Variably good television dramas

[mtbc]

I read a lot of reviews of television series because it is a faster way to find good ones than by trying them out. A few times in recent years I have noticed the same pattern: a show starts out well thus catching my attention but as the first season continues we learn that the episodes by the original writers are good but the others tend to be markedly worse.

Lately I've been watching some shows that have shorter seasons, e.g., we are currently working our way through Der Pass (2018) which is loosely inspired by The Bridge (2011) though with only eight episodes for its first season. I wonder if shows with short seasons are becoming a good option in general if it keeps the quality of the writing reliably good. I also wonder how much greater the per-episode cost is for producing miniseries.