I’m not a patient person. I’ll be the first to admit it. But television shows are really pushing the boundaries of what is an acceptable amount of time to make viewers wait between seasons.

Let me preface this by saying that I recognize that, in the last several years, COVID and multiple strikes have played a part in why shows have taken long breaks. But I’m concerned that those delays, among other factors, have caused the general attitude of the industry to shift, and that now years-long breaks are becoming the rule and not the exception.

Recently, Euphoria announced that, after rewrites and a lot of network back-and-forth, it will begin production on season 3 in January… almost exactly three years after its second season ended. Severance, which loves a reshoot, won’t return for season 2 until January, almost three years after it first hit Apple TV+. When asked about the next season of Bridgerton, showrunner Jess Brownell quickly said it will likely be two years before it’s ready, as if that’s just the timeline now. Stranger Things is in the midst of its three-year gap between seasons 4 and 5. And by the time Yellowstone returns for the back half of its fifth season, it will be nearly two years since we finished the first half — thanks at least in part to all the behind-the-scenes drama with Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan. And I could go on!

Luke Thompson on ‘Bridgerton’; Zendaya on ‘Euphoria’; Millie Bobby Brown on ‘Stranger Things’; Adam Scott on ‘Severance’.Netflix; HBO; Apple TV – Design: Alex Sandoval

Remember the days when a show would air its finale in May and return in the fall? I will never forget the six-month wait between The O.C. season 3 finale and the season 4 premiere, because my delusional teenage self was convinced Marissa (Mischa Barton) hadn’t actually died, and those months felt like FOREVER. If they had made me wait years?! I might’ve aged out of caring so much. (I wouldn’t have, but you get the point.)

So what is going on? And why does it feel like it’s only getting worse?

For the shows that are still weekly releases, there’s no excuse. You just have to do better. Outside of those, I understand that we have more or less ditched the “premiere in the fall and finale in the early summer” model, and I get it. I’m not suggesting a return to the 22-episode model that a handful of shows still live by. I remember when streaming first entered the game and creatives swooned at the idea of more freedom. They could cuss! Their episodes could be as long as they want! (Though I don’t know that this is always a good thing). There’s a lot of good that comes from that freedom, and the quality of television today is proof of that.

But I would like to suggest a new way of approaching streaming content, one that does away with the idea that production on an entire season of television has to be completely done and polished before a single episode can air. As far as I’m concerned, that only applies to binge drops. There are still plenty of shows that drop episodes weekly, or perhaps they do a part 1 and a part 2, or maybe they do three episodes and then go weekly, or any other random configuration that you can dream up because it’s streaming and there are no rules! (But that’s a rant for another essay.) For those shows, why can’t we move up the timeline? And if that means they have to be working on episodes 4-10 when episode 1 airs, guess what? It’s been done before!

Jacob Elordi on ‘Euphoria’.HBO

In fact, there’s some good that comes out of being a little less completist with a story. For one thing, you can pivot if something is or isn’t working. Maybe the audience connects with a character in a way you weren’t expecting and you’d like to incorporate them more. Maybe two people have insane chemistry that you weren’t anticipating and suddenly you have an amazing ship on your hands! (I’m looking at you, #Klaroline fans!) There’s beauty to the flexibility that a tighter timeline weaves into a story.

Buffy planned to kill Spike (James Marsters) before fans fell in love with the character. Justified originally killed Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) in the pilot before test audiences responded poorly. Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was set to die in season 1 of Breaking Bad before Vince Gilligan saw what Aaron Paul was capable of doing. Can you imagine if all those scripts were finished before they shot a single episode? We might not have Jesse Pinkman! Or Boyd f–king Crowder!

Walton Goggins on ‘Justified’.FX

There’s also a logistical argument to be made: Euphoria is now having to try and pull off the post-high school time jump that has hindered so many shows. And don’t even get me started on how much the Stranger Things kids have grown.

With the amount of television out today, you also quite frankly run the risk of viewers just… forgetting what happened, and perhaps caring a little (or a lot) less. Yes, there are recaps before new seasons, and yes, diehard fans will rewatch certain series, but why lose even one fan because you saw the freedom that streaming offers storytellers and you took it a step too far?

I’m not saying that every show has to be faster, but I am saying that there’s no reason this two or three-year wait should become the norm. There are a handful of stories that might genuinely need that much time — in large part due to post-production work and VFX, etc. — but those should be the exception.

David Harbour on ‘Stranger Things’.Netflix

There is something magical about the creative freedom that comes with time and money and everything a storyteller could ever want. But sometimes, the best creative decisions come out of difficulty, out of having to figure out how to do something for less money or, in this case, with less time.

If you want to keep your audience engaged, don’t ask them to wait years for the next chapter in the story, particularly if waiting that long is going to negatively impact the story itself. Here’s my proposal: We don’t ask fans to wait more than a year between seasons of shows. I know I’m impatient, but that seems fair to me.