Mind the Gap

I don't watch a lot of TV these days, well I do but it's usually from friends in the US (ahem).

But one show I do watch is the Simpsons. The latest series is screening on TV3 at the moment, then suddenly one Sunday night, it wasn't. There was some movie instead. And then the same happened the next week too.

"What the fuck", I said, "that seemed like a short season". Instead what's going on is this:

To combat the rise of people downloading TV shows to watch whenever they want, the local stations are (commendably) getting the most popular shows from the states very soon after they screen there. This means instead of having to wait a full year (as we have in the past) we only have to wait, say, a week for the latest episode of Lost (sadly we are still two seasons behind here on shows like Dexter, watch Dexter btw, it's awesome! Where was I? oh yes!).

This shorter wait means people are less likely to get impatient and download the show. But the downside is that we now have to put up with a new phenomenon: the season gap. The gap is the bit in the American tv season when they show recaps etc. It's also why the "big" 22 episode shows seem to have a big climax in the middle.

So basically I now know what's up and am less likely to swear at the TV... but only a little less likely.