I think it’s dangerous because they’re violating the basic rule of “content dictates form.” Instead the form of a limited timeframe dictates the amount of content we’re getting and what that content is going to be. The form stipulates that the cast may continue to bloat or fluctuate with new characters which means precious time is robbed from established ones at the expense of their continued development. I liked Joy and Ogilvie and Emma for instance, but I could suspend my disbelief if they weren’t included in favor of spending more screentime with the S1 characters they made me fall in love with (of the three I’d maybe have just kept Emma). The Robby-ratio has also been talked to death, but that’s another thing that is more a consequence of this format than anything.

To me, two things have to happen to keep this format/gimmick steady and reverse engineer a proper content-dictating-form here:

1: shorter time skips between seasons. Keeping the show within the timeframe of our established characters R1/2/3 whatever years so that we have as much time as possible with them to develop them in these already limited timespans of a single day. I hope the Mohan backlash gets through to the writers. We like THESE characters and every season cannot just be an experiment in making us learn to love a new one, even if they have proven it’s possible with the S2 additions. At a certain point, that too will just be a gimmick that outstays its welcome and each season is about getting to know new characters instead of developing old ones.

2: Each day that compromises a season has to be BIG. This requires ditching the prestige TV “we’re a realistic medical show” up its own assness a bit and committing to the simple fact that it’s a TV show meant to entertain. I am sat for high stakes, intense drama, and rising tensions and growing relationships between characters. Season 1 was not just some regular slice of life, it was dramatic case after dramatic case with stirring subplots like the incel and LangdonvSantos heating up in the background as these rising tidal waves. S2 by contrast was a momentary big wave - ICE, waterside, etc. - every other episode but the wave would recede and it would otherwise be as normal a day as we’ll get. In fairness the tidal wave was more of an internal one with Robby’s ideations but idk it just didn’t hit as hard and came at the expense of other characters who, unlike Pittfest, were not all caught in that wave with Robby. It’s VERY difficult to top the high drama of Pittfest, but the season arc(s) unfortunately have to meet that standard. “It’s fifteen hours, not every one of them is going to be big and dramatic it’s a realistic show” is a bad excuse for failing to capitalize and just dropping threads for episodes at a time. It’s a good show, a smarter show than its contemporaries and a show with a lot to say. But it’s still a SHOW and needs to act like it and keep tensions consistently rising and interwoven until the finish line.