Sorry for the mini rant but... One of the things that annoy me about TV shows is that the pacing on shows that were designed for network TV with ads is so predictable you can know whenever a tense scene is going to have an interesting outcome or not.

Tension somewhere between the usual ad boundaries? Nothing's happening. Tension near the 7 or 10 minute boundaries (depending on 30 or 60 minute shows)? Something's gonna happen.

It makes TV shows predictable even when watched on an ad-free platform.

I think that is bumping into the standard three-act structure common in fictional narratives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure

Maybe if you consider that the "three-act" structure is forced onto 20 and 40 minute runtime shows at precise time windows.

What I'm talking about is far less visible, if at all, in adless 60-minute runtime episodes.

Edit: and "what I'm talking about" is clear before-the-ad cliffhangers with after-the-ad "rewards" in the form of events that advance the plot.

> all companies and products that interrupt a tense scene reply

Like the PEPSI vending machine, brightly lit up and just happened to be there PERFECTLY working order in the middle of an apocalypse to provide a refreshing Pepsi to Brad Pitt at the tense zombie cat-and-mouse moment in World War Z?

https://youtu.be/XzMhRnpTrL0?si=8FqSm_42Cx9sZE4R&t=93