Westworld

Well that was the literal strategy for a lot of these shows in the 2010s, particularly the ones on HBO. Have a great premise, with some high ticket actors, and some major titties during the first couple seasons. They were actually hiring literal strippers and whores as extras in many of these shows. Then if the show hits, the actresses start thinking they are above getting naked, the writing goes off course due to overmilking storylines, and the whore/tittly budget vanishes practically overnight.

Where Streaming has really done damage is the 8-10 episode "season" where they are still wasting time on filler because they want to milk the show for money as long as possible. The Woke brigade also pretty much made sure we never got to see titties again after a certain point, but endless Dongs abound (see The Boys as a prime example) or shows where the audience gets into the "wrong" character and the writers with an agenda try to overcompensate, usually only to make the situation worse. If you have a longer season, you can spend more time on these one off idea episodes or backstory expositions. When you have less than a dozen episodes to get an entire arc out, you can't fuck around. And you cannot shit on the audience or lower quality. If you sold people on titties, titties must be provided. No, Emelia Clark, you are not a good enough actress to justify putting your skeeter bites and snizz on lockdown after a season or two. Sorry Seth Rogan, the more you try to make Homelander the bad guy the more we like him the best. And if you gank Pedro at the start of season two, nothing that comes after is going to hold my interest, certainly not the downy woke carpet muncher girl. Its a combination of Agenda, prioritizing drawing shit out forever, and poor pacing all crammed into overly short seasons.

Now there are some shows that seem to buck those trends and even deliver complete stories with short seasons. Slow Horses is an excellent example. I think Fallout does a pretty decent job, though its over reliant on Goggins and MacLaughlin. The Sandman did a really fantastic job maintaining its pacing and quality for its entire run. There have been a couple other recent gems, but not many. Speaking as someone who regularly binges DS9 from time to time and who is currently binging Blacklist, its a stark contrast of how unbelievably shitty most writing and show running has become since the streaming era began.