It's semantics, but the season was original 10 eps, which is standard for prestige TV, if not on the longer side. Only reason it's 9 is they decided to combine eps 1 and 2 since it made more narrative sense in setting up the story. Hence why that ep was so long.I'm with you on this. so many of these shows are super short seasons, TLOU was 9 eps. was there more they could've included? I never played the game so I don't know. so you have just over 2 months of episodes and now it'll be probably 16-24 months before we get anything new.
Re: the delay between seasons, I think it's a legit gripe. I'm not saying to have season 2 shot and in the can before season 1 even airs, but the notion that they haven't even started on scripts... It seems not only lazy, but a bad creative choice in a show when you're dealing with young actors. This is less of an issue in TLOU because Bella probably isn't going to change/grow that much, but it has really hurt Stranger Things and forced them to changed the original vision of the show.
Writing a full season on spec might be risky, but if you're trying to run a hit show, I feel like the risk is worthwhile. All imho of course.
maybe my attention span is lacking but by then, I've completely forgotten what happened and sometimes, forgotten that a show existed at all.
I'm fine with the gap, btw. A lot changes between 1 and 2, Ellie chief among them, so I think some extra time away might have the intended effect of really feeling her evolution whenever we return. Not that I wouldn't complain if it were sooner, but there's some much goddamn stuff to watch anyway I won't exactly be hurting for content in the meantime.