Similar statements have been made, typically justifying longer episodes, but it’s those last few words that separate Jenkins’ TV debut from many of his filmic peers. Part of the freedom of having things on a streamer, or even the networks now are doing episodes of varying lengths, is that now the story itself can dictate how long it wants or needs to be.” “You had these hourlong blocks, and you released an episode a week so I could sell you diapers in week one and I could sell you a stroller in week two and pacifiers in week three. “So much about what we do now - how we release these shows, how we frame them, how we structure them - are dictated by the commerce of television in its original format,” Barry Jenkins said in a recent discussion with IndieWire’s Libby Hill. And yet here was “Chapter 7: Fanny Briggs,” bringing the heat in less than one-third its allotted time.

The first three all ran beyond the 60-minute standard. So imagine my delight, when six hours into Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins’ 10-hour epic, “The Underground Railroad,” that the seventh episode, “Fanny Briggs,” told its full, mesmerizing tale in 17 minutes flat.Īppearing as if from nowhere, the previous two episodes totaled two hours exactly. The former tends to see its distribution model as revolutionary (meaning it’s both uninterested in accepted storytelling practices and eager to keep subscribers hooked as long as possible), while the latter, well, they’re more interested in making a long film than a good TV show. When it comes to excessive episode lengths, two primary culprits stand-out: streamers and film directors. From ‘Y Tu Mamá También’ to Disney+: Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal’s 20-Year Journey

The underground railroad novel