Creator of The Boys show, Eric Kripke, said he’s learned not to guess how many seasons a show will have. He mentioned something that changed his mind about it. The Boys is usually around eight episodes long, but the people working on it can smoothly continue the story. This makes the show feel well-made and avoids the problems some other shows have, where they feel too long like never-ending movies. Kripke has a lot of experience in TV, especially making a show about hunting monsters called Supernatural, which went on for 15 seasons.
In an interview with Inverse, Kripke, who is also in charge of Gen V, admitted he’s not good at predicting how long a show will last. This is because he left Supernatural after five seasons, even though it went on for ten more. Now, with Gen V doing well, he’s not sure how many years The Boys will last. There are a few shows on Netflix that have many seasons. For example, the comedy Grace & Frankie had seven seasons, and early hits like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black had six and seven seasons.
But with more streaming services and shows, the focus is on making new shows to get more viewers, which means shorter seasons for even successful ones. The recent strikes by writers and actors are partly about recognizing and rewarding successful shows.
The Boys and Gen V are different from a TV show like Supernatural because they have more of a connected story and fewer separate episodes. Supernatural might not have lasted so long if it was just one big story without the monster-of-the-week episodes. Similarly, The Boys can’t keep going if it delays the big Homelander showdown that the show was originally about.
Gen V, which will have a second season, is new enough that it could have more standalone episodes. The Boys, as it is, is likely to continue with its connected story, which is different from what made Supernatural last a long time. It’s all about choosing different ways to tell stories and how streaming has changed TV.
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