HBO's gym coach-turned-gigolo show Hung is the latest in a new line of half-hour American dramas currently airing in the UK. It follows Nurse Jackie (Edie Falco as a morally ambivalent nurse), In Treatment (Gabriel Byrne as a therapist who's lost patience with his patients), Californication (David Duchovny getting his rocks off) and Weeds (Mary-Louise Parker as a pot-dealing soccer mom) as shows that have crammed in as much drama as possible into their shortened time-slots. Each runs at somewhere between 23 and 28 minutes depending on the ad breaks, instead of the more usual 45-50 minutes expected for an ambitious drama.
So are these shorter running times a credit-crunch sign of the times – shrinking time-slots to match shrinking budgets? Or have writers and networks realised that drama can come in smaller chunks too? Soaps in the UK may long have managed to pack a punch in only 30 minutes – but for the heavily formatted US networks, the move seems to mark a shift in the way drama is treated.
Both Californication and Weeds seemed to start out as loose sitcoms that became more dramatic as they evolved; Nurse Jackie and Hung are presented as dramas that draw out the comedy of dramatic scenarios. The most heavyweight half-hour, In Treatment, is pretty much a solid drama – although there are more light moments than you might imagine – but given that you're supposed to watch five shows a week, more than 30 minutes a day would probably push you over the edge.
For a quick fix, these 30-minute shows are real winners; little TV nightcaps. Nurse Jackie in particular seems to run at a breakneck pace, crunching through its plotlines almost as if you're watching a shorthand version – you've got to really pay attention and keep up, or you run the risk of missing a whole Eddie liaison or a line from Akalitus. They're also pretty moreish – perfect for a boxset binge, or indeed a double-bill, as Channel 4 have decided to schedule Hung (although they did run it in single episodes for the More4 run).
So what are you making of these new half-hour dramas – would you prefer all your drama to come in one-hour chunks, or do you like being able to fit in a quick half-hour hit? And what should we call them? Dram-coms? Dark-coms? Or just "short dramas" (if you're not into hyphens). What exactly counts as one anyway? Does Entourage, Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, or Sex And The City?
And, as a sidenote, is there a case to be made for some UK dramas cutting down to the US version of an hour? For me, 60 minutes of Being Human always feels a little on the long side (even though I like it), whereas say, Misfits (45 minutes if you skip the ads) feels a lot tighter. So do you think the short format works or do you prefer your drama to come in one-hour chunks?
