaps between seasons (The Last of Us, HOTD, Stranger Things) which I do completely agree with and think needs to change.
My ideal is about 10-12. I personally really dislike 20-24 episode long series, and dislike the “monster of the week” formula that many older series used to have. At least for dramatic shows. For sitcoms and adult animation it makes more sense due to much shorter episodes and a more flippant and less high-stakes style of writing (although I don’t gravitate so-much to that type of show in the first place).
A dozen episodes (at roughly 50 minutes an episode) a season is still about 11 hours. That’s more than a movie trilogy would be in a single season. By quite a bit. It’s not fair to say that’s basically a movie trilogy.
To be fair, the LotR trilogy is 3 movies at ~3.5 hours, which is 10.5 hours—close enough to 11 hours.
Now, if you’re not getting character development and world building in much less time than that, it’s either a problem with execution or expectations.
True, but the LOTR trilogy is not representative of most trilogies.
Also in this comparison we’d be talking about the first season being the length of LOTR… There could be 3 or 4 more seasons to continue the character development.