The enormous success of AMC's Breaking Bad and HBO's Game of Thrones proves that 11-13 episode per season one-hour shows are the future--especially with all the new shows shot for HDTV. Indeed, many movie stars are signing up to do these shows. Indeed, I would not be surprised that within the next 5-7 years we may actually see the Harry Potter books remade as a 11-13 episode per season (first three books) and 12-14 episode per season (last four books) TV series.
It’s what the British have always done. If they feel they only have 4 good episodes for the year they will only broadcast those four. and say ‘See you next year.’.
But House of Cards changed it all for me. Gone through Sons of Anarchy (final episode tomorrow night!), Homeland, Black Sails, Da Vinci's Demons, Penny Dreadful, Sherlock (UK version with Cumberbatch), The Americans, and trying to find some time to buckle down and start Game of Thrones, and have started watching Peaky Blinders.
I think the production values of television really started to skyrocket after 24. From then on, TV shows have been shot, edited, acted in, and produced like movies.
Gone are the days when everything looked like a glorified soap opera.