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Are you still waiting for your favorite series to return? Join us as we explore the television shows whose lengthy breaks between seasons tested viewer patience, sometimes to the breaking point. We're looking at productions whose extended hiatuses, whether due to unforeseen global events, creative decisions, or superstar schedules, left audiences wondering if the wait was truly worth it. Did your binge-watching habit survive these agonizing gaps?
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00:00I need to know where to find you, honey. Where, where are you? Can you, can you tell me where you are?
00:06Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for TV series whose hype, if not quality, were most notably hurt by lengthy hiatuses.
00:14Would you go to the dance with me?
00:17Yes, Wednesday I would love to go to the dance with you.
00:20That doesn't include series revivals or anthologies that tell a whole story by episode or season.
00:25No, you know what? I'd protest, but it occurs to me that you're unkillable.
00:34Number 10, Yellow Jackets. I mean, that could have been me.
00:40Would you say you were close with any of the girls on the team?
00:44I would definitely not say that, no.
00:46A drama thriller about high schoolers stranded in the wilderness has its own bad luck.
00:51Showtime's Yellow Jackets filmed its pilot in 2019.
00:53It's teen storyline actors aged between 19 and 25.
00:58Our next act needs no introduction, so let's all just make some noise for your New Jersey State Girls Soccer Champion.
01:09The COVID-19 pandemic then delayed season one's completion to 2021.
01:13It was another year and a half before season two due to lingering lockdowns.
01:18Then another before season three due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
01:21We did it! We did it!
01:23We did it! Holly, Holly, actually, we won!
01:25We won!
01:29The buzz has persisted for the iconic cast in the early 2020s timeline and the new kids surviving 1997.
01:36Kids, that is, now played by actors in their 30s.
01:38Did I miss it?
01:39Shh, we didn't miss anything.
01:44Do you remember what we promised?
01:46While the talented ensemble ages like fine berry wine, critics grow increasingly disheartened with Yellow Jacket's writing.
01:52Let's revisit fans' appetites when the final season lands after a break of nearly two years.
01:57You're not going to say anything?
02:01Is that your version of a confession?
02:06Hey, I'm talking to you.
02:08Number nine, House of the Dragon.
02:10I only rushed this warning to you out of loyalty to my husband and to my house.
02:14The Greens are coming for you, Rhaenyra.
02:20And for your children.
02:21It seems evident why HBO's prequel to Game of Thrones takes so long to make,
02:25but the original production was no less sprawling to be released annually.
02:29We wanted what you want, a better world, all of us.
02:34Varys as much as anyone.
02:35It wasn't until the last two seasons that breaks went over a year,
02:39only for the final product to be met with mixed reviews.
02:42After House of the Dragon was hailed as a return to form,
02:45season two was ordered with a reduced episode count.
02:48I need to be informed of these things.
02:50If I am to make informed rulings,
02:52I will not be made to look a fool in front of my allies and enemies.
02:55Aaron Hall must wait.
02:56This meant drastically restructuring the narrative and pace
02:59before the long, lavish post-production.
03:01Though most of the reviews remained glowing,
03:03hype further declined under opinions that this instalment
03:06was more strained and driven by spectacle.
03:09We sell where we please.
03:11Blockade or no.
03:13Essos is as rich as it is vast.
03:16It seems you need us more than we need you.
03:19And it's shaping up to be a sluggish four season run for House of the Dragon.
03:23Number eight, Happy Valley.
03:25How's it all come to this then, lad?
03:27I've been humiliated.
03:29Humiliated?
03:30But I don't want to talk about it, all right?
03:32Okay.
03:33It's not unusual for elevated British television
03:35to take its time with the writing process.
03:37Sally Wainwright took almost eight years
03:39to make 24 episodes of Last Tango in Halifax.
03:42Hello.
03:43Mom, guess what?
03:45The aliens have landed.
03:46No, not yet.
03:48I've got, well, they might have, but no one's told me.
03:50I've got a new headship.
03:51I've just had a phone call just now.
03:52But her and BBC One's Happy Valley
03:54is a much more fast-paced police drama,
03:57underlining Sergeant Catherine Carwood's closed-end cases
03:59with a nuanced emotional arc.
04:01Audiences had to wait to see it continue two years later,
04:05then resolved in series three,
04:06a staggering seven years later.
04:08You know most police officers die
04:10within five years of retirement.
04:12Why?
04:14Because they can't let go, I don't know.
04:16Well, Wainwright was preoccupied with other Labour projects
04:19and wanted to make sure Happy Valley had a proper,
04:21if less than happy, ending.
04:23While the die-hard fans say she nailed it,
04:25the wait was too long for casual viewers,
04:28even by BBC standards.
04:30I won, obviously.
04:32I think I might have singed one of your cross-shaped blankets.
04:39Number seven, Master of None.
04:41It's kind of meaningless.
04:42We really don't even need you here.
04:44It's going to be 99% CGI.
04:47But having said that, let's go to your marks.
04:50If Netflix could be accused of giving too much agency to showrunners,
04:54Master of None is the ultimate cautionary tale.
04:56Aziz Ansari's semi-autobiographical
04:58and highly experimental sitcom
05:00earned even higher praises for its second season.
05:03I'm gay.
05:09You what?
05:11I'm gay.
05:13That couldn't have been easy to pull off
05:14after a 17-month-long hiatus.
05:16It didn't exactly work when season three dropped four years later,
05:19with half the episode count
05:21and Lena Waid's character promoted to primary lead.
05:24How's your next book coming along?
05:26I mean, it's coming.
05:27Yeah, it's a process, though, I think, especially with books.
05:31And I think the last one did well.
05:33The cliffhanger season two ends on
05:35is resolved practically in passing.
05:37Critics praised the artistry of season three,
05:39subtitled Moments of Love,
05:41while some fans felt it overstepped the avant-garde storytelling.
05:44Because, you know,
05:46come Monday,
05:49it's like back to our regularly scheduled programming.
05:52With no news about Master of None since,
05:54people have simply forgotten it exists.
05:57Number six, Sherlock.
05:58How fresh?
05:59Just in.
06:0067 natural causes.
06:02Used to work here.
06:03I knew him.
06:04He was nice.
06:06Fine.
06:07We'll start with the writing crop.
06:09Again, the BBC has a reputation for long hiatuses
06:11with their most ambitious productions.
06:13The action-packed modern twist on Sherlock Holmes
06:15had the added dilemma of turning Benedict Cumberbatch
06:18and Martin Freeman into busy megastars.
06:21And how dare you betray the love of your friends?
06:23Say you're sorry.
06:25Sorry your engagement's over.
06:26I'm fairly grateful for the lack of a ring.
06:28Stop it.
06:30Just stop it.
06:32Still, with Sherlock's dynamic aesthetics and cliffhangers,
06:34two years is a long wait for just three feature-length episodes.
06:38The show followed this pattern
06:39until a standalone special snuck out in 2016,
06:42a whole year before the fourth and final series.
06:44Who said anything happened?
06:45You did, by every means short of actual speech.
06:50Holmes, you have misdiagnosed.
06:53Even the endlessly loyal fans were disappointed
06:55by this desperately over-the-top run.
06:57Although a fifth series has long been outlined without production,
07:01you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes
07:02to know why nobody is investigating it at this point.
07:06Is that him, sir?
07:07Sherlock Holmes?
07:08Fan, aren't you?
07:09Well, he's a great man, sir.
07:11No, he's better than that.
07:13He's a good one.
07:16Number five, The Witcher.
07:18You'd think Netflix's The Witcher cracked the code
07:20to sustaining hype during long hiatuses.
07:22I know who you are.
07:28You're The Witcher.
07:30Geralt of Rivia.
07:32Called it!
07:33Already based on a popular high-fantasy literary and video game franchise,
07:37the series filled the two years' break
07:39following each season with animated films and a miniseries.
07:42Unfortunately, reviews for these spin-offs were mixed at best,
07:45and the main series hasn't fared much better.
07:48Shame.
07:50If you knew beasts would be good for the business.
07:54More monsters, more jobs, more coin.
07:56The increasingly spotty writing, convoluted story, and dropping viewership
08:00seem to reflect a cumbersome production within franchise and TV industry politics,
08:05never mind lead actor Henry Cavill's departure after three of the five planned seasons.
08:10I need you to heal me, Ed.
08:12My dry hats did what they could, but...
08:14There are some wounds that you can't heal.
08:18I know.
08:20Though Liam Hemsworth replacing Cavill could be seen as a sign of diminishing returns,
08:24real fans know a lot of the blame lies in having to wait so long.
08:28Number 4. Curb Your Enthusiasm
08:30HBO has always given Larry David free reign over his semi-autobiographical, semi-improvised sitcom.
08:36Who does that?
08:37Oh my god.
08:38That's insane!
08:39Holy cow.
08:41Well, that's too bad.
08:42See, you're trying to do something nice.
08:43See what happens?
08:44You get screwed.
08:45You do one nice thing in your life.
08:46Curb Your Enthusiasm was a sensation for its first three annually-released seasons.
08:51Then it started to take two years to deliver a set.
08:53Then, it was a six-year break between seasons eight and nine.
08:57Still a lot of clumping.
08:58I'm hearing this.
08:59What's going on?
08:59You need to take it up with the board.
09:01I think I am going to take it up with the board.
09:02Just let me know how that works out for you.
09:04I will. I can't sleep.
09:05Mr. Fox, is there a problem here?
09:07As the final three installments continued to be marked by volatile release date,
09:10critics praised David's willingness to let the comedic genius gestate.
09:15Of course, the following got so niche that the show would be pulled from syndication due to low viewership.
09:21You don't want to end up like this.
09:22Nobody wants to see it.
09:24Trust me.
09:27Breathe the free air, young man.
09:29Curb Your Enthusiasm had the longevity and relevance to back up its status as a classic,
09:34but 12 seasons across 24 years is a pretty, pretty awkward run.
09:40Number three, Wednesday.
09:41I thought we liked each other, but then you pull something like this and I have no idea where I stand.
09:47I mean, am I in the more than friend zone or just a pawn in some game you're playing?
09:51Nobody expected Netflix's teen-oriented Addams Family reboot to break records in viewership.
09:57The first eight episodes gained so much fandom and delivered so many memeable moments
10:02that it remained a pop culture phenomenon for almost three years.
10:05In that time, Netflix had to endure production shifts, industry strikes,
10:08and accommodating the schedule of the freakishly prolific Jenna Ortega.
10:12It got hard to overlook that she and her castmates were drifting further away from high school age.
10:17You thought I was your hero? I'm not.
10:20I always play dirty and I never fight fair.
10:23The only side I'm on is my own.
10:25And the only place I'll lead you is off the cliff.
10:27Although season two of Wednesday received solid reviews and exceptional viewership,
10:30critics see its hiatus as emblematic of a cynical trend in blockbuster television.
10:36Here's hoping we don't have to suffer the torment of another three-year wait
10:38for a third year at Nevermore Academy.
10:41Now he sounds arrogant.
10:43Have you ever put yourself in someone else's shoes just to see how they felt?
10:47My shoes are filled with broken glass and razor blades.
10:51Number two, Euphoria.
10:53We're good. Come on.
10:55It's gonna be amazing.
10:59Boo!
11:00Critics held HBO's Euphoria as a artful teen drama for adults.
11:04It's just as well as much as the ambiguous core audience's age during the show's run.
11:08The problem is, is that you look at sobriety as a weakness in the face of those issues.
11:13And what I'm saying is, sobriety is your greatest weapon.
11:16It took over a year to produce two standalone special episodes,
11:19followed by an equally long break before season two.
11:22Between COVID-19, industry strikes and the in-demand cast,
11:26the show has kept the actors in high school throughout the whole of their 20s.
11:29What were you fighting about?
11:30She was drinking while I was driving.
11:32How long ago was this?
11:33Like an hour and a half.
11:34Did you call her?
11:36She's not answering.
11:38She always answers.
11:40Many of them have publicly discussed the creative and personal struggles in season three's
11:43drag out to four years.
11:45The process has also tragically seen Angus Cloud's death and Eric Dane's ALS diagnosis.
11:50I have a problem.
11:53But the reason I have a problem is this family.
11:57That's why.
11:58I'm not allowed to form an emotional connection.
12:02As bleak as euphoria is to begin with,
12:04the delays and their circumstances make it hard to stay excited.
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12:23Number one, Stranger Things.
12:26Maybe the Duffer Brothers could have spared us the 80s throwback of eagerly waiting years
12:30for blockbuster sequels.
12:31It's taking too long.
12:32It's fine.
12:33No, it's not.
12:34It is not.
12:35She could have died back there.
12:36She almost did.
12:38Well, she's safe now.
12:39She's on her way to Murray's.
12:40That thing won't find her.
12:41As one of Netflix's most popular shows,
12:44Stranger Things commands massive budgets and marketing
12:46to reserve a bright spot in modern pop culture.
12:49Still, this ambitious production amid many industry crises
12:51has extended its hiatuses with each season.
12:54Answer to a never-ending story.
13:00It took almost three years for season four to be released in two parts,
13:03then longer for the final to drop in three.
13:06Stranger Things will thus end after five seasons in nine years.
13:10You know what they say.
13:12Those who get to teach.
13:18Uh, yes?
13:20Despite natural frustrations, the show consistently scores strong reviews and stellar viewership.
13:24The intervals and the always depressing ordeal of watching young actors grow up
13:28nonetheless solidify that long-term TV productions are becoming too long-term.
13:33I don't want you to forget that I'm here.
13:36And I'll always be here.
13:39No matter what.
13:41Because you're my brother.
13:43What shows are you willing to wait years for?
13:45Keep up the hype in the comments.
13:47Use your lips.
13:47Let's do it right for you.
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