It’s way better. If you only have 6 hours of story then only tell 6 hours of story. Pumping a bunch of filler episodes doesn’t make a show better, it just dilutes what made the show good over more time. Cable didn’t start it, British TV started it. Some of the best shows in the history of TV have a total episode count under what America used to consider a season. Would the Prisoner be better with 5 episodes nobody actually wanted to make or had story for? Would Fawlty Towers be better with 36 more episodes that weren’t as polished and perfected? Cable just realized it’s a better way to run shows. FTWD has been renewed for 15 next year. The real question is does this creative team have enough story to do 31 episodes across two different shows?
I would have liked more episodes of Blackadder II.