Editor's Note: Madison is our entertainment guru, keeping us up to date on the latest books, TV shows, and movies. She loves to cover pop culture and I'm glad to have her voice in this capacity.

{This post written by Madison Ward, Superstar Intern}

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I don’t know what it is about this year--maybe it’s the particular shows I have begun watching or maybe it’s just a busy year on TV--but I have never had to wait so long for all the episodes of a season to come out. Many of the television shows I have been watching have been skipping week after week, creating a very inconsistent viewing base and driving me off a cliff. My favorites, like Lethal Weapon, Supernatural, and The Good Doctor are prime examples. Sundays I go into the week prepared to be disappointed, not knowing if this week the next episode will be on, or if I will have to wait one or two more weeks. And these aren’t even the winter breaks! Winter breaks are one too two months and then the second half of the season is wrapped up. However, that first half and second half of the airing season has been incredibly inconsistent on it’s own: playing an episode, and another episode, then nothing, episode, nothing, nothing, episode, episode, episode, nothing, nothing, episode.

Some people I know have even had to change the way they watch TV, just to soothe their irate attitudes towards the gaps. Many have resorted to binge watching after the ENTIRE season has aired, waiting even longer because of the hassle of figuring out the complicated schedule of the airing of their favorite shows.

My shows this year that should have taken four months have transformed into six or longer. I have some amount of patience (some might disagree), but I for sure have no patience to wait this long and other viewers agree. Television shows such as Game of Thrones, True Detective, Stranger Things, and Fargo are so intricately made that they take forever to air. Not weekly, but season by season, according to Entertainment Weekly. Because of heavily computer-animated shows and Netflix Originals, some series have taken more than a year before another release. And sometimes, on the very edge of not even being able to air, because the length of the off-season left viewers lacking enthusiasm and drive to get invested in them again.

There is a specific amount of time with movies, TV series, and books with which one must deliver some type of consumption to tide over an audience before they lose interest--just like airing too frequently can easily bore fans with lack of anticipation and suspense. If one steps too far into one of these zones, not finding a happy medium with releases, then there is limited hope that that series will stay successful, no matter how good it is.

In regard to the shows I watch, I do love them enough that I am willing to wait for them, but it is still an inconvenience and an irritation. Others don’t possess the extreme obsession I have with TV entertainment. This year has some promising TV entertainment, but the year has been dreadful in consistency and if it is not careful, will lose audiences interests exponentially.

I am not an expert, but if I were these television series creators, I would set my schedule way in advance to make sure nothing veers off course. There will be always be weird instances of political disaster or weather emergencies that may interrupt a well-laid plan, but at least we have a well-laid plan, because it doesn’t feel that way right now. These rocky releases make the shows seem messy and can affect audience’s interests, and in my opinion, networks should think about that well before and create more routine than is being represented in today’s TV.

Glaring Airing: 2018 Television Shows Air Dates (Guest post by Madison Ward)