They do not call it a show anymore. They call it a universe. A world of loose ends stretched thin, each thread tugging at your wallet. Episodes are no longer endings; they are hooks. Cliffhangers so steep and sudden you can feel the hands in your pockets as you fall.

Every season comes with its own form of DLC. A six-part spin-off here. An anthology prequel there. They are not episodes, but expansions, designed to milk the devoted. You do not buy the story. You lease it, and they rent it back to you in increments. What once was whole now arrives in fragments.

You can see it most clearly in the budget. The endless money. The sets are huge and empty. The actors are legends and do nothing. The writing is heavy and says nothing. The directors shoot the same scenes over and over again, but with drones this time. It is spectacle for the sake of spectacle. A shell of importance.

Consider the way the modern show is marketed. They sell you microtransactions in plain sight. A director’s cut, only available on one platform. Bonus episodes exclusive to another. Companion podcasts you must endure if you want the full story. They dangle lore in front of you, promise it will pay off, then shuffle it into a separate miniseries you never asked for.

Even the audience is different now. Trained to binge, they demand more and more but savor nothing. An entire season consumed in two days. Forgetting half of it by Monday. The creators know this. They do not write to be remembered; they write to keep you scrolling. To keep you clicking “next.”

AAA Television is no longer television. It is a service. It is a business model disguised as a narrative. You pay for access, but you are never given enough. You are kept hungry, always waiting for the next episode, the next spin-off, the next season.

And still, they will tell you it is the golden age. They will show you the numbers, the awards, the endless social media buzz. But you know the truth. You feel it in the quiet moments when the credits roll, and you realize you don’t care what happens next.

Television is not dead. It has been gutted, skinned, and sold back to us in parts. It is a beast that feeds on its own audience, bloated and unrecognizable. This is the State of AAA Television—broken, bloated, and still asking for more.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5655363&forum_id=2:#48492984)